A Nanaimo city councillor and former member of Parliament was galvanized to re-enter the federal election race due to U.S. President Donald Trump, but won't shirk his civic duties in the coming weeks.
At an election press conference in Nanaimo on Saturday, March 29, Paul Manly, Nanaimo-Ladysmith Green Party of Canada candidate, said he is going to do as much work on Nanaimo city council as he can during the campaign and will continue attending meetings.
He said it was a tough decision for him to consider running again federally up until Trump took office at the White House. Manly was in the House of Commons for debates leading up to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, updating the North American Free Trade Agreement, and wanted to make sure it didn't become "just another corporate rights agreement."
"We fought hard to make sure that we could protect labour rights and environmental standards … Donald Trump is threatening us with tariffs, and he's threatening our sovereignty, and so my intention is to go back to the House of Commons and fight for our sovereignty and fight for trade agreements that make sense for Canadians," said Manly.
In an e-mail, Elections Canada told the News Bulletin that there is nothing in the elections act regarding civic officials, although "anecdotally, [candidates] usually either resign their civic position to run or resign if they win."
Manly said he will give up his council table seat if he is successful.
"You can [hold both] provincially, but I think it's unethical for people to be MLAs and city councillors at the same time – pick your lane," he said.
While vote-splitting is part of the discussion during elections, Manly said the topic doesn't concern him.
"We've done our own polling, and they show me coming in second, and what we need to do is just galvanize people," he said. "If you want a fighter in the House of Commons that's going to be providing a strong opposition voice, then I'm that that person. The NDP had an opportunity to, as part of their confidence-and-supply agreement … make climate change action a part of that agreement … fair taxation part of that agreement, and they didn't do that. So when we talk about tax cuts, it helps the multi-millionaires become multi-billionaires, and the rest of us are suffering."
The other candidates in Nanaimo-Ladysmith are Lisa Marie Barron of the NDP, Tamara Kronis of the Conservatives, Michelle Corfield of the Liberals and Stephen Welton of the People's Party of Canada.
