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Here are some of the letters written in response to last week’s story, How the NDP lost Vancouver Island. Keep your ideas and thoughts on our stories coming. Please email us at nanaimo@thediscourse.ca and keep your letters to 100 words. Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
🦋 "‘Barron blamed the Green Party for pushing polls — paid for by the party — that sowed confusion during the election about what candidate was the best choice to defeat the Conservatives.’
This is exactly why I did not vote for Ms. Barron, even though I really wanted to. Not impressed by the Greens.”
- April Gale-Seixeiro on Bluesky.
📧 “NDP lost for backing Trudeau on everything. That is what happened. We were sick of it.”
- Jason Morrison
📧 “I voted once again for Gord Johns, and am grateful he was re-elected. He is an exemplary MP, has visited little Lasqueti several times, riding his bike to meet with his constituents here. He also communicates regularly with his constituents, not sure if many MPs do that, he's the only one who has made it here in the 50+ years I have been living and voting here. If more MPs kept up with their constituents after being sent to Ottawa they might get re-elected too, although I think the vote splitting is what got so many Cons voted in, hopefully there will be more NDP's voted in next time. How many more Albertans will retire to the Island, that seems to be where most of the Con vote come from, in my observation.”
- Merrick Anderson, Lasqueti Island
📧 “I think the real issue in ridings like ours is the creeping entrenchment of a two-party dynamic. While your piece touches on this, I felt it downplayed the stakes. We should be scrutinizing the political culture pushing us toward a U.S.-style system, not treating it as inevitable or marginal.
One other aspect that felt underdeveloped was national sentiment toward the NDP. Their historic collapse wasn’t just a Vancouver Island phenomenon, it reflected widespread disillusionment with Singh’s leadership, a failure to differentiate from the Liberals and a lack of bold, inspiring vision. That backdrop played a major role locally and deserved more weight in your analysis.”
- Josh Rudolph, Nanaimo–Ladysmith voter, volunteer for the Paul Manly campaign
📧 “Having in the course of a long-ish life been badly let down by my government, I approached Ms. Barron somewhat reluctantly for help with an issue between myself and the CRA. Ms. Barron assigned one of her staffers to handle my file, and I very much appreciated their help. The CRA dragged their clodhoppers on the file.
In the course of dealing directly with Ms. Barron, I mentioned bluntly but by no means abusively that my experience with government was abysmal […] and her help ended.
So rather than mildly commiserating with her for her election defeat, a little investigation might have been appropriate. She wept at her loss, did she? Well I've wept often, for years, with the way that the government has let me down.”
- David Hallam, Big Bear Ridge, Nanaimo |
