The Sea to Sky has never enjoyed the same electoral sway at the provincial ballot box as the larger West Vancouver enclave that has garnered the bulk of the political spotlight in one of the most geographically far-flung ridings in B.C.
But if the Tuesday, Oct. 1 all-candidates meeting, the first held in the riding this election campaign, is any indication, the corridor will hold an outsized influence when voters head to the polls in two-and-a-half weeks’ time.
Each of the three candidates leaned on their close connections to the region at the debate, co-hosted by Arts Whistler, the Whistler Chamber, and Pique Newsmagazine in front of a nearly full Maury Young Arts Centre crowd.
There is the BC NDP’s Jen Ford, a 10-year Whistler councillor who has served as president of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), and chairs or has chaired both the Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) and Squamish-Lillooet Regional District.
There is the BC Greens’ Jeremy Valeriote, a former Gibsons councillor, former District of Squamish staffer and husband to the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s top bureaucrat, who came within 60 votes of earning the Greens their first ever seat on the mainland in 2020.
Then there’s the BC Conservatives’ Yuri Fulmer, who, like the party he represents, is a newcomer to the modern B.C. political scene. Nonetheless, he brings a laundry list of experience both local and global, investing in 30 companies in various sectors, including Squamish-based natural food company, Chiwis, serves as global chair of United Way, and as current chancellor of Capilano University, which took over Quest University’s Squamish campus last year.
The topics discussed at Tuesday’s meeting also directly reflected the interests and concerns of the corridor. As it is for most British Columbians, housing and affordability were top of mind for both the candidates and the 140-some-odd attendees in the room. Regional transit, a yearslong headache for Sea to Sky officials who have yet to see the project make much headway in Victoria, was brought up more than once (albeit with little in the way of actionable solutions offered). The economy was debated through several different lenses, including climate and sustainability. But most frequently it was the steep cost of small business, the lifeblood of B.C.’s economy, that emerged.
Woodfibre LNG, the contentious liquified natural gas plant and remote work camp that has divided the community of Squamish, was a hot topic, as was the future of Whistler Waldorf School at Spruce Grove, before a local closed out the audience questions asking what each political hopeful would do to support Whistler seniors’ right to age in a community not equipped with the services and facilities to support them.
The Whistler all-candidates meeting can be viewed in its entirety here.
On the issues: Housing
Responding to an audience question about each party’s housing plan for the region, Fulmer was up first, and touted the program announced by BC Conservative leader John Rustad last week dubbed the “Rustad Rebate.” Promising a major tax rebate that would start with a $1,500-a-month exemption on rent or mortgage interest costs from provincial income taxes, the rebate would increase by $500 each year until doubling to its target amount by 2029.
“No. 1 is the Rustad Rebate, which would give every British Columbian a $3,000 tax reduction,” Fulmer explained. “It’s a real way to go quickly against affordability [challenges] for housing.”
The proposed program is slated to cost $900 million in the 2026 budget, before rising to $3.5 billion by 2029, if utilized by every home in B.C. The Cons have said little about how they plan to pay for it.
Fulmer also drove home the need to increase housing supply.
“We need to use Crown land to do it. We need to accelerate the permitting process. We need to accelerate the rezoning process, and we need to make sure that the private sector can build homes that are affordable for British Columbians,” he said.
Valeriote was up next and highlighted the Greens’ housing plan, released the day of the debate, which treats “housing as a human right, not a commodity for investors,” he said. “The market’s not the only solution, and most of the current efforts have been focused on what the market can provide.”
The Greens’ platform commits $1.5 billion to build 26,000 units of non-profit and co-op housing. “That kind of investment gives people security to … participate in the economy,” noted Valeriote, before adding that “the biggest piece” of the solution is vacancy control.
As she did throughout the night, Ford held up Whistler and its local accomplishments as an example of what could be achieved at the provincial level.
“We have in Whistler the model of affordable housing that is now being replicated across the province. The Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) developed many, many homes in different forms to meet the different needs of your life cycle, whether it’s apartments for rent, or single-family homes, or duplexes and quadplexes.”
The WHA chair also credited her party’s legislation from the spring for returning 20,000 formerly short-term rental homes back into the long-term market.
“We need to continue that work. We need to continue those investments,” she added.
Woodfibre LNG and Indigenous rights
At one point, the candidates were asked for their views on the LNG export facility planned for Howe Sound that would see tankers shipping millions of tonnes of gas a year to markets across the globe.
