Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with Re/Max Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural strata recreational investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both Re/Max International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Rockin Rhonda & The Uptown Blues Band: Here come Peter. Here comes David. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing spinning tails in the podcast cave. So sweet. Laughs in the insights everywhere. What else we, Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join all Ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Peter McCully: Welcome everyone, and glad you could join us. This is the Pulse Community Podcast. With the focus on Mid Vancouver Island here in beautiful British Columbia. Speaking of beautiful, well, this guy has a nice personality. It's my co-host, Dave Graham. Thank

Dave Graham: you, Peter. Peter McCully, my partner in podcasting as we usher in the unofficial start of summer. The Victoria Day weekend just passed. And I was born in Victoria, so that practically makes me almost a little bit like royalty that might not hold up in court. But anyway, it was early on the morning of May 24th, 1819 when the Duke and Duchess of Kent celebrated the birth of their only child Victoria. Long story short, she became queen. Now we have a holiday.

Peter McCully: Moving right along. Then on this edition, we'll chat with Gord Johns recently elected member of Parliament for Courtenay-Alberni.

Gord Johns: The experts came to us, looked at models around the world, and we talked to small minority parties that had done partnerships with governing parties, like in Germany and around the world. Basically, they told us that there's gonna be a huge political cost if you do this, and so we knew heading into it, it's either we get big wins for people like PharmaCare and dental care, or we look at our own personal political gain. As difficult as it is, it was unanimous that we were gonna choose people and getting help to people over our own political success and having big wins like dental care and PharmaCare. There was a sacrifice and that was losing seats, and that was just the reality of the result of what we did. And would we do it again? I think every member of Parliament and that caucus would do it again.

Dave Graham: I'm not done with this Victoria business just yet. I mean, why do we have a holiday named after her? What did she do? We need answers. Meantime, I wanna mention that Theresa Cooper, who is the executive director of the Parksville Downtown Business Association, will be here to talk about some of their upcoming events.

Teresa Cooper: We also have several events that really, truly are events. Our first one is the Food Festival.

The second one is an event we're calling Down on the Corner. It's five different musical groups, local that will be playing throughout the day. And then we also are collaborating with the Makerspace to do a Maker's Market. Fingers crossed between Jen and I at OCAC. We're gonna pull together two art events and then our final event of the year is the James Vickers band that came last year is coming back for the Salish Coast Music Festival in September. So it's a really busy schedule, but they're not all events.

Peter McCully: Hey Dave, have you heard about the amazing selection at the Meadowood Store Garden Center? You know Peter, that's an unusual way to start a conversation, but do tell. All Garden Center is absolutely loaded with premium soils, organic manure, and specialized fertilizers, and get this Chris Burger guarantees they won't be under soiled by the competition. Well, that is dirt cheap news worth spreading. But what about choices? What's the selection like? Well, the Meadowood Store Garden Center has an incredible variety of starter plants and vegetable seedlings ready for your garden.

Dave Graham: Vegetable seedlings. Huh? Vegetable gardening is the way to go. That's what people are saying. Grow your own veggies. And I hear they're good for you, but Peter, we're talking Meadowood. What's the buying power here? Prices must be on the high side.

Peter McCully: Well, Chris takes his soil seriously and he wants to share the passion, so he'll match just about any competitors' prices that you can find.

Dave Graham: So you get to take the scenic drive to Meadowood and then arrive at a veritable savings emporium. What? Pinch me. I must be dreaming. These savings are absolutely fantastic.

Peter McCully: The deals are huge. Bigfoot huge.

Dave Graham: Our thanks to the Meadowood Store Garden Center, a proud sponsor of the Pulse Podcast. Remember their motto? They dig what you plant. And don't forget to snap a photo with Bigfoot while you're there.

Peter McCully: We have some folks who have some interesting events planned in the coming weeks, including a ParticipACTION challenge, and they've left messages for us on the Speak to Us line.

Kristine Stephenson: Hi, Peter and Dave. I'm Christine Stevenson with the Arrowsmith Community Recreation Association. We have a couple of community events coming up this spring.

We'll be at the Meadowood Community Center on Saturday, May 24th, serving up breakfast at our first Gather and Griddle pancake breakfast. Come on by to enjoy a delicious meal by donation. Yes, we do have bacon. There will be kids' activities and a chance to visit with neighbors and the ACRA recreation team.

This is a by-donation event and proceeds go towards keeping ACRA's recreation programs affordable. That's this Saturday, May 24th from 10:00 a.m. until noon at the Meadowood Community Center. If you're in the Coombs area, don't miss the 34th annual Coombs Community Picnic at the Coombs Fairgrounds on Friday, June 6th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This free event features live music, field games, and educational displays.

It's a great evening for the whole family. We'll have free hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, and we hope to see you there. For more information, visit us at arrowsmithrecreation.ca.

Micki Findlay: Hello Van Isle Friends, this is your friendly community call out. On Sunday, May 25th from noon to 2:00 p.m., we're inviting you to join us for our next Elbows Up event along the highway in front of the Heritage Center and Sirius Coffee.

