We got the chance to talk with the BC NDP’s candidate for the Skeena riding in the recently concluded election, Sarah Zimmerman. During our discussion, she gave us her thoughts on how the election went, in addition to sharing her hopes about how the Conservatives will run BC.
“I think we saw a pretty strong response from the voters that came out, they wanted a big change. I’m obviously disappointed that we have a Conservative Government and that we weren’t successful in our campaign to win Skeena back. But there’s nothing like an election to be able to get from one end of the riding to the other and talk to people in every walk of life and in every community. That’s something I’ll be able to take with me forever. It’s one of my favourite things about being a politically active person here. While it’s not the result we wanted and worked so hard for, the voters had their say and we’re still here, we’re still organizing and I really hope that Ms. Rattée is able to continue that legacy of investing in Skeena, because we really need it here. I was a reporter in the early 2000’s when the Gordon Campbell Government came in and I remember the impact it had on Skeena. The cuts that were made were really serious. We ended up with a four day school week, underfunding in schools, big classrooms, not enough EA’s, we saw a brand new school stay closed for years. As soon as it was built, it was never filled up and it took years for it to open. We still have issues with schools, the Mount Elizabeth School needs to be re-done in Kitimat. That’s something I know Ms. Rattée has advocated for. I just hope that this government invests instead of cutting. What we saw in the early 2000’s was the wholesale decimation of the rest of the forestry industry in this area. We saw cuts to Crown Victim Services, we saw cuts to wages for people that work on the front lines and in Health Care. I hope that the premier elect has a better plan than that. But I’m preparing myself for some pretty serious impacts on the services that hit closest to home. I hope that having somebody in government as a MLA here will make sure that we continue to see those services here instead of the cuts we’ve seen in the past.”