The West Coast’s freshly re-elected MLA Scott Fraser hopes Ucluelet’s municipal council won’t be such a stranger during his fourth term as their provincial representative.
As was reported in the Westerly News, several councillors believe communication between themselves and Fraser needs to improve with Coun. Mayco Noel suggesting Fraser had offered “zero reach out” to Ucluelet’s current council.
After hearing Ucluelet’s concerns, Fraser told the Westerly that communication is a “two-way street,” and Ucluelet is the only community in his riding that hasn’t invited him to speak to their current local government.
“I do what I can and what I’m asked to do. I don’t force myself on anyone. I haven’t been invited to a council meeting with the current [Ucluelet] mayor and council,” he said. “I’d love to go to a council meeting and meet with mayor and council. I’m a phone call away. I generally don’t push myself on a mayor and council. I usually get invited because there’s issues they want to raise with me and then I go. I always go.”
He said Ucluelet’s past councils invited him to meetings as well as events like the Pacific Rim Whale Festival and the Edge to Edge Marathon, but the current council has not.
Fraser and Ucluelet have more time to improve their relationship as the NDP MLA, who has represented the West Coast since 2005, earned a fourth term decisively on May 9
He said he was thrilled to retain the job he loves.
“I’ve got the best job in the world representing the best riding in the province. It’s fantastic,” he said. “We’ve got a great variety of people and issues.”
He hardly had time to celebrate though as the contested race for who would form government played out on television and he realized a final answer to who the province’s next premiere would be wouldn’t come overnight. That answer still hadn’t come on May 22 as absentee ballots and potential recounts still hung in the air.
“All eyes are on Courtenay-Comox, there’s no question,” he said of the riding that saw NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard beat out the Liberal’s Jim Benninger by nine votes. If absentee ballots, which began being counted on Monday, swing to Benninger, the Liberals would achieve 44 seats and a majority government.
Fraser inherited several left-leaning communities from the Courtenay-Comox riding, that the province’s eyes are on, when the electoral map was redrawn in 2015 and Fraser’s Alberni-Pacific Rim riding was re-dubbed Mid Island – Pacific Rim.
His new riding welcomed former Courtenay–Comox constituencies Denman Island, Hornby Island, Fanny Bay, Buckley Bay and Cumberland.
Despite those communities’ NDP leanings—Cumberland’s 2013 provincial election score was 613 NDP, 305 Liberal, 143 Green Party. Hornby Island’s was 389 NDP, 105 Green Party, 60 Liberal. Denman Island’s was 467 NDP, 99 Green Party and 83 Liberal—Fraser actually lobbied against the change after speaking to Cumberland’s mayor who expressed concerns around separating her communities from neighbours Courtenay and Comox.
He said his efforts didn’t bear fruit because the now-former Alberni–Pacific Rim riding was underpopulated by about 20 per cent and the Courtenay-Comox riding was overpopulated by roughly the same amount and the electoral commission had a representation by population mandate to uphold.
If Leonard’s nine-vote lead holds, it will be Fraser’s first experience with a minority government system and he said it could bring needed collaboration to the table.
“I think there’s potential for a cooperative form of government. It’s very adversarial in there right now because the Liberals essentially ignore everything that everyone else says and just do whatever they want. Really, you cant have any meaningful input with this government,” he said.
“In a minority government, there’s a requirement for some cooperation. Otherwise, whoever’s governing can’t hold the vote. So you have to listen to the other elected members with respect.
Everyone in that place, no matter what party they’re from, is elected by the public and that has to be respected not dismissed.”
Fraser looks likely to hold a vital role for the NDP regardless of how the final vote numbers fall as, he said, NDP leader John Horgan has asked him to serve as the party’s whip.
“We make sure that we run as a mean, clean, well-oiled machine as a caucus. We make sure that people are where they need to be,” Fraser said of the whip position.
“If it’s a razor-thin majority, or a statistical tie, or you’re only ahead by one seat, you can lose government by losing a vote because you don’t have enough people in the room…It’s a huge challenge when there’s no room for error and there won’t be. Whoever forms government, one seat, maybe two seats, will make the difference. So, if two people are sick and there’s a vote being called, the government could fall.”