This isn't just a meetup, it's a movement. Elbows Up is about standing together, shoulder to shoulder, in visible support of what makes our communities and our country strong. It's about showing up in solidarity for Canadian sovereignty and the values that matter and unite us all: diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Whether it's your first Elbows Up or you've been with us from the start, your voice matters. So come on out. Bring a sign or a flag. Bring a friend. And help us turn a stretch of highway into a live display of community spirit. We'll be there, rain or shine because, well, that's what we do. You're welcome to join our Facebook group Elbows Up Van Isle.

To find our event details and parking guidelines, please go to the GRS event tab. Let's keep Canada independent, strong, kind, and united. Elbows Up Van Isle.

Bren Smith: Hi guys. Bren here. Greetings from Arrowsmith Lodge in Cokely Manor in Parksville. We've got an exciting opportunity to share with folks across the Oceanside area.

We've been chosen to help lead the ParticipACTION Community Challenge happening nationally throughout the month of June. Our seniors wanna inspire everyone to get active and get moving. So we've got a plan. We'll be loading up our buses and taking a few of our favorite activities and instructors down to the Parksville Beach and Community Park right at the Legacy Labyrinth, with the mountains and the oceans as our view.

We'll be hosting free outdoor fitness classes. Our first event is Thursday, June 5th, with some relaxing chair yoga with Craig. On Thursday, June 19th, we get our groove on with Zumba Day, and we're finishing up with a fitness routine with Doug from Fluid Fitness on, you guessed it, Thursday, June 26th. All our classes will start at 11 and they'll be approximately one hour.

And here's the challenge, Dave, Peter, everyone listening, grab your chair and come on down for a class or all the classes. Come alongside this great group of people, show your support and have some fun with us. There's no cost. The programs are adapted to all abilities and water and snacks will be provided.

We'll be tallying up the numbers each week to put Parksville on the ParticipACTION Community Challenge map. So should you choose to accept this challenge, you can find more details on our website at arrowsmithlodge.ca. This message will self-destruct. Sorry, I get carried away. Just kidding. Come on down and join us and get active.

Peter McCully: Dave, that Bren Smith has quite a sense of humor. Maybe she could help you out from time to time.

Dave Graham: I'm open to help. There's always room for improvement. If you would like to send us a voice message, be a part of the podcast, simply go to thepulsecommunity.ca. You'll find the speak to us link on the contact page.

So I want to take another moment to speak to the whole question of why we have a Victoria Day holiday. She became Queen of the United Kingdom a month after she turned 18. Can you believe that? The year was 1837 and she became the first royal to take up residence at Buckingham Palace at the age of 20, after feeling some mutual affection between herself and a man who had come calling a couple of times.

Actually, they were first cousins. She proposed marriage to him. Prince Albert accepted, but why do we get a holiday in her name? That's still to come.

Peter McCully: Well, I certainly will stay tuned. I kind of have to be here anyway. We have a way to keep you up to speed on the latest pulse podcasts and contests. Just head over to thepulsecommunity.ca, our website, follow the contact link.

I can tell you now that future guests include Grant Lawrence, author, broadcaster, and singer. He's bringing his spring show to Vancouver Island with musical guest Joel Plaskett, among others.

Dave Graham: Ken Schley of Qualicum Beach, owner of the SS Minnow, the iconic boat from the Gilligan's Island TV series will be sitting down for a talk about the boat.

Plus Sean McCann, formerly of Great Big Sea. He'll be playing in Parksville in the coming weeks, and Michelle Stilwell. We'll chat about accessibility week, the last week of May.

Peter McCully: While the Victoria Day weekend means the start of summer to many of us, the season's official beginning is still ahead. And we're going to observe the occasion with a special edition of The Pulse podcast. We're putting together a playlist of summer songs, each one distinctly emblematic of this wonderful time of year. It's a celebration. We hope you'll enjoy coming to a device near you next month.

Dave Graham: Summertime. In Queen Victoria's time just meant more daylight, which meant more time to work because they didn't have electricity. There were no fancy schmancy devices that make it easy as pie to listen to the Pulse podcast and enter our draw for tickets to See Chilliwack.

Peter McCully: Yes! Chilliwack. They're bringing their farewell tour to Parksville July 12th. It's part of the opening weekend of BeachFest. There's still time to enter the contest. Go to the Pulse community.ca. Look for the contest link.

Oceanside Cweed: Oceanside Cweed. That little pot Shop is Parksville's first licensed cannabis store since April 2022. Cweed is under new ownership with a product expert at the helm that includes two decades of retail mastery and seven years in the cannabis industry. Cweed is a legacy in the making with cannabis products regulated by Health Canada. Community-minded Seaweed is a member of the Parksville Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville Downtown Business Association, and the Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia. Those 19 plus can drop by the store at 154 Middleton Avenue next to Tablet Pharmacy. Open Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., weekends and holidays 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Visit the online store at cweedoceanside.ca.

Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products. Including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized one-on-one service to all of our customers: homeowners, do-it-yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build or building project. Visit them online or call 752-3122.

