Rookie joins battle for Liberal leadership
B.C. wants a leader who is not a politician, can draw on work experience, she says
Lucy Sager believes the people of B.C. want a leader who isn’t a politician and need one who can turn talk of northern prosperity into reality.
For those reasons, the northern entrepreneur who has never served a day in political office believes she is the best candidate to replace Christy Clark as leader of the B.C. Liberal party.
“I would say that a lot of people in British Columbia right now are not into politics. I think that people are looking for someone who’s not a politician. (Someone who has) owned a business, had staff, cleaned up broken glass at 3 a.m. Worked in oil, worked in gas, worked in major projects, actually lived on a reserve,” Sager said in an interview. “Actual experience? It’s worth a lot.”
Among that experience were stints at Enbridge and construction companies Comstock Canada and EllisDon Industrial. Sager is now the principal at Spirit Strategies, a company focused on facilitation and First Nations engagement. As for politics, she had worked as Skeena MLA Ellis Ross’ campaign manager.
Sager once owned a mountainbike shop in Terrace, and it was the experience of losing that store that she talked about when asked why she wanted to run for the Liberal party leadership.
“Where I live in this part of the province, I’ve experienced watching people lose their jobs,” she said.
Among them were well-paid jobs at a nearby pulp mill. When that mill closed, Sager’s customers disappeared. She lost her business, her home and her marriage as a result, she said. “That’s kind of the fallout that happens when the economy falls apart.”
That’s a message that she believes politicians have failed to communicate and, in turn, it’s led to a disconnect between the north and the south.
“When you have royalties from major projects, it allows us the revenue to eliminate tolls on bridges, to eliminate MSP premiums, to find more daycare (spaces) without raising taxes. When we don’t have that income, we don’t have that opportunity.”
Asked whether she thought the other leadership candidates were strong on northern issues, Sager said she had “incredible respect” for them, but believed long-term politicians become disconnected from what’s happening on the ground.
“If it’s just a briefing and a binder to you, if someone’s giving you a 10-minute rundown, it’s not personal …
“It needs to be more.” Sager turned repeatedly to her experience working with, and her personal connections to, First Nations, when explaining what made her a good candidate for party — or provincial — leadership.
An article in the Terrace Standard last month had relayed some of those personal connections. It drew several heated comments from Indigenous people who questioned the merit of her claims.
Asked about that criticism, Sager sketched a family tree that included a Cherokee grandfather, and a childhood that included time spent in Indigenous communities in western North America, among other things.
Addressing personal criticism isn’t easy and takes courage, Sager said. A similar kind of courage that it takes to be party leader.