Victoria, B.C. – After the historic provincial election which took almost two months to resolve, the NDP has officially taken power in British Columbia.
John Horgan was sworn in as British Columbia’s 36th Premier along with his cabinet at Government House on Tuesday and the IAM was honoured to be there. “We’re excited, this marks the first day of a new BC government that will work hard for all working people,” said a pleased Walter Gerlach, IAM District Lodge 250 Directing Business Representative.
“We promised a new kind of government; a government that is caring, a government that listens and a government that shares information in the interest of all British Columbians,” said Horgan to the hundreds of family members and friends in attendance. “I was honoured to be invited by John,” explained Gerlach. “It’s recognition of the Machinists members for all of their hard work on behalf of the party. We have an authentic relationship with John and the Party. This isn’t something that just fell off the back of a truck, this has taken time and a lot of hard work to develop this new bond.”
Gerlach was referring to the ‘Machinists Vote’ program, an initiative which allows IAM members to obtain time release from their work place to volunteer to conduct member-to-member outreach on behalf of the party as well as volunteering to work on behalf of individual candidates. “We’re very proud of the ‘Machinist Vote’ program,” explained Gerlach. “We had an 82 per cent success rate in electing NDP candidates in ridings targeted by the program.”
