A new prime minister has taken the helm, and Cowichan-Malahat-Langford’s NDP MP says this is going to bring more conversations to residents across the riding and new issues to consider.
Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s 24th Prime Minister after he won over 85 per cent of the elected votes in the Liberal leadership race on Sunday against MPs Chrystia Freeland, Karina Gould, and Frank Baylis.
MP Alistar MacGregor says this could be a good thing for his riding in the upcoming federal election, even though the Liberal Party of Canada isn’t usually a player when it comes to the region.
“Canada-wide, it adds another choice in the election, and a whole bunch of new issues that we want people to consider,” he says. “In the Cowichan Valley, the liberals historically haven’t done very well in the riding, so I’m not sure how much of an influence it will have here.
“In the elections I’ve run, my closest opponent has always been the conservatives.”
One of the platforms Carney ran on during his race for leadership was the removal of the consumer portion of the carbon tax, and MacGregor says in the Cowichan Valley that isn’t an issue because the policy in BC isn’t a federal one.
Photo credit: Justin Baumgardner, VistaRadio
While he says removing the tax would help reduce the cost of living, these changes in federal policy won’t stop him from making life affordable for residents in the riding.
“Changes to the federal carbon tax don’t have much of an impact in our province, because ours is run entirely by the province,” he says. “When it comes to the general cost of living crisis, we’ll champion policies that’ll help members of our community are going through.”
MacGregor says while having Trudeau step down from his role was a win for the country and the riding, going into the next election constituents have a choice and they need to have all the facts before marking the ballot.
“When Carney was chair of Brookfield Management, that company was highlighted as being one of the biggest tax dodgers in Canada,” MacGregor says. “I have also worked with Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons for nearly 10 years now, and in the light of his divisive style of politics are not working.”
MacGregor says there are a lot of unknowns in this next election, and it’s scary considering what’s at stake.
