RIDING PROFILE: North Shore

NORTH VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Four ridings span the North Shore region – North Vancouver-Seymour, North Vancouver Lonsdale, West Vancouver-Capilano and West Vancouver-Sea to Sky – and all have long been BC Liberal strongholds.

Not surprisingly, transportation is one of the biggest issues in an area where the daily commute usually involves one of two backed up bridges.

“It’s a big deal, regardless of what mode of transport you take,” says Brent Richter, a journalist with the North Shore News.

“Vehicle traffic is the most visible one, or it gets the most attention. The Cut [on Highway One] backs up to Westview pretty much every day, and so do all the feeder routes, especially in the afternoon. That’s mostly due to the number of people who commute to the North Shore for work going up by 14 per cent in the past few years,” says Richter, who directly links that increase to housing affordability.

“I think most [candidates] acknowledge that the reason there are so many people getting onto the highway to come work is here is because they can’t afford to live here.”

Richter says that has pushed the commute past a tipping point when it comes to how much the highway can handle.

“There is a $200 million improvement project underway to redo all of the interchanges at the north end of the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge, but even the people behind that project admit it is not going to solve the problem.”

Liberal incumbent Jane Thornthwaite in North Vancouver-Seymour has made traffic congestion on the approaches to the crossing one of her main focuses. While neither NDP candidate Michael Rene Charrois nor Green candidate Joshua Johnston have made explicit promises regarding bridge traffic, there has been a lot of talk about transit.

“If you put it into a bigger context, you hear a lot about transit. The NDP are committed to working with the mayors to see that the transit expansions that they have in mind actually come to fruition. The Greens are also banging that drum. Although, we’ve heard recently that the Liberals would require another referendum from the mayors if they wanted to create a new form of tax to fund their 20 per cent,” Richter explains.
Transportation is also a hot topic in the West Vancouver ridings, with increasing back-ups for the Lions Gate Bridge a daily irritant.

“It’s one of the worst bottlenecks around and there are no plans on anyone’s radar to replace it with anything wider so we are kind of stuck with it. Squamish is one of the fastest growing communities in the country and that means a lot more workers hitting the road and heading for that bridgehead. It’s an issue on that side of the region as well,” Richter says.

While capturing the commuter’s vote may be one of the keys to the North Shore, housing, jobs, healthcare, the Trans Mountain pipeline to Burrard Inlet, and the proposed Woodfibre LNG export facility in Howe Sound are also hot button issues for the region.

North Shore Ridings

North Vancouver-Seymour
(population 58,120)
Candidates:
Joshua Johnson, Green
Michael Rene Charrois, NDP
Jane Thornthwaite, Liberal (incumbent)
Clayton Welwood, Libertarian

North Vancouver-Lonsdale
(population 48,924)
Bowinn Ma, NDP
Richard Warrington, Green
Donald N.S. Wilson, Libertarian
Naomi Yamamoto, Liberal (incumbent)

West Vancouver-Capilano
(population 49,000)
Michael Markwick, Green
Mehdi Russel, NDP
Ralph Sultan, Liberal (incumbent)

West Vancouver-Sea to Sky
(population 52,563)
Michael Cambridge, Libertarian
Tristan Andrew Galbraith, Independent
Michelle Lavaja, NDP
Jordan Sturdy, Liberal (incumbent)
Dana Moore Taylor, Green

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