Dave Graham: We recently enjoyed a holiday, the Victoria Day long weekend, but I wonder how many people took a moment to think about why she had the longest reign of any British monarch, a record that lasted until Elizabeth II. During Victoria's life, Britain experienced a time of expansion with industrialization that prompted economic expansion, which facilitated the expansion of the British Empire. It was said that at the time of Queen Victoria's death, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set. Maybe that's what it takes to get a holiday named after you. You know, if I were to have a holiday, of course it would be called Dave Day. I'm gonna have to really raise my game if I want to earn that kind of recognition, though I was kind of hoping to have a nap after this.

Peter McCully: In your world isn't every day a day of Dave anyway? Back to the matter at hand. It's time to bring on our first guest. Our guest coordinator, Marilyn, is ready.

Marilyn: In the green room is Teresa Cooper, the Executive Director of the Parksville Downtown Business Association. Parksville Downtown has several initiatives planned, including Imagine Parksville Downtown and a number of summer events.

Dave Graham: Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Teresa. Nice to see you again.

Teresa Cooper: It's my pleasure. Nice to be here.

Dave Graham: We have lots to talk about. So you have much planned for the summer. First I wanted to get a sense of whether the downtown businesses in Parksville have been feeling maybe a bit of the benefit of the Elbows Up movement of late.

Teresa Cooper: I think so. I think everybody is all on board for Yay Canada. We have some of our members who have been looking at their suppliers and making adjustments. From everything I am hearing, it's all going well.

Dave Graham: In the past few years, some folks have come back to public events. The PDBA has held a number of summer events that are gaining in popularity.

I guess this is all post-COVID. As if it's truly over. In June, for instance, I know you're bringing food trucks and music together and it's a festival. Do tell.

Teresa Cooper: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. We put the posters up in our window and the people are stopping and looking at the poster and taking pictures, so I expect we're gonna have a crowd.

At last count, we had 18 food trucks from, I would say Nanaimo to Courtenay, but primarily in Parksville. And they're all going to be set up in the credit union parking lot on Sunday, June 8th. And then over in Memorial Plaza, which is right across the street from the credit union, we'll have tables, chairs, a kids' zone, and music.

Dave Graham: Do you have special evenings reserved throughout, maybe something special on Friday nights happening, or any other plans like that for the summer?

Teresa Cooper: Our first event is usually whenever the Craig Street market happens. For the first time this year it's on June 10th. When I first started here, I walked through the market and I saw all these people sitting on the hot sidewalk breathing in the fumes of the food trucks.

And I said, we can do better than this Parksville. So we set up a bus and kids' stuff, and this year we're gonna add tables and chairs to welcome them over from their time at the market to have a little bit of quiet time under our beautiful historic elm trees and just have a little bit of a picnic for everybody.

So that's on Tuesday nights. And then on Fridays we're going to build on what I hope to be our success from our food truck festival and have a mini food truck festival on Fridays from about five till seven. There'll be a food truck there again. Music tables, chairs, and all of our events have been built knowing that it's awareness, it's people getting used to the idea, it's consistency.

I've only been here for two years. This will be my third summer. And one thing that we've always focused on in the last three years is assessing what worked and what didn't work each summer. So we've got some events that have carried on and will carry on. This will be the third year, and then we try to put something different in each year to see if that gains more momentum.

It really comes down to consistency and creating awareness and creating a wonderful experience when they come. As you know Dave, we have our wonderful Dance With Me and that's something that we started in 2023 in partnership with the city. It's four events through July and August and we have a wonderful dance instructor come and she teaches line dancing and salsa and swing, and you are there to play our music, which we really appreciate and we are really seeing momentum building on that program.

So that's one of those that we're going to keep.

Dave Graham: Any news or anything else you can share in terms of new events or plans?

Teresa Cooper: Over the last two years, we did everything and we called everything an event, and then we realized that some of the things we were doing weren't really events. And so now we focused on putting stuff in Memorial Plaza for people to do without it being an event.

So for instance, you may walk by and see checkerboard out or giant bubble blowing. It's not really an event, but it's a chance for people to come and just be in Memorial Plaza. But we also have several events that really, truly are events. Our first one is the Food Festival. The second one is an event we're calling Down on the Corner.

It's five different musical groups, local that will be playing throughout the day. And then we also are collaborating with the Makerspace to do a Maker's Market. Fingers crossed between Jen and I at OCAC. We're gonna pull together two art events and then our final event of the year is the James Vickers band that came last year is coming back for the Salish Coast Music Festival in September.

So it's a really busy schedule, but they're not all events.

Dave Graham: That's a great way to define things. A project you've been working on for some time is Imagine Parksville Downtown gathering ideas from the community. Can you add anything more to that in terms of what we can expect?

Teresa Cooper: That's a really timely question, Dave.

I'm really excited. Parksville is a gem, and I feel that this report is going to give us the tools we need to really polish that gem and make downtown sparkle. What it says doesn't matter because it's what the community told us. We talked to about 150 people and it was interesting through the process.

