Whistler’s all-candidates meeting on Tuesday, April 22 was a mixture of playful jabs, satirical tirades and passionate responses from hopefuls who want to represent voters in West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country.
All six candidates for the riding on the ballot took the stage: Keith Roy, Conservative Party candidate; the Green Party of Canada’s Lauren Greenlaw; People’s Party of Canada candidate Peyman Askari; incumbent Liberal MP Patrick Weiler; the New Democrat Party’s Jäger Rosenberg; and Gordon Jeffrey, Rhinoceros Party.
Held at the Rainbow Theatre and moderated by Mo Douglas from Arts Whistler, the live-streamed event was well attended and curiously questioned by constituents in the room and from their homes. Live-streaming service was provided by the Whistler Community Services Society to ensure it was accessible to all community members and is available on YouTube.
The format began with opening remarks from each candidate, followed by questions from the audience, candidate queries to each other, and finally, closing statements.
Greenlaw pitched the audience on her background as an Earth scientist and a councillor for the District of Squamish, her identity as a woman and as a mother, and desire to enact local change by running for federal office.
Jeffrey used his platform to impersonate Donald Trump, commenting on the crowd size and eliciting laughter which would carry throughout the night anytime he spoke. He took aim at the Liberal Party’s record, providing commentary on what is becoming a two-horse race between the Grits and Tories. “We promise to do what they do: bleed you dry,” he quipped.
Askari followed, highlighting his background as an immigrant, his business experience and eventual decision to walk away from a profitable company and into the fray of politicking because he didn’t “like the direction that our country is going in” since his childhood in the ’90s.
Incumbent Weiler focused on his track record in the riding, with housing for the Whistler Housing Authority and childcare touted as wins. He also zeroed in on threats to Canadian sovereignty from Trump and positioned his party leader, Mark Carney, as the right choice.
Roy pitched his story as one of rags to riches, working to get an education through loans and scholarships before doing well in the real estate business. He argued the opportunities he had to move up the social ladder no longer exist for his son, and his goal is to change that.
Rosenberg was late to the party, which he attributed to a delay with BC Ferries.
Housing and affordability
The topic of affordability and housing was brought up by questioners and candidates, though they often disagreed about what the best approach is to tackle rising costs of living.
Roy, whose party released its platform with six days left in the campaign, zeroed in on increased food bank use, saying the Conservatives would create an economic climate where people didn’t need to rely on food banks.
“We should be thinking about, how do we build a country where people don't need food banks, and the volume of struggle that runs through the Whistler Community Services Food Bank is staggering for a community of this much wealth and our small size,” he said.
His solution? Reducing inflation and building houses.
Weiler echoed the view that bringing down the cost of living is imperative, but proposed affordable housing, low-cost childcare and ensuring the social safety net is strong and the citizenry is well employed.
Askari looked to the past for solutions, saying bringing more industry to Canada like sawmills and factories would help people purchase homes.
Climate and environment
The most passionate responses about climate change during the meeting came from the Green, NDP and Conservative candidates.
To Roy, the problem of climate change can’t be solved through taxing carbon emissions, but instead through mining more resources to “offset global use of coal.”
Rosenberg wasn’t accepting that premise. “Sticking your head in the sand and lying about it isn't going to help. You know, for years, we've been told that LNG is somehow going to reduce emissions. We have the numbers. It's worse than coal. We can't keep pretending it's not a problem,” he said.
Weiler framed the Conservatives’ climate policies as a copy and paste of those from the Oval Office.
Greenlaw said ending fossil fuel subsidies is what’s required, alongside tougher regulations on emissions and environmental disasters, while also emphasizing her party isn’t against resource extraction.
“All of our entire economic model is predicated upon infinite growth in a finite system, which any scientist, anyone can tell you is an impossibility,” she said.
Indigenous rights and reconciliation
In response to a question from Pique Newsmagazine, candidates were asked how they would work with the Lil̓wat and Squamish Nations.
“The biggest problem in our world right now is wealth disparity, and wealth disparity is predicated upon social inequity, and that's gender inequity and also racial inequity. So in my opinion, Indigenous rights is a top priority,” Greenlaw said.
She called for full implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the MMIWG Calls for Justice, and said it was time to have an “honest conversation about Land Back.”
Roy backed his party's proposed First Nations Resource Charge, a proposal to allow Nations to collect a share of resource revenues directly.
Economics, tourism and trade
The issue of a trade war with the United States was brought forward by one audience member on multiple occasions.
“I have been opposed to this escalation of the tariff war,” Askari said, arguing Canada should be the “adult” in the room.
The Liberal candidate kept to his party’s stance of standing up against the threats of annexation.
“The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them, and that’s why we brought in our policies to fight the tariffs… and build our economy so that we can be more resilient to that,” Weiler said.
Whistler’s heavy reliance on international labour sparked questions about recent immigration policy changes.
“We need to have something that’s bespoke for Whistler,” said Weiler, pointing to the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot as a possible model. “Some of the national programs aren’t necessarily fit for purpose.”
Roy blamed Liberal mismanagement. “[The immigration system] has been a whipsaw … for employers,” he said. “We are going to fix immigration by reducing the levels to only that which we can support with the infrastructure that we can build when we build homes, when we finally get our health-care services up and running properly again.”
Gender, trans and women’s rights
Rosenberg asked the right-wingers to speak to their stance on trans rights.
“I believe in parental rights, like a parent should be able to make the decisions for their child. If you have a parent that's abusing their child, the state shouldn't go to every parent and say, just because something bad might happen, we have to remove all parental rights,” Askari said.
Roy posited inclusion shouldn’t depend on identity politics and rejected the premise that his party’s policies would create unsafe conditions for minority groups.
Two attendees zeroed in on Roy’s personal position on abortion and not his party’s stance, but he dodged the question. Roy continually repeated, “I will not vote to legislate abortion.”
Another notable moment from the meeting came when Greenlaw questioned Roy and Askari on their economic policies which she argued are predicated on women having more children to make up for cuts to immigration.
“I'm just wondering how you foresee this happening without increases to childcare and maternal health and any women's rights,” she asked.
Roy disagreed with the premise of the question and focused instead on economic growth through expanding Canadian resources.
The People’s Party candidate, on the other hand, was open about his stance.
“I understand where babies come from, the birds and the bees. I'm sorry that, you know, God put the burden on you, you lovely women. But if we don't have babies, we’ve got to bring in immigration. This is just the conversation we have to have if we want to have a national discussion,” he said.
A civil and humorous evening
Despite heated exchanges on party records and leadership, the evening included displays of mutual respect between all candidates and laughter thanks to the Rhino candidate who took a last opportunity to take aim at the absurdity of politics.
“If you want an option that says none of the above, vote for the candidate with the best moustache. Together, we can make Canada horny again,” joked Jeffrey.
With a record number of ballots already cast in advance voting, the party who takes power will be decided on April 28.
Find a full recording of the meeting on the Whistler Chamber's YouTube page, and head to elections.ca for all the info you need ahead of election day.
