What a fascinating day! We visited ridings throughout Vancouver today and got a full range of responses. Not a single candidate has come out in support of salmon farms, though many said they will get back to us.
First, we visited Andrew Saxton’s campaign office (Conservative, North Vancouver), with Alexis Baker, a constituent who along with her family, has been writing to Saxton to ask his position on wild salmon. No one in her family has received any acknowledgement of her letters. Saxton was not there, so we left him our questions. Hopefully he will answer so the people of North Vancouver can find out whether he supports wild salmon and would protect them by removing the salmon farms from BC waters.
Next we visited the near-legendary Libby Davies (NDP, Vancouver East) office. Davies seems quite beloved to the people of her constituency because of her tireless efforts on their behalf. She was not there, but we took pictures with our salmon in front of her office.
Then we stopped in and got to meet Don Davies (NDP, Vancouver-Kingsway). Don greeted us warmly. He has already sent his thoughts about getting salmon farming out of BC waters and I have posted them at votesalmon.ca. Don Davies expresses strong support for wild salmon. He generously spent time talking with us and said the more he learns about wild salmon, the more he understands how important they are to us. Don was warm and genuine with deep understanding of the people in his riding and enormous energy.
We stopped in at Joyce Murray’s office (Liberal, Vancouver – Quadra) and left our questions. Joyce turned out meet us as we brought the 100 person Paddle for Wild Salmon into Vancouver at the opening of the Cohen Inquiry last October, but she has not answered my calls or emails asking for her position on protecting wild salmon from salmon farms. We left our questions and look forward to hearing from her.
Adriane Carr’s Campaign office was an industrious scene with an air of excitement and promise. Carr is running for the Green Party in Vancouver Central. Carr is dedicated to protecting wild salmon for the reasons I share; the economy, the environment and because people love them. She has been involved politics for so long, she seems extremely capable and has an excellent chance at winning.
We stopped at Wendy Yuan’s Campaign headquarters (Liberal Vancouver-Kingsway), and her manager came out on the street to meet us before we could step in. We gave him our questions and he said Wendy would get back to us.
As we entered Burnaby we had a very difficult time finding an address for the Conservative candidate, Paul Forseth, but finally spotted it at the bottom of his facebook 6983 Kingsway. We called ahead and were told Paul was heading out the door, but we decided to visit anyway and leave the questions. We got a quite hostile reaction. We got a glimpse of Paul, but nothing more. The brief conversation was confusing.
The Liberal candidate was also hard to find and when we got there the sign was so small we nearly missed it. It seemed strange that both the Liberal and Conservatives for this riding did not seem interested in making the public aware of their location.
It was a pleasure to walk into Peter Julian’s office. Peter has been in touch with me many times over the years and is a strong supporter of wild salmon. We will be seeing him on the 20th. His office was friendly, hard at work and they offered us something to eat to revive us.
When I began this trip I thought I would not support one candidate over another, but this exploration into the world of elections has brought such a stark range of experiences that I have changed my mind. Everywhere we have been told that the Conservatives do not often attend the All Candidate Meetings. Many of them have been extremely difficult to locate, with scant contact information. This seems contrary to the spirit of democracy. How do they know what the people think, if they are not welcoming and how can we know them if they don’t attend the public events?
Perhaps our experiences will be different over the next week, these are just early impressions. I will continue to post what the Candidates are saying at: VoteSalmon.ca
Eddie Gardner of Skwah, has very kindly let us sleep on the couches in the old band hall. I can hear the river, and ducks of some type pipping in the dark. This was one of the places we all slept on the paddle. The river and the fish seem so naturally good for us and yet they do not have a place in a big part of the world of politics.
Thank you to all the candidates who spoke to us, but more than that thank you for your commitment to keeping this earth alive for us and for our future.