We were hearing the same thing, even though it was different groups. For instance, we heard the same thing from the arts and culture group as we heard from the museum group, as we heard from people walking through Memorial Plaza for our open house, and that was, we love Parksville. We just want it to be more vibrant.

I'm sure the report is going to reflect that, and once I get that report, the fun really starts.

Dave Graham: We look forward to the good news to come from the Parksville Downtown Business Association. Theresa, thank you for taking some time out to be on the podcast. I appreciate it.

Teresa Cooper: It's absolutely my pleasure. Thank you.

Peter McCully: Dave, we'll look forward to attending some of those fantastic summer events in Parksville downtown.

Dave Graham: Alright, back to Victoria. As a child, Queen Victoria was brought up in a very strict environment. She wasn't allowed to have the company of other children. Instead, she had her dolls and her dog and her imagination.

At the age of 10, she wrote and illustrated a story for children called The Adventures of Alice LaSalle, and it was published. In 2010, 186 years later, we have our own stories for children. We call them Skookum Kid's Stories. Peter McCully narrates the series about Gracie the Eskimo dog.

Peter McCully: And there's the Mellow Submarine narrated by Dave Graham featuring Captain Dave and his crew of assorted marine creatures, including First Mate Larry, who just happens to be a lobster.

You'll find Skookum Kids Stories at thepulsecommunity.ca. Also Skookumkids.com, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, iHeart, and Amazon. If you're interested in joining our growing family of sponsors for the Pulse Community and Skookum Kids Stories podcasts, let us know. Email peter@thepulsecommunity.ca.

Meadowood Store Garden Centre: The Meadowood Store's Garden Center is jammed packed with starter plants and veggies, bag soils, manure and fertilizers. Chris Burger says he won't be under soiled. The folks at the Meadowood Store Garden Center will match sales prices just about anywhere. Kids coming at a painted rock to make Rocky the Rock Snake grow longer. Enjoy the relaxing drive to Meadowood, where the bargains are tariff-free and are big. Bigfoot big. The Meadowood General Store in Dashwood is the home of Bigfoot. It's a convenient spot for beer, wine, and spirits, groceries, Deli, propane, and lotto. Come in and have your picture taken with Bigfoot inside or outside the store at 1221 Meadowood Way in Dashwood.

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with Re/Max Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural strata recreational investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both Re/Max International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Dave Graham: This is the podcast about the stories and people of Mid Vancouver Island, and we are always open to suggestions for stories and people we could be featuring in upcoming episodes. Getting in touch is easy. Just follow the contact link on our homepage, thepulsecommunity.ca. We have Marilyn here to introduce.

Marilyn: Our next guest in the green room is MP Gord Johns, who recently won his fourth term, representing Courtenay-Alberni in the 2025 federal election, securing 39.7% of the votes cast.

Peter McCully: Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Gord.

Gord Johns: Peter, thanks for having me.

Peter McCully: And congratulations on being reelected as member of Parliament for Courtenay-Alberni.

Gord Johns: Yeah, it's a huge honor and privilege and it's very humbling, so I'm very excited to get back to work with a new agenda.

Peter McCully: What factors do you believe contributed to your ability to maintain strong support while many of the NDP candidates across the country struggled and were not reelected?

Gord Johns: That's a good question.

I mean, it always goes back to 2015, even like it was an upset when we first won this riding, it was a Conservative riding for 15 years and a Reform riding for seven or eight years before that. So I think that people saw that we were willing to do the work at a grassroots level, meet them on the doorstep and take their concerns to Ottawa.

And I really see my job first as the messenger, not Ottawa's, top down. Ottawa knows best, but the people know best and the ideas in our communities are here and the solutions are here. And certainly the concerns are things that we can address with solutions. I wanted to do politics differently federally, so we've done politics differently.

I think that really has helped support our success. We had an incredible campaign team, the best I've ever had. Hundreds and hundreds of people got involved in our campaign and we've done hard work. We worked hard with people in the communities to solve problems. Everything from drinking water advisories throughout our whole riding, to making sure that we've got infrastructure to deal with our raw sewage, to making sure that we can build affordable homes in the things that we need in our communities.

Looking at ways we can solve problems from the smallest community like Clayquot, which is 40 people, making sure they're in clean energy and not spending two-thirds of their resources on diesel, for example. Finding solutions for people, no matter how big or small the community is. We've been able to do a lot of that.

We got so much work ahead of us clearly, but I think that is certainly attributed to why we got reelected and sent back to Ottawa.

Peter McCully: You probably heard of this fellow Donald Trump. He threatened tariffs, of course, during the campaign and his comments about making Canada the 51st state and other tensions with the US became major campaign factors nationally.

And while that helped the Liberals nationally, Courtenay-Alberni bucked the trend by remaining NDP. And how do you think the US-Canada tensions affected voters in the riding specifically?

Gord Johns: Well, first it affects everybody across the country. It was a very different election. People were scared and they didn't know what to do.

Progressive voters especially, they split the vote in many NDP ridings and actually, you know, people voted Liberal and then ended up electing Conservatives in I think 12 or 13 of the 17 ridings that we lost. So it didn't work. Strategic voting failed. But certainly when it comes to our riding, people know that I'm a scrapper and a fighter, and that when it comes to how we respond to Donald Trump, just like with COVID-19, we wanna make sure that we're not forgotten.

