With Gord Johns re-elected in Courtenay – Alberni, Courtenay and Cumberland mayors offer their thoughts.
On Monday night’s federal election, NDP Incumbent Johns won the riding with 31,612 votes, over 4,000 more votes than Conservative candidate Kris McNichol who had 27,602 votes.
Cumberland mayor Vickey Brown says she’s glad to see Gord re-elected as he has shown support to the community in the past through investments in infrastructure.
“We know Gord has our back, and we know his values are aligned with our community so it’s a very good working relationship between us,” said Brown.
“It’s going to be challenging for him with so few members of his party going back to the house, but in my experience, he is a collaborative leader, so I think it puts him in a good position to work with whoever forms government and how it is formed.”
Brown says for a smaller community like Cumberland, infrastructure investment is needed as the community is growing, with hopes Johns can continue providing support as member of parliament.
For housing, she hopes the federal Liberal’s commitment to a housing fund can provide money to affordable housing development. When it comes to the toxic drug crisis, she says a multi-pronged approach including harm reduction, treatment beds, and safe supply is needed to solve the crisis.
Courtenay mayor Bob Wells says with Johns re-elected, he hopes Johns can leverage the work he’s already done and help tackle the ongoing issues of tariffs and threats to Canadian Sovereignty.
He also says one thing that can be useful to help with housing is having standardized approaches.
“You can have pre-approved plans, so if there’s grant funding through CMHC or other sources, not only would they have these funds available, there’s also actual plans that are ready to go to speed up housing development,” said Johns.
“It’s really about making sure Ottawa is listening to communities across Canada.”
