John Horgan, leader of the B.C. NDP, held a meet-and-greet Thursday afternoon at Pacific Brimm coffee shop.
He talked with voters about a range of issues, including education, healthcare and forestry.
“For too long we’ve had a government that’s been focused on the wealthy and the well-connected,” Horgan said. “It’s time we had a government that’s focused on regular people and brought up the issues that matter to folks right here on the central Island.”
Transportation was another talking point on Thursday. Horgan expressed doubt the Liberals will follow through with action after a passenger rail study on Vancouver Island and he criticized inconsistencies in ferry service.
“The reason the Liberals don’t do well on Vancouver Island is that they don’t understand Vancouver Island. You can’t just keep making promises over and over again. You can’t keep jacking up ferry fares time after time after time, you can’t cancel ferry routes and then restart them and say you have any understanding of the life we have here on Vancouver Island.”
Horgan also talked about the Liberal government’s ‘pay-to-play’ party fundraising practices and hopes it will be something that concerns British Columbians going into the election campaign.
“Christy Clark, she says, ‘we want to be transparent.’ It’s not about that. It’s about government policy being distorted by the contributions that they get from big players in the economy…” Horgan said. “If you’re going to these pay-to-play events and trying to influence policy decisions, that is not in the interest of the province, that’s in the interest of the people that are giving to the Liberal Party and that needs to change.”
Horgan’s visit was hosted by Parksville-Qualicum NDP candidate Sue Powell, who will be running against incumbent Liberal MLA Michelle Stilwell, B.C. Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation.
“She hasn’t done a good job – Christy Clark hasn’t let her do a good job because of her policies,” Powell said. “I see it every day on our streets. We’ve got more homeless on our streets, we’ve got more people lined up at the food banks and soup kitchens, we’ve got seniors who are making choices between food, extra costs of MSP, the ferries, B.C. Hydro and I think that needs to be addressed and that’s been missed by Michelle.”
Powell, currently a Parksville city councillor, has a campaign team in place and said an office opening is imminent.
“A lot of people know me in Parksville, people know me in Qualicum, but not so much in north Nanaimo, so I’ve been focusing on north Nanaimo, knocking on doors,” she said. “The response has been amazing. You can feel the momentum.”