Vancouver, BC – During the day, IAM members are knocking door-to-door in target ridings and in the evening they’re manning phone banks drumming up support for the NDP as the B C provincial Election Day of May 9th draws closer.
“People are happy to see unions getting involved in this election,” said volunteer Rick Singh, President of IAