Squamish’s Mountain Burger House is an almost stereotypical place to meet a New Democratic Party politician: a favourite of locals, the restaurant is an oasis for working class folk – loggers, construction workers and buddies in for breakfast after an early morning fishing trip. Before federal candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country Larry Koopman arrived Sunday morning, the almost entirely male clientele, dressed mostly in jeans, talked about hockey, recent bear sightings and the upcoming election as they enjoyed their bacon and eggs.
Koopman entered largely unnoticed, with no entourage, just his wife of 34 years, Lynn. Dressed in a dark fleece jacket, Koopman’s bright orange NDP polo shirt was out of view.
He was relaxed and chatty as he sat down at a table by the window.
He doesn’t have the pedigree many might expect of an NDPer; he’s a businessman who has owned his Gibsons-based cottage rental business for 14 years.
Koopman grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and said farming is a business, so the mix of leftwing NDP social ideals and budgeting skills was never a conflict for him.
“Growing up in Saskatchewan under Tommy Douglas, Roy Romanow, Allan Blakeney, they were fiscal conservatives those guys, and they always balanced budgets but delivered strong social programs so when I hear the criticisms from Mr. [Justin] Trudeau, the Liberals and the conservatives about, ‘Oh you are balancing the budget on austerity economics,’ it is not true. You can do both and we are proposing good social programs.”
A national childcare program and a national drug prescription plan are examples of programs Koopman said the NDP can deliver and still balance the budget.
“I am not afraid to go into deficit, because that is an investment, but I don’t think you have to do it right at this moment,” he said.
He didn’t dream about becoming a politician when he was young, he said, but politics was always a table conversation in his childhood home.
“With the doctors’ strike and we got medicare in the early 1960s, witnessing that and talking about Martin Luther King when he got assassinated, Malcolm X,” he says and as if on cue, a news clip of
NDP leader Thomas Mulcair flashes on the TV screen suspended in the corner above Koopman’s head.
Koopman decided to run after Mulcair and his wife, Catherine Pinhas, spent time at Koopman’s cottages in 2012 before Mulcair became NDP leader.
“That’s really the reason I am running. I met Tom and Catherine and we had conversations… one on one.”
Once Mulcair won the leadership, Koopman said he knew he wanted to be part of the NDP slate of candidates.
“I was inspired by his principal of character, his pragmatic nature – and the guy is really smart.”
Koopman said he has developed a thick skin during this election campaign, but he acknowledged at first he was taken aback by the viciousness of the political game. “I was surprised at the attacks that would come at you via the Internet and Twitter,” he said. “You don’t even know me, why would you accuse me or say I am this or that?”
He isn’t a seasoned politician, Koopman said, but shouldn’t have to be to run or win.
“I am a concerned citizen running for elected office,” he said. “That is one of the reasons I think people are turned off politics, is because people aren’t being real and not being themselves…. We are elected to the House of Commons and it should not be the house of lawyers and mayors and PR people.”
Should he win the seat, he is ready, he said.
“First it is going to be listening and I think forming committees of interests that feed back to the member of Parliament,” he said. “You really have to set up a real network of communication with every region in the district, like citizen groups representing labour and business and First Nations… I am ready for the challenge.”
As the breakfast crowd thickens at the restaurant, Koopman heads outside. He takes off his jacket revealing his NDP orange shirt underneath — and he heads out to knock on doors.
