EDITORIAL: Candidates, we missed you in Squamish

The team at The Chief stayed up late into the night reporting on the outcome of the election for the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding – from our computers not local candidate gatherings. 

This is because none of the Liberal, NDP or Green candidates were in Squamish on election night. 

The NDP’s Michelle Livaja and the Greens’ Dana Taylor were in downtown Vancouver. We didn’t get comment from Livaja until the day after the eletion. The local Liberals, at a private home in West Vancouver, made it difficult for us to cover them since they wouldn’t let The Chief’s photographer take a photo of winning candidate Jordan Sturdy at first. With some pressure on social media, they finally conceded. 

Why weren’t the candidates in Squamish on election night?

We have the most registered voters out of any community in the riding, including West Van (12,621 versus 9,871, respectively, in 2013) – it would make sense for them to be here. Many Squamish residents would have been keen to show their support in-person. 

Last election, the majority of Squamites voted for the NDP. And Squamish residents – as predicted – showed a lot of support for the Greens, up from last time. Because of this, many people thought the candidates would hold their gatherings in Squamish. 

(Historically, the Liberals have been extremely popular in West Van, taking 74 per cent of the vote last election, explaining why Sturdy skipped Squamish this time. This number hasn’t been released yet for this year, but it’s likely still high.)

Squamites waited patiently for our candidates to announce their run – it took until mid-March for the Greens and all the way until April for the NDP.

And the campaign signs were put up late this time. While large signs lined major roads in nearby ridings well before the election, they slowly popped up in Squamish with only a couple of weeks left. 

Even Mayor Patricia Heintzman commented to The Chief that she was somewhat surprised how little time the candidates seemed to spend time in Squamish. 

Future candidates  – don’t ignore Squamish. We can have a real impact on who wins.

We thank all the candidates for helping us cover them in The Chief and for participating in the all candidates meeting.  

Congrats to the Liberals, who won our riding, with the Greens and NDP close behind. But, maybe with a little more enthusiasm for Squamish, the NDP or Greens could have pulled ahead further. Next election, remember to take Squamish seriously.