Candidates court Granville-area riding

Liberals look for another landslide win as Wilson-Raybould seeks re-election as an independent

As independent candidate Jody Wilson-Raybould walks along the busy South Granville corridor, people wave, wish her good luck, stop to say they have one of her black lawn signs.

She may have more name and face recognition than any other independent in a federal election, but the question in this hotly contested riding of Vancouver—Granville is whether that will be enough for victory.

“Being an independent is hard,” riding resident Jessye Labaj says as she pushes a baby stroller on Granville Street. “But she has a lot to offer.”

Wilson-Raybould is banking on that kind of support to keep her job as MP, and even without a party behind her has raised more than $200,000 for the campaign (she has stopped taking donations now) and amassed more than 400 local volunteers.

“I feel very good about the responses we are receiving from people in every corner of the riding and take absolutely nothing for granted,” said Wilson-Raybould, a lawyer and former regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.

Labaj’s main concern is child care, as she has been on a waiting list for three years. But one of the key issues in this riding is housing affordability. “Being new parents, I’d just like help. We are living in a one-bedroom basement suite and we are kind of stuck,” said Tracy Carroll. “Me and my partner are both fulltime workers and we generate over $100,000 a year between us and we still can’t save a down payment.”

Wilson-Raybould won this riding as a Liberal in 2015 and was appointed attorney general, but is running as an independent after a nasty divorce from the governing party over the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Her main rival is the new Liberal candidate, tech entrepreneur Taleeb Noormohamed, a senior executive at various startups, who was also a vice-president with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

“The issues on the ground here are not necessarily the ones that the media are really excited about,” Noormohamed says. “People are trying to make ends meet.”

The Ivy-League-educated politician is friendly and earnest as he talks to voters about what the Liberals have accomplished and what they promise to do if re-elected.

“I think centre, centre-left voters in this riding really only have one choice, if you look at the formation of government,” he says, adding the Liberals’ carbon-neutral emission goals should appeal to Green supporters and their pharmacare commitment should interest NDP voters.

The Liberals took nearly half of the votes in this riding in 2015, leaving the NDP and Conservatives with about a quarter each.

The Greens garnered just three per cent, and that number is unlikely to rise this year as the local Green riding association has thrown its support behind Wilson-Raybould.

The Green’s constitution requires running candidates in every riding, so Louise Boutin is a “paper candidate” for the Greens in Vancouver-Granville, party leader Elizabeth May said this week.

This was a new seat in the 2015 election, but this area has been inclined to vote Conservative in the past.

Conservative candidate Zach Segal says a recent poll put the riding in a three-way tie, but argues an independent won’t be able to get things done in Ottawa and the Liberals have failed on the No. 1 concern he hears from voters: “pocketbook issues.”

“They feel like they are just getting by,” said Segal, who works for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “They talk about the sense that they don’t have someone in Ottawa they can trust on the economy.”

Interviewed in a coffee shop in a neighbourhood dominated by single-family homes, Marie Rogers said she will vote Conservative because she fears the other parties will run up Canada’s debt. “I run my own household within my means,” said the mother of three.

Running for the NDP is Yvonne Hanson, who also hears about climate change and affordability. “The housing crisis is affecting both renters and homeowners in the riding, both young people and seniors,” she said.

She also gets asked about strategic voting, and tells residents to vote with their heart. Hanson argues the Conservatives are too far behind to win, so a centrist or left-leaning candidate is likely to be victorious in this riding.