Our riding, Vancouver Islanders, British Columbians. Certainly we need to make sure that, you know, we've got a strong voice in Ottawa with experience, so we're paid attention to, especially when it comes to sectors like our forestry sector. It's very important that we're not left up, and it's not just about auto and steel and aluminum, but also sectors that we're vulnerable to tourism in our communities, but also making sure that how we respond and building resiliency and diversifying our economy.

We've got a lot of solutions here and certainly making sure that we've got the infrastructure and the investments from Ottawa and the partnership with Ottawa to be able to solve these problems. And I think that came out a lot in the election.

People looking for solutions and how we're gonna build more resiliency and to be more self-sustainable. Not even three days after the election, I had already been part of a meeting with elected leaders riding-wide on how we're gonna respond to Donald Trump. So it's been consistent with the work we were doing before when Donald Trump announced his tariffs and his threat to our autonomy that we're continues.

We haven't stopped, and we're gonna fight back and make sure that we've got a strong presence in Ottawa to make sure that we're heard.

Peter McCully: You ran against a field of seven other candidates in the riding. What message would you like to share with those folks who supported the other candidates?

Gord Johns: Well first to the candidates and to their teams, their families.

It takes a lot of courage to step up, put your name forward, run a campaign. It can be very hard when you lose, but it's important that their message was heard, that they had voters that put their faith in them, and that those voters, that their message needs to be something that I also take with me to Ottawa.

You know, I've always said, you know, after the election, our job is to listen to everybody and that I represent all people of Courtenay-Alberni regardless of who they voted for. I've proven that time and time again, it helped many people from across political and partisan lines on the issues that face them on a day-to-day basis.

So their messages are certainly messages that I heard in the campaign that I'll be bringing to Ottawa as well, and help balance the approach that I bring to Ottawa. But everybody should feel comfortable reaching out to me regardless of how the election went. My job is to serve all people of Courtney-Alberni and really all Canadians.

Peter McCully: Gord, what kind of vehicle are you driving these days?

Gord Johns: I'm driving a Prius, although we do get a lot of laughs out of my car because it does look like I live in it. I've got a little soup rack. I've got a cooler, has got a soup bag and stuff to get me through the day in my car. I've got booster cables. I pull over and boost a lot of people on the side of the highway.

I'm sure that the tow truck companies feel like I'm competition right now, but it's a big riding. You know, our riding stretches north of Tofino to Heskett to Boat Basin, so about two hours north, you know, by boat, down through across Barkley Sound to Bayfield and through the Alberni Valley extends up to Courtney and Lasqueti Island. Of course Cumberland, all the communities, all the way down to Qualicum, Parksville, and now it includes Lantzville, and a sliver of North Nanaimo. Yeah. The bulk of my life is in the car, in an airport or on a plane. In fact, we calculated, I spent over a year of my life of the last nine years in a car, airport or in a plane.

So it is something else. Being a West Coast MP and an MP in a big riding and an MP where I wanna be present, where I have boots on the ground, I get the odd person to say, "Hey, I don't see you in your office." My office is our riding. I go to where people are at. I meet them where they're at, and that's how I have such a good insight on what people are dealing with or the opportunities they're talking about.

Peter McCully: The mileage on said Prius?

Gord Johns: Oh geez. I can't even imagine. It's a lot. It's a lot. And I finally did the first layer of cleaning it the other day after camping. And yeah, I wasn't pretty, I got a lot of work to do. I certainly could keep a detailer in business with my car alone. I got a bike rack on there, so I get my wheels out when I can, and I hit all the pools in the riding.

You know, I can't get away from it. Whether I'm doing lanes or in the change room or in the pool, people are talking to me about their issues. So it's everywhere. It's in the grocery store, it's in the coffee shop, and people always ask if they're interrupting. Never, never. I love to hear from people wherever I'm at.

Peter McCully: Let's talk about the party for a moment. With the Liberals forming a minority government, but just a handful short of a majority, what role do you see the remaining NDP members of Parliament playing in the new Parliament?

Gord Johns: Well, I think a couple things. First, we know they're gonna need a handful of votes or less to be able to pass any legislation. That's something that we have. We have enough votes to be able to work with the government, making sure that whatever legislation they bring forward, that it's gonna benefit people. And that's the heart of our politics, is making sure that we support workers, families, people, retirees, people that work for a living or are struggling the most vulnerable.

Everybody, people are at the center and heart of all the things we do. So I think that we've got a lot of power and leverage for a small group of people with only seven seats. Probably the most powerful seven seats in the history of our country, I'd imagine when you look at minority governments and parties, that really did take a beating and we did take a beating, and I'll speak to that a little bit.

We saw people were afraid with Donald Trump and the threat of tariffs, progressive voters were afraid. Like I said, the votes bleeding happened. They thought they were doing what was right, but many of our supporters loan their vote to the Liberals to help get us through. It failed in 13 of the 17 ridings that we lost and it wasn't people voting for Conservatives and electing Conservatives.

It was actually progressive voters splitting the vote that elected Conservatives and defeated New Democrats. So it's something that we have to look at and I think clearly our messaging needs to be refined or competing with Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives and many of those battleground ridings. And the slogans as, as much as they're just that, and they're not backed with evidence-based policy or real solutions, they resonate with people.

And we've lead to learn how to communicate better on the proposals that we have, that we feel are really gonna help people and improve their lives of everyday Canadians.

Peter McCully: What do you consider your priorities for this new mandate?

Gord Johns: I think that we heard loud and clear in the election that we need unity.

We need to stand together across political lines to stand up to Donald Trump and to build resiliency and diversify our economy, to work together collectively to solve our problems and create new markets for our manufactured and our resources that we are doing Trade with around the world. For example, using mass timber to build affordable housing, using steel to build infrastructure, clean energy grids and housing and buildings that can help solve some of our economic challenges and infrastructure.

So clearly people were, "Hey, we need to deal with the economy. We need to deal with the affordability crisis." I think we've got a unique position in that we're the only party calling out corporate greed. We see excess profits from big law, big banks, big grocery, big telecommunication companies. Things that affect everyday people in their day-to-day lives.

They're posting record profits while everyone's getting squeezed at the pump at the till. We need to find some balance, certainly when it comes to those that are having record profits, while everybody else is struggling to make ends meet more now than ever. So we wanna see some balance when it comes to how we talk with these issues.

So affordability, clearly the economy, those are really important, and the climate action we're seeing a warming climate. The impact on our environment, especially as coastal people, the impact on our oceans, these are things that are prevalent. We know it's driving up home insurance, business insurance.

It's affecting people right now in their day-to-day lives. So taking action on climate and coastal protection is always core to the values of Vancouver Islanders as they care so much about the ecology and the environment, and that's why we live in the greatest place in the world.

Peter McCully: Well, Gord, you've been a vocal advocate for affordable housing, which you just mentioned across the riding, and with those housing costs continuing to go up, are there specific federal measures that you'll be pushing for to address the crisis?

Gord Johns: Absolutely. And again, differentiating ourselves. We know that supply is an issue for sure. The Liberals and the Conservatives have relied on supply to solve an affordable housing issue for far too long. 33 years ago, the Chrétien government pulled us out of the National Housing strategy. We were building 25,000 non-market housing units a year.

With the 33-year gap, we plummeted down to only 3.4% of our housing stock is non-market housing. Compare that to, you know, France or Britain. They're about 17%. The Danes are at 21% and the Netherlands are at 34%. They don't have homelessness like we have. They don't have under-housed population like we have.

So clearly we need to balance things out and build more non-market housing. The province of BC's, building half of the non-market housing in Canada right now, and we need the federal government to step up and meet them where they're at. There's nowhere in the world that the supply has solved an affordable housing crisis.

It is non-market and government intervention that's gonna be key. We need to do both. It certainly needs to be a partnership with the private sector and the nonprofit sector, but we need to get back to building co-ops, non-market seniors housing geared to income housing. And we did see some of that happen in the last term.

We were able to leverage some of our power to be able to do that. And we're gonna have to do a lot more of that. So that's something that I'm looking forward to. And we have a new housing minister from British Columbia, and I know Gregor Robertson back to 1997. So I've had a friendship with him and we just met him before he found out he was even gonna be a minister.

So I'm hopeful he's got family that live in our riding that he's gonna be able to come to our riding, see some of the phenomenal opportunities. In Parksville, we've got the Lions Housing Society that's got a project that I know BC Housing's looking at, but maybe the federal government would want to get involved to make things move faster. At Cumberland, there's housing projects that are on hold, Denman Island all waiting for funding and so I think there's a fast track to be able to support some shovel-ready projects right now in our riding that would certainly alleviate a lot of pressure on people and certainly help with affordability when it comes to housing.

Peter McCully: You've been an advocate for a harm reduction approach to the opioid crisis, particularly in the fact that opioid deaths in the Alberni Valley are 50% higher than the provincial average. Are there new measures that you're proposing to address the ongoing crisis?

Gord Johns: Harm reduction certainly gets a lot of attention.

There are certain partisans that like to focus on that. I've always promoted a whole approach. I had a bill around that to make sure that we develop a plan as a country with a compassionate, integrated, coordinated approach. Kind of like what Portugal did, where they went from a hundred thousand chronic users down to 23,000.

They invested heavily in treatment and recovery, in prevention and education and harm reduction. And also they stopped criminalizing people who use substances, but they also see harm reduction as housing and employment. Right now we have this fragmented approach. We have not responded to it like the emergency that it is.

We spent about 1% of our overall spending that we did on COVID-19 in response to the toxic drug crisis. And we've lost more lives to toxic drugs than we have to COVID-19 now. It's clearly the stigma that's the barrier, and we need to treat this like a health emergency. Hey, the federal government has had a national summit on auto-theft and they still have not had a summit on the toxic drug crisis.

Clearly it is the stigma that is the barrier. And in terms of the Alberni Valley, we actually have seen a 60% drop in overdose deaths last year, over the year before this year, in the first quarter, we've had a significant drop again. So we are on the right track right now, but clearly there's huge gaps.

So I know Island Health has just put out to tender for detox, center stabilization in the Alberni Valley that will make a difference. The province has got also more beds for treatment, but we need it to be seamless. We need just-in-time or on-demand treatment and recovery beds ready for people when they're ready, and we need to make sure that we're supporting people, keeping them alive.

The United States has a higher death rate than Canada to toxic drugs. Washington State now has surpassed British Columbia, so has Alaska. We are seeing our toxic drug deaths dropping because some of the policies that the government's taken where we see our neighbors, where they're going up, they're going the wrong direction.

So there's a lot of work to be done, and I really hope that this government will look at how we're gonna pull together, push aside ideology, and let experts lead with evidence-based policy. That's what's needed. That's where they've had success around the world. And right now it's politicians that aren't experts, pushing their ideology, getting in the way of help for people that need it right now.

So I'll continue to bring forward solutions that are supported by police and law enforcement, supported by addiction specialists, supported by people with lived and living experience of people working on the ground. That's where I'm gonna look for my solutions.

Peter McCully: Gord, you mentioned infrastructure. Are there projects that you're focusing on bringing to the riding in this next term?

Gord Johns: Yeah, there's economic and there's local government infrastructure. So each community has different needs, and their needs are high. They're heavy. When I talk about even the Comox Valley, Cumberland, Courtenay, they both didn't get funded in the first round of the accelerator fund. They need that to build housing.

The cost overruns of all infrastructure now skyrocketing due to supply chains and lack of trades, cost of goods. So making sure that the government's flexible in how they support those projects as we move forward. I look at Parksville. We know that they're gonna be needing some water infrastructure so that they can continue to grow and build more housing and then support the local economy.

So these are things that we're doing. We've had a record amount of infrastructure investment since I got elected at a 12-fold increase with local governments alone year over year, versus when we had a Conservative member in Parliament in government. These are big infrastructure investments. We ended boil water advisories in the Comox Valley by creating water infrastructure there in sewage as well as out in the West Coast in Tofino.

Sewage was a big issue there for them and water in Ucluelet, and eliminated boil water advisories out in Bamfield by creating good water infrastructure so that Huu-ay-aht and Bamfield residents are not having to boil water, you know, whenever there's a rain that hits our community. And that's often, as you know. Lots of infrastructure needs, lots of demands coming, and really great economic development opportunities that are gonna require significant investment, but are gonna create stronger tax base, create more revenue for Ottawa, and strengthen our economy.

And you know, when we build housing, for example, you can't build it without sewage and water infrastructure. So that's critical. You have to have that first and foremost. Building housing obviously creates supply for workforce and for people coming into our communities. So everything's integrated and the local communities know what they need best and I'm working with them, whether it be local chief and council, or local mayor and council, or the regional district representatives.

And you know, everybody's got their different unique needs and always on the ground making sure that we listen to them.

Peter McCully: I think it's fair to say the NDP's supply and confidence agreement with the Liberal government was both praised for policy wins like dental care and primary care legislation, and criticized for tying the party too closely to the Liberals.

So in retrospect, do you believe the agreement was beneficial or detrimental to the NDP?

Gord Johns: Well, that's a good question and the question here is, I guess an ethical and values-based one. What I heard in 2021 on the doorstep, every door I hit was that people didn't want another election. You were like, "Why are you having an election? We just had one, two years ago," and this was from Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrat voters, Green voters across the spectrum. When we went back to Ottawa and we're like, "Hey, how do we continue to move forward? We know that we can't get some of these big huge policy wins unless we come up with some sort of formal agreement."

The experts came to us, looked at models around the world, and we talked to small minority parties that had done partnerships with governing parties, like in Germany and around the world. Basically they told us that there's gonna be a huge political cost if you do this. And so we knew heading into it, it's either we get big wins for people like PharmaCare and dental care, or we look at our own personal political gain.

As difficult as it is, it was unanimous that we were gonna choose people and getting help to people over our own political success and having big wins like dental care and PharmaCare. There was a sacrifice and that was losing seats, and that was just the reality of the result of what we did. And would we do it again?

I think every member of Parliament and that caucus would do it again. These are the biggest expansions in our healthcare system in over 50 years, and we get into politics not to get just reelected. We get into politics to help people and make a big difference in people's lives. And so these are huge changes that we've seen and significant gains.

Childcare, national school food lunch program, some additional affordable housing for Indigenous people. You know, lots of things that we did in the confidence supply agreement. Anti-scab legislation, paid sick days. It was a lot of work. It was really not fun to be tied to the Liberals. We're very unique in our belief system, so very challenging.

At the same time, we did make significant gains with the dental care and PharmaCare programs. I heard many people on the doorstep tell me how much they appreciated. I had a woman scream off her deck in San Pareil, you know, "Thank you Gord Johns for the dental care plan. I hadn't been to the dentist in years."

So that's the kind of stuff that I heard people even in tears telling me their stories.

Peter McCully: The NDP has fallen below the threshold for official party status, and there's been discussions about trying to change those rules. What reforms to parliamentary recognition would you be advocating for?

Gord Johns: Well, I think we're hearing from a large majority of Canadians, there's polling out right now that don't wanna see us have a two-party system like the United States.

They see the benefit of the NDP. I mean, we can look at our universal healthcare system as a result of it from Tommy Douglas to today with the initiatives we just brought forward, to paid sick days to weekends and CPP affordable housing that started in 1972. The NDP in 92 built a lot of the non-market housing stock that we have today.

That's a result of the NDP. That's a result of minority governments where we held a balance of power. I think that it's really important that we don't go to a two-party system. I think a lot of the Canadian values that we have today are at stake if we do that. And I think people are gonna notice when there's only seven New Democrats in Parliament

compared to the norm and without federal party status. So they'll notice it by the fact that we're not gonna be able to have some of the same opportunities we had in the past. However, I'm really confident the seven of us are really strong members of Parliament with strong track records of making sure that our voices are heard, and I'm confident we're gonna be able to do that.

At the same time, I think that there does need to be some allowances, and certainly those are conversations we're gonna have to have with the other political parties. I don't think you'll find a Conservative or a Liberal or even a member of the Bloc or the Green Party that doesn't think that the NDP doesn't belong in Parliament.

And I've been able to work with people from across political lines. I went to Washington once with the Canada-US Parliamentary Group. I was with Wayne Easter. He is a well-known former MP and he said, "You know, we agree on 90% of these issues and we need to work better on those 90%, but the 10%, it's really important, the role we play in our differences in advocating for our differences."

And I think that's really real. And I think that's something I'm really proud of in our parliamentary system in Canada, that we have more than two parties and we have different views and voices and that swings things into balance. Many times we are known as being the adult in the room in Parliament and the conscience of Parliament.

We really believe with New Democrats that people have a seat at the table and that's something they're gonna certainly see. When I'm there, we're gonna have a strong voice and I'm gonna be the messenger for the people of Courtney-Alberni and we're gonna be able to move the dial on many different issues.

Peter McCully: Gord, the NDP are going to be holding a leadership convention at some point to select a new leader. Would you consider putting your name forward as a leadership candidate given your experience and success in maintaining support in the riding?

Gord Johns: No, and it's really a simple answer. It is very difficult to represent the riding that's the farthest west.

It's a rural riding. We just went from 31 communities to 34 communities. It would dilute the effort that I need to do to support the people of our community and our riding, and I'm not willing to do that. I don't wanna sacrifice anything for that. And now I'm the only NDP seat on Vancouver Island.

So you know, I've got a bit more work to do and like work to get out and make sure that Vancouver Islanders have a strong voice. I think my work's cut out for me and my priorities are on Vancouver Island. Certainly I care about all of Canada, but I'm not willing to sacrifice that important work that I'm committed to.

But I do appreciate that many people have reached out about that. And again, I'm very humbled when people ask.

Peter McCully: Gord, thanks for taking time out of your busy, busy day somewhere between Nanaimo or Courtenay, or out in Tofino or maybe even Ottawa to chat with us.

Gord Johns: Peter, thanks a lot. Really appreciate it. To all the listeners out there, thank you so much for those that supported me, and to those that didn't, I'm here to serve you.

I'm excited to serve you. We got a lot of work in front of us. I can't do it without you, so please reach out. Really appreciate your ideas, your thoughts, your optimism, and certainly bringing forward your challenges so that we can do everything we can to fix the problems that you might be facing or fill the gaps.

Dave Graham: Our thanks to Gord Johns for being part of the Pulse community. The recent election left Mr. Johns with the one and only NDP seat in all of the island. No doubt he will be leading an interesting life for some time to come. As for us, our time is dwindling. Just about time to hit the cafeteria for Mabel's special to date.

Well, I guess the answer to my question about Victoria as to why we get a holiday in her honor is that in 1845, the legislature of the province of Canada established a holiday on her birthday, May 24th. Well, there you go then. And then when she passed away in 1901, the Parliament of Canada passed an act establishing May 24th as a legal holiday.

We'll, and on the evening of May 24th in this year, 2025, Qualicum Beach will be hosting a fireworks show. They say it will be the last one, and if there's a show next year, it will have to be an alternative to fireworks. I don't know what that means. There will also be fireworks July 1st in Campbell River, August 4th in Comox, August 15th in Powell River, and finally August 16th in Parksville on the closing weekend of Beach Fest. Oh Peter, I just had a thought. Yes. Mabel isn't planning anything to observe the occasion of Victoria's birthday, is she like, I don't know, serving food that was popular in England a couple hundred years ago? I do not want to eat jellied eels and she can't make me well.

Peter McCully: Coffee cake was invented in the 1800s.

Dave Graham: Oh, well maybe we'll be okay then.

Peter McCully: Also popular back then: apple pie, butter tarts, hot chocolate.

Dave Graham: I'll save you a seat.

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peter and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.