BC United has chosen their candidate to run in North Vancouver-Seymour in this fall’s provincial election.
The party named lifelong North Vancouver resident James Mitchell to the position in a release this week.
Professionally, Mitchell works as a consultant for Santis Health, a public affairs firm that lobbies on behalf of clients and non-profits in the health care field.
As a volunteer, Mitchell has served the Rotary Club of North Vancouver, the Seymour Community Association, MONOVA and the District of North Vancouver Public Library Board, of which he is currently the vice-president.
Mitchell has a history of activism in politics as well, working as an organizer and campaigner. He also served as a B.C. advisor to former federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“I think this was actually just the next step,” Mitchell said of his decision to run. “I believe in having a free enterprise coalition party. I believe in Kevin Falcon. He’s got great experience from serving as minister of finance and minister of health and he has a great vision for the province.”
On the campaign trail, Mitchell said you can expect to hear lot of messaging from him about the state of health care on the North Shore, transportation and pocketbook issues, which are only getting worse.
“In North Vancouver, we’ve got the longest wait times in all of Canada for access to a walk-in clinic – over three hours. We’ve got, as everyone knows, serious transportation infrastructure challenges. Traffic on the North Shore is a major challenge. And then, cost of living – everything is more and more expensive,” he said.
The parties have not yet revealed their full platform of promises, but Mitchell drew attention to BC United’s housing plan, which includes removing the property transfer tax for homes valued under $1 million, eliminating the PST on new residential construction and using public lands for affordable housing.
The North Vancouver-Seymour riding was a reliable safe seat for the BC Liberals until current NDP MLA Susie Chant defeated incumbent Jane Thornthwaite in 2020, winning the riding for the NDP for the first time in 49 years.
The NDP currently holds a large lead in most recent polls, with some showing the B.C. Conservatives passing BC United for second place. But Mitchell said he sees the election as a contest between David Eby’s vision and Falcon’s vision.
“I’m just going focus on the issues that our campaign and our party are running on – the issues that I’m hearing about at the door being important,” he said.
