As Canadians collectively wait for the federal election to be called, another candidate has stepped forward to represent the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding.
Squamish councillor Lauren Greenlaw is the candidate for the Green Party of Canada.
The Squamish Chief caught up with Greenlaw for a conversation about why she is running, what she believes and what she hopes to accomplish.
What follows is a version of that conversation edited for length and clarity.
Q: What made you want to run to be our MP?
A: I'm an earth scientist, so I have a pretty good sense of where we are environmentally and I'm also a mother, and frankly, our federal government is simply not doing enough to address the very serious environmental issues that we are currently facing. There's just been too much, I'm going to call it, corporate welfare. Effectively, it is the subsidizing of large industrial projects that are not beneficial to individuals at a time when we simply cannot afford to give away our public assets like this.
We have people, especially in this riding, who don't have housing security. They're worried about getting food on the table. We have an affordability crisis. Our federal government has no business giving away billions of dollars a year in industry subsidies at a time when we should really be allocating those funds to build heavily subsidized affordable housing, which we've been lagging on for, I think, 40 years now. Also, health-care funding is lagging. Our hospital in Squamish is serving 270,000 people with a 22-bed facility.
Q: What can you do as an MP that you can’t do as a sitting councillor?
A: One of the big things is those systemic pieces, like trying to get transparency around lobbyists in governance. Advocating for electoral reform. Those are pieces that can't happen locally. Same with advocating for cutting fossil fuel subsidies, for instance, and bringing that money back to the community.
I enter these roles to help people. It's been really difficult for me to be on a municipal front and really just not have the tools accessible because they're being held by higher levels of government.
The other piece that I really want to do through this role is to connect up and down the entire riding, with small businesses, individuals, nonprofits and chambers of commerce to create a strong network of businesses so that we can facilitate [more] buying locally. So, facilitating producers and agriculture businesses and small businesses, facilitating them getting their products to market, facilitating a network so that people can find who's out there to buy things from. I want to do this regardless of whether or not I get elected because I think it's an important piece for our community
Q: With MLA Jeremy Valeriote being elected provincially, we have seen the power the two Green Party members can have. But on the flip side, we've also seen the limitation of being two people. What can you actually accomplish as a small party federally?
A: For me, the biggest thing is to start conversations. One of the things that has been reflected to me, even in my role on council, is you change conversations just by being there. So, bringing representation, bringing the conversation around these issues, making sure climate change remains on the forefront, making sure gender equity remains at the forefront. Another piece is, if I do get elected, you look at Jeremy and the Green Party provincially and it has a surprising amount of power in that legislature. So that could potentially happen on a federal level as well, because we are likely going to have a minority government situation, where, let's say five Green MPs—let's be optimistic—can still actually be influential.
Q: You previously mentioned housing. As a councillor, you have voted against some housing projects. What could the federal government do that would make councillor Greenlaw feel comfortable voting for housing?
A: In the book Broken City, Patrick Condon argues not all density is created equal. Just continuing to increase supply will not meet the demand, and it certainly won't meet the demand for affordability. And what he proposes is to add density, yes, but make sure that half of it is affordable. That's kind of where I'm coming from. And I feel strongly that every, area has a carrying capacity, right? And there’s liveability. Can you get a doctor? Can you get a childcare space? Do you have teachers at your school? Can your teachers and doctors afford to live in your town?
So getting federal support for increasing the carrying capacity of this area. That's one piece that I would like to see move forward. But also, again, investing in heavily subsidized affordable housing.
Q: What will happen when the election is called in terms of your council position? Do you step away? Are there things you can't vote on?
A: If there was something that came up that I thought there might be a conflict of interest on, I could declare that.
I have spoken to the mayor and our staff. We're not very concerned about the conflict of interest piece. I can take a leave of absence during the campaign if I choose to. I don’t have to. And then if I get elected, most likely, I would end up resigning, and there would be a by-election.
Q: What do you feel is the right way to handle U.S. President Trump's government on the national stage?
A: It's a difficult question because it is so volatile and unpredictable. But I really do suspect that what's happening is they're using chaos as a tool. And so first of all, we need to try to not be reactionary because that's what he's driving at. I also think you have to stand a firm ground.
Also, coming back to fostering community, focusing on making your community, your neighbourhood, as resilient as we can.
Q: You're on the inside, politically, being on council, and now running federally. Currently, parliament is 70% men and 30% women. Can you see the barriers from where you are sitting?
A: These roles are very difficult to access if you don't have a supportive family and community. With the MP positions specifically, it’s about 120 days sitting in Ottawa. That makes this role pretty inaccessible to most mothers, frankly. Our kids are under 10 and, emotionally, that's a strain, but also that's not realistic for a lot of women.
Another piece from my personal experience through my career in geology, and this is true in a lot of fields, women often experience not only a massive gender pay gap that widens drastically after they have children, but they're also effectively pushed out of their careers, which makes it very difficult to re-enter careers.
If I were in another position, I would probably quit my job to campaign for this role. When you're talking about affordability and financial viability, that's a pretty risky situation to put yourself in.
Q: Anything I didn’t ask you that you wanted to say?
A: I hope that I can help reinvigorate people, and bring them back to engaging in their democracy. That would be a great outcome for me, in running, period. Just to inspire people. I feel like a lot of the conversation is people afraid of X winning [the election] or Y, depending on which side of the field you're on. The last few elections that we've had, have been voting against someone and voting against something. I would like to be someone who people want to vote for.
Other candidates for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country include Conservative Party candidate Keith Roy, incumbent Liberal MP Patrick Weiler, newly acclaimed NDP candidate Jäger Rosenberg, People's Party of Canada candidate Peyman Askari and Animal Protection Party of Canada candidate Sanaz Mani.
According to the Canada Elections Act, the 45th Canadian Parliament has to be held by no later than Oct. 20, 2025.