Valeriote’s opposition to the polarizing project has defined his campaign, and he took the opportunity to persuade voters that it is anything but a fait accompli.
“Any government can cancel an LNG project … at any point it wants,” he said. “It is a fact that it [comes with] big compensation, but I suggest that compensation will pale in comparison with the $2 billion in subsidies that we’re already handing over—never mind the climate costs and the health impacts.”
Both Ford and Fulmer took the opposite view: it would be virtually impossible to reverse course at this stage, with construction on the facility well underway and the Squamish Nation already approving the project on its unceded territory.
“This has not been an easy process for anyone in the Sea to Sky. It has brought division and disappointment,” Ford said. “The sad truth is the decision was made. Canada issued their approval. The Squamish Nation issued their approval. I’d be lying to you if I told you I could cancel the permits.”
The discussion led to some tense moments, particularly between Valeriote and Fulmer, with each throwing jabs over the Squamish Nation’s inherent rights, and the process that facilitated Woodfibre LNG’s ultimate approval.
“I take my guidance from Squamish Nation members who actually live in the Squamish Valley and are directly affected by this project, and not necessarily from the Squamish [Nation] council that is heavily weighted towards the North Shore,” said Valeriote.
In response, Fulmer accused Valeriote of undermining the Nation’s influence over the project—and democracy itself.
“Jeremy, you’re running for office, and democracy is the fundamental tenet of what we do in the legislature,” he said. “As a settler, to sit here and blame the Indian Act, and to look at these communities and say there’s something wrong, that they didn’t decide the way I’d like them to decide … I find that offensive.”
Small business
Between taxes, supply-chain barriers, and labour costs, the price of doing small business in Whistler and beyond has only escalated, as one audience member laid out. He asked both Ford and Fulmer how they would address the issue.
The Whistler councillor pointed to what the NDP has already done to help small business owners. This included doubling the exemption threshold on B.C.’s employer health tax, which resort businesses have been vocally against since it was first introduced in 2019.
“[The NDP] kept taxes 25 per cent lower than when the BC Liberals were in power,” she added.
Ford also mentioned the struggles local restaurants face around electricity and supply costs. “We’ve lowered their electricity bills to keep the lights on. We’ve given them preferential, wholesale rates on alcohol which is where restaurants make their money,” she said.
Fulmer drew on his extensive business career in his answer, which criticized the NDP’s “onerous” health tax on employers and unnecessary red tape.
“I think we need a government that actually understands what small business is about,” he noted. “That means reduced red tape. That means reduced regulation. It means if you want a permit to work in a restaurant, it shouldn’t take a year to get. It means that you should be paying a tax burden that is proportionate to what your income is, and no more.”
Whistler Waldorf School
Although Whistler Waldorf’s future in Spruce Grove primarily concerns the municipality and wider community, Fulmer came armed with a pointed question for Ford that imagined a scenario where she would have to vote on its fate in Victoria.
“The school is located on provincial Crown land. Should a vote reach the legislature to change the use of this land, would you vote to keep the school open?” he asked.
Ford seemed somewhat flummoxed by the question, pointing to her record as an advocate for childcare and local schools before questioning the premise of Fulmer’s question.
“The land in question is parkland. It’s a challenging site. It’s also a community space and we’ve heard from people that they want access to it,” she said. “Should the decision be made by the province—which it doesn’t work that way—but if the application were made to the province to reassign the land from parkland to a different community use, I would certainly support it.”
Senior well-being
On the well-being of seniors, a long-simmering issue in a town without a seniors’ centre or readily available care for its aging population, Fulmer and Ford were asked by an audience member what they would do to support that community.
Fulmer began by referencing his earlier comment about the Sea to Sky being a “forgotten corridor” in Victoria, but didn’t offer much in the way of practical help for seniors.
“Whistler has been tarred with the brush of being incredibly affluent, which is not true. It’s been tarred with the brush of being the land of the Richy McRiches, and the big homes on the hill, and the Vail [Resorts], and all of this expense—and the corridor has been forgotten,” he said. “So I think one of the things I’d like to do is bring focus back to that, and a seniors’ centre is just one piece of that. With respect, there’s been a whole host of amenities that have been forgotten in the corridor.”
Ford’s response didn’t offer much more substance, and she, again, went back to her time on Whistler council, where she recalled a presentation several months ago to officials by the Mature Action Community lobbying for a dedicated seniors’ centre.
