Gord Johns – The green businessman and incumbent
Gord Johns is proud of his family roots in Courtenay-Alberni. Born and raised on Vancouver Island, the incumbent MP has lived more than half his life in the riding. His grandparents married in Cumberland in 1922. Before jumping into federal politics in 2015. Johns ran his own natural clothing and ECO store, served on Tofino Council, and was the Executive Director of the Tofino & District Chamber of Commerce.
John has been an active MP. His website details his position on many issues of regional and national importance. Johns has been critical of the Trudeau government’s TMX pipeline approval, pushed for more supports for green entrepreneurs, and has asked for the end of subsidies for big oil and gas. As the NDP’s fisheries critic, he has pushed for the end of open-net pen fish farming and a moratorium on the roe herring fishery. He was awarded a 2020 Humane Canada Animal Welfare Leadership and Innovation Award for helping push through S-203, the “Free Willy Bill,” banning the captivity of dolphins and other cetaceans.
In 2016, Johns introduced Bill C-312 to have Canada adopt a national cycling strategy, and re-introduced the bill in 2020. Recently on Twitter, the MP has been actively Retweeting comments from Judith Sayers supporting Nuu-chah-nulth fishing rights, others criticizing police brutality at Fairy Creek, and Trudeau’s cynical election campaign announcements about more funding for senior’s care.
Mary Lee – The military vet and communications specialist
Conservative candidate Mary Lee followed in her father’s footsteps when she enrolled at Kingston’s Royal Military College of Canada. Following graduation, she worked as an air traffic controller before switching to the military’s public affairs branch. After retiring from the services, Lee started a communications consulting firm and recently worked as communications manager for Comox Valley Schools. This is Lee’s first foray into politics.
Lee’s Twitter feed is focused mostly on jobs, and Conservative Party ReTweets about Canada’s Recovery Plan promising to pay 50% of the salary of new hires for 6 months, among other initiatives. Unfortunately, there is little content on Island-specific issues.
Susan Farlinger – The biologist and career fisheries bureaucrat
Liberal candidate Susan Farlinger is trying to represent a part of the Island that has never been kind to her party. In the 2019 federal election, then Liberal candidate Jonah Baden Gowans ran a very distant third. Farlinger says little of substance about VanIlse on her website. Instead, she repeats the party line, touting vague Liberal party promises to “keep moving forward with bold action to create good new jobs, invest in the middle class and the most vulnerable, and ensure that everyone has a real and fair chance at success.”
However, Farlinger has a depth of professional experience in fisheries and resource management, something close to the hearts of many North Island communities. She’s held numerous posts in a long career with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including as a research biologist, treaty negotiator and Area Director for the South Coast. Farlinger is the 2021 recipient of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Larry Rutter Memorial Award honouring her service.
Farlinger has a modest social media presence. In a recent YouTube post, she highlighted the new Sans Group mill in Port Alberni as an example of value-added forest manufacturing that she supports.
Robert Eppich – The retired software developer
Robert Eppich got the nod for Maxime Bernier’s Peoples Party of Canada. He’s been a Denman Island resident for the past 10 years after relocating from the Lower Mainland. Eppich serves the community as treasurer of the local water association. Other than those morsels of information, voters will have to mine the PPC’s platform for clues about Eppich’s policy positions, ideals and motivations. His sparse social media presence appears to support the party’s right-wing, pro-fossil fuels, freedom of speech, and anti-multiculturalism agenda.
