The BC Green Party is halting all public engagement tours the same day the World Health Organization officially called the Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic
B.C. Green Cowichan Valley MLA, Sonia Furstenau cancelled her public visit to the Interior which would have passed through Ymir on March 13, 2020 and Nelson the next day.
“It’s out of an abundance of caution and also direction from the WHO and Health Canada,” said Furstenau. “And I just listened to the provincial health officer Bonnie Henry give her update today… and she is really asking people to lean into the social distancing. So we’re in agreement that it’s probably time to put public health absolutely first.”
Fursteneau was about to begin a campaign as leadership candidate for the BC Green Party and she says this decision to not tour wasn’t solely hers.
“The party itself sent out an email requesting not just the leadership campaign events but all AGMs and any other public events be cancelled or put off at this point,” said Furstenau.
The BC Green Party will likely not be alone in this decision according to Furstenau, “I have from MLAs in other parties that they were cancelling events as well.”
The BC government is a coalition between the NDP and Green parties. Furstenau shared her thoughts on how COVID-19 is being handled in the province.
“I have nothing but praise by how this is being handled by the government. I would also say that across party lines, we all recognize that some things rise above any kind of partisan levels and this is one of them,” Furstenau added. “And we agree fully that we put the health of British Columbians ahead of anything at this point. I’m really appreciative of all three political parties in the legislature and their approach to this.”
Ultimately, the decision to not tour the Interior did not come lightly to Furstenau.
“I was so looking forward to my trip! I’ve been to Nelson three times since 2017. I very much enjoy meeting up with people, and of course, there’s a lot of issues all over the Province. When I travel to communities, what I recognize is that we all share the same fundamental goals. That’s to have security, safe and clean drinking water, food security and economic security. That’s what I was going to be engaging with in our first plank of our platform.”