“That was truly the first time an organized group who we know and love [called for a seniors’ centre]. It wasn’t something that was on our work plan,” she said. “We had a Liberal opposition member as our MLA, and he has done good work for us, but there was very little he could do from opposition other than criticize the work of the government. Having a member who sits in government, who understands this community, can move things forward.”
How did the candidates fare?
The night was, at least by Whistler standards, one of the more professional and compelling all-candidates meetings the resort has hosted in years, a reflection of the comparatively small field and sudden prominence of a riding that has for decades been a Liberal stronghold.
The 2020 election, not to mention the disastrous implosion of the BC United Party, changed all that. Four years ago, Valeriote came within a whisker of toppling Liberal incumbent MLA Jordan Sturdy, offering the Greens a glimmer of hope in a riding that has long espoused environmental values. The Greens, and Valeriote himself—the first in the race to declare his candidacy more than a year ago—are banking on those values, and particularly local opposition to Woodfibre LNG, to pay big dividends on Oct. 19.
It is, admittedly, a huge roll of the dice in an election that, provincewide, will likely come down to a coin toss between the incumbent NDP and the surging Conservatives. Both major party candidates hammered home that point, especially Fulmer, who never missed a chance to remind voters of his stance that a Green in legislature wouldn’t have the power or the resources to affect real change.
“All of the mechanisms of a governing or opposition party—staff, resources, research—are unavailable … to a single-person party,” said Fulmer, under the assumption Valeriote could be the only Green to gain a seat in the legislature.
Even Ford, who mostly avoided taking the same kinds of swipes at her fellow candidates, reminded voters how her mindset had shifted in the past four years, when she stood on the side of the highway with Valeriote, waving his emerald-coloured sign.
“There isn’t a mechanism to move forward the things that [Valeriote’s] promised you tonight, like regional transit,” she said. “We can’t afford to elect a climate denier to be the premier. The unfortunate truth is that voting for Jeremy this time might well be what elects (BC Conservative leader) John Rustad.”
For his part, Valeriote was clearly prepared to address the question of strategic voting, and took his opponents’ remarks in stride. In his closing statement, he urged the assembled crowd to vote with their conscience on Election Day.
“You’ve heard the two establishment, status-quo parties make their case. They trade power back and forth and waste a lot of time and money reversing the other’s work to score political points. The two-party system stifles creativity and innovation,” he said. “So, we can continue to live in this binary world and maybe roll the dice on which of these two is going to form government. Or you can vote for a strong alternative voice that brings forward new solutions and new ways of thinking.”
Fulmer, a relative unknown in Sea to Sky politics, likely turned the most heads at Whistler’s all-candidates meeting, according to several attendees Pique spoke with. He was arguably the most prepared, rarely looking at his notes and recalling policy decisions directly from memory.
The West Vancouver resident was also the most willing of the three to go after his opponents. His strategy relied heavily on tearing down the NDP’s approach, as well as the Greens’ slim chances at gaining seats in the legislature.
A gifted speaker, Fulmer showed cracks in the façade primarily when he was forced to defend his party, and particularly Rustad’s views. He grew defensive when asked about the Conservative leader’s stance on COVID, with Rustad last week telling the CBC he regretted getting the vaccine after he said he developed medical issues six weeks following the shot.
“John had three vaccines. I’m fully vaccinated. My family is fully vaccinated. My children are fully vaccinated,” Fulmer said. “John made one comment that he had a heart condition develop after his vaccine. He is entitled to his medical opinion, and he’s entitled to reflect on his medical opinion.”
Ford seemed to be on her backfoot through much of the night, often reading from her notes and at times interspersing her responses or questions to the other candidates with long pauses. Audience members Pique spoke with were surprised at her performance, given she brings the most direct political experience to her campaign.
The local official leaned on her stellar track record and connection to the community she has served for the past decade.
“I’ve been working for this community for a very long time, and I have put in so much work that I think has served this community well,” she said. “I’m a mom. I’m raising my 10-year-old son. He goes to Spring Creek [Community School], and all I want is the best for this community, which is why I put my hand up to do this work. And I hope you trust me. I think you do. You’ve elected me three times.”
Whistlerites head to the polls on Oct. 19. Advanced voting opens Oct. 10 to 13 at the Whistler Conference Centre.
