NDP’s Libby Davies stepping down
VANCOUVER — Libby Davies, the Vancouver activist who found herself catapulted into Ottawa as a federal member of Parliament, is calling it quits after 40 years of public service.
The outspoken NDP MP announced Friday at her campaign office that she will not seek re-election in the upcoming federal election, saying she doesn’t have the energy to run again.
“I just feel like it’s time to call it a day,” said Davies, who is deputy minister to NDP leader Tom Mulcair and has been an MP for 18 years.
The decision is bittersweet for Davies, 61, who said she is grateful to the people in her riding of Vancouver East for helping her tackle tough issues in the Downtown Eastside such as housing, safe injection sites and the plight of missing women.
“What I’ve become known for is taking on issues that are controversial and sometimes very tough, but they’ve been really important for people in my community,” said Davies. “I feel the people of East Vancouver stood by me when things got tough.”
It hasn’t been an easy road for Davies who was 19 in 1972 when she dropped out of university to pursue social justice in the Downtown Eastside — at the time called Skid Road. Running a low-cost food stall, she and her friends started a newspaper in 1973 called the Downtown East when Davies was told by then-Vancouver Coun. Harry Rankin that “you’re going to run for city council.”
“I never ever dreamed I would be an MP,” she said. “It was really the activism in the Downtown Eastside where we were literally fighting City Hall over life and death issues.”
Davies, along with her late partner Bruce Eriksen and activist Jean Swanson threw their hats in the ring. She ran twice unsuccessfully before she was elected in 1980 to Vancouver Park Board. Two years later, she was elected to city council but left city politics in 1993 when she ran for mayor and was beat out by Philip Owen.
Those years at City Hall grounded Davies in what was important: helping people. “It’s about working on issues and helping people. City Hall taught me that,” Davies said.
When she was chosen for the federal NDP nomination, winning by 26 votes, and then elected in 1997, Davies didn’t know what to expect. Having been responsible, as a city councillor, for all of Vancouver, she said it was a huge switch to have East Vancouver as her sole focus.
But it wasn’t long before Davies realized just how slow the wheels turned in Ottawa. Although she was dealing with the same issues, she found it tough to get the ear of those making decisions at the federal level. She tried unsuccessfully to raise the issue of drug overdoses with Liberal Health Minister Allan Rock until she decided to revert to her activist roots.
“I sat in his office and said ‘I refuse to leave until I get an appointment,’ ” Davies said. “I told his secretary I had all the media outside even though I didn’t. But I got a date and developed a good relationship.”