Welcome to Nanaimo This Week, your source of community news and local solutions. Did a friend forward this email to you? Subscribe to this newsletter.

This week my colleague, Eric Richards, and I dove into the reasons why the federal ridings that our communities are in flipped from NDP Orange to Conservative Blue in the recent federal election. 

We spoke with former NDP MPs Lisa Marie Barron and Alistair MacGregor as well as labour activists, political scientists, electoral reform advocates and even a former social studies teacher in Saskatchewan who is now a left-wing social media influencer about what happened and how the party can move forward. 

We chose to focus on the NDP because the collapse of its vote was the most significant factor that saw a Liberal minority government elected to Parliament — instead of what was projected to be a Conservative majority just a few months ago. 

We also wanted to look at the issue of electoral reform and Canada’s first-past-the-post system. Prime Minister Mark Carney said that there may be a point in the future when his government looks at the issue, but also that it’s on the back-burner as the country has other more pressing priorities at the moment.  

I hope you find the stories in this week’s edition thought-provoking and I encourage you to contribute to the discussion either by replying to this email with a short comment or by replying to the stories on our Bluesky or LinkedIn accounts.

Thank you for reading,

Mick Sweetman

How the NDP lost Vancouver Island

Former NDP MPs and party activists on why they lost and how they want to rebuild the party.

Is now the time for electoral reform in Canada?

Activists say federal election results on Vancouver Island are a perfect example of why the country should drop first-past-the-post.

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“Important news for the Cowichan and Nanaimo regions.”

—Tricia B., from our newsletter survey.

Council corner

Nanaimo city council met on Monday, May 5 where people opposed to the planned development of a boathouse and community centre at Loudon Park packed the audience. 

Councillor Tyler Brown, who previously voted in favour of the motion for the $10.8 million boathouse, moved to reconsider the decision which council agreed to in a 6-3 vote.

The project will now come back to council for further discussion at a future city council meeting where councillors will have the option to pursue a smaller and less costly option.

Some other items of note were:

• The Evolve E-bike program in the city is looking to expand the number of stations by 26 and introduce a fleet of electric E-scooters wherever bicycles are permitted this spring.  

• Councillor Erin Hemmens put forward a motion for city staff to include policy on the distribution of new supportive housing projects in the city plan after concerns from residents in the city’s south end about a concentration of supporting housing in that area of the city. It passed unanimously. 

• The Canadian Air Force Snowbirds team is looking to visit the city on August 15 and 16. Council voted in favour of providing funds to support the visit. The motion passed 6-2 with councillors Hilary Eastmure and Paul Manly opposed. 

The next special council meeting will be held on Monday, May 12 immediately following the Governance and Priorities Committee meeting at 1 p.m. On the agenda are amendments to the financial plan bylaw and a bylaw setting property taxes for 2025. 

The city is also warning residents that a possible strike or lockout at Canada Post could delay property tax notices being received. Residents can register for a free MyCity account to securely view their property tax balance and receive notices via email. A folio number and access code from a previous bill or tax notice are required to sign up. Property Tax payments are due on July 2, 2025. 

In other news

👉 Vancouver Island University announced plans to cancel seven graduate programs and two undergraduate programs in the fall as well as another three grad programs and one undergrad program in fall 2026. The university, which has been under pressure to reduce its deficit, also announced plans to suspend six other programs in the fall. Intake suspensions will be happening in other programs that are not being cancelled. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story.

👉 Nanaimo’s Filipino community mourned the deaths of 11 people killed at the Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver last week with a vigil at the B.C. General Employees' Union office on Terminal Avenue. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story. 

👉  The Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District, its board chair and the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department chief are defending themselves in court against a civil lawsuit filed by a former employee. In the statement of defence, the defendants "vigorously denies” allegations of bullying and harassment made by the former employee. Nanaimo News Now has the story. 

BE PART OF IT

🎉 The Discourse was nominated for a 2025 Digital Publishing Award for its work to elevate stories about preventable deaths in Vancouver Island communities.

Our tiny team is thrilled to be recognized for in-depth reporting alongside other stellar independent local news outlets such as Cabin Radio, The Independent and IndigiNews.

The Discourse Nanaimo’s founding reporter, Julie Chadwick, first heard about local teen Kole May-Cyre’s disappearance in January last year. She was struck by how young and vulnerable he looked and then realized that she had gone to school with his mom, Lindsay Cyre.

Kole’s story was nominated for a Best Community News Coverage award alongside Mick Sweetman’s story about another preventable death, this time in the bathroom at the Nanaimo hospital. 

These two deep-dive stories could have easily been published as short news briefs. But thanks to a community of supporters who believe in the importance of local in-depth news, they were brought to light.

Have something to say about the news? Email nanaimo@thediscourse.ca. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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