Electing Strong Island Voices for a Strong Canada

Sunday, March 9, 2025, Dürres, Albania:

Mark Carney was just elected to lead the Liberals into the forthcoming Canadian federal election. This election is turning out to be one of the most important in Canadian history.

In Russia, Valdimir Putin continues his expansionist dreams of rebuilding the Soviet Union through his latest campaign of terror, violence and war crimes now aimed at the Ukrainian people. Meanwhile, in the middle east, Gaza lays in ruins, the Syrian government has been overthrown, and tensions continue between the Israeli government and the Iran-supported terror organizations Hamas, Hizballah, and the Houthis. In Europe, Germany’s far right Alternative for Germany (AfG) party made stunning gains in the 2025 election. Virtually every region of the country that was once under East German communist rule supported the anti-immigration AfD campaign. Meanwhile many parts of Africa and Asia continue to experience civil unrest.

Historically, the world would have turned to America and its NATO allies to broker peace and maintain world order. But all that has changed with the election of Donald Trump. He is waging trade wars against allied nations thereby undermining international trade and security agreements. He insults international leaders on an almost daily basis. Whether it be calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the Governor of the great state of Canada or acting like a school yard bully to publicly demean Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the man has no limit.

The chaos created by Donald Trump has caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to tumble recently, completing a classic double-top trading pattern suggesting a major market correction is in the cards. His delusional dreams of rebuilding Gaza into a Mediterranean paradise, or annexing Greenland and Canada are all signs of a very disturbed man. Donald Trump is making America weak again.

Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump holds a PhD in clinical psychology from Adelphi University’s Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, the first university-based professional school of psychology in America. As a clinical psychologist and daughter of Donald Trump’s older brother Fred, she is uniquely qualified to comment on the president’s psychiatric condition. She didn’t hold back in her tell-all book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.

There she writes that he displays all nine characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder as detailed in the American Psychiatric Society’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. She further suggests that he may suffer from dependent personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and “long undiagnosed learning disability that for decades has interfered with his ability to process information.” Perhaps this explains his behaviour, admiration of authoritarian demagogues and chaotic approach to governance.

But at the same time, it’s easy to manipulate such an individual by simply playing to their unabated, all-consuming egotism. And so, Trump has surrounded himself with sycophants, the brightest of whom know how to influence him to get exactly what they want.

For much of the spring term, I’ve been on sabbatical in Albania. It’s been a life changing experience as I’ve got to know the people and the country. Albania is a new democracy and much of the country has been rebuilt this century. Memories of persecution and terror under the communist dictatorship that ended in 1991 as well as the 1997 civil war are still fresh in people’s minds. Life is hard for many.

Albania still has a few governance and infrastructure wrinkles to iron out prior its planned 2030 entry into the European Union. But the spring in the gait of the hardworking people, the joyous interactions I had with so many, and the generosity of those who had so little to give affected me deeply. It’s a society where people look out for one another.

While officially a secular state, more than half of Albanians are Muslim. The Muslim majority live in harmony with the Orthodox and Catholic minorities. Like France, Albania only recognizes civil unions and so its not uncommon to see muslims marry christians or orthodox wed catholics.

Yet while Albanians celebrate their freedom and newly found democracy, America is heading in the opposite direction. Even here in British Columbia, the BC NDP’s introduction of Bill  7 — Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act signalled a disturbing trend towards more autocratic governance. Vancouver columnist Vaughn Palmer writes “In 41 years of covering B.C. governments, I’ve not seen a legislation as arbitrary and far-reaching this side of the federal War Measures Act.”

Since the inauguration of Trump, Canadian sovereignty has come under attack. Watching this from afar was very difficult. It’s critical that Canada has stabled principled leadership in these difficult times. And Mark Carney is exactly the type of person Canada needs. The Conservative Party appears to have been taken over by extreme elements whose behaviour mirrors that of the Republican Party south of the border. Those identifying with the progressive conservative roots of the Conservative Party have been left feeling alienated; the NDP do not have the leadership required to take on Donald Trump, and the Canadian Greens are disorganized and mired with never-ending infighting.

But here’s the dilemma. On Vancouver Island we are not voting for Carney. We are voting for the Member of Parliament that we believe will best represent us in Ottawa. In my view, the Liberals have yet again overlooked the island thereby stoking our underlying sense of western alienation. None of their south island candidates inspire me to want to vote for them as I do not believe they will be strong advocates for our region. The Liberal south island candidates recently moved here from somewhere else in Canada. Two of their rookie candidates are already mired in scandal. In the case of Will Greaves, an unfortunate twitter post from March 2024 led Rabbi Meir Kaplan to write to Prime Minister Carney asking him to reconsider Mr. Greaves’ candidacy for his “public statements that echo classic antisemitic tropes”.

Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke Liberal candidate Stephanie McLean, on the other hand, who resigned from the Alberta legislature before completing her first term, has been called out by her own NDP colleagues for her musings about the ability of MLAs to advocate inside government caucus. I was surprised that the Liberals would think that a controversial former NDP MLA from Alberta would make a good candidate to run against Maja Tait, the present Mayor of Sooke, who I approached to run with the BC Greens in the 2017 provincial election. Maja has deep roots in the community and has has an exemplary record of public service in Sooke.

Friday, April 18, 2025, Victoria, British Columbia:

Today I waited in line for over two hours to cast my vote for Elizabeth May in the riding of Saanich Gulf Islands. While it would have been easy for me to vote for Saanich Councillor and NDP candidate Colin Plant, who I have known for quite some time and who I believe exemplifies stellar leadership in governance, I was concerned that without Elizabeth in Ottawa, critical environmental issues will be swept under the rug during parliamentary debates.

Like many of you, I have heard the NDP ads on the radio or seen the signs stating that we vote NDP to stop the conservatives on Vancouver Island. I agree in principle, with two notable exceptions. The candidates I list below I have either worked with or know quite well. Were I to reside in their ridings, I would vote for them knowing that they would advocate for Vancouver Island interests in Ottawa.

And finally, I am a huge fan of minority governments and I do not trust the Federal Liberals to be given free range with a majority government. While I desperately want Mark Carney to be our Prime Minister, I think it would be prudent for Canadians to ensure that NDP, Green and perhaps Bloc incumbents are elected to keep them honest. The leader of the Federal Liberals may have changed, but I remain unconvinced that the party insiders and staffers have taken heed of the message that they were sent by Canadians.

Let’s not split the vote on Vancouver Island and instead consider supporting the following candidates to ensure Mark Carney and the Federal Liberals have a minority government where our voices are heard!

These are the candidates I believe will best represent us on Vancouver Island:

1) Laurel Collins – NDP – Victoria
2) Gord Johns – NDP – Courtenay-Alberni
3) Alistair MacGregor – NDP -Cowichan-Malahat-Sooke
4) Paul Manly Green – Nanaimo-Ladysmith
5) Elizabeth May – Green – Saanich- Gulf Islands
6) Maja Tait – NDP – Esquimalt-Sooke-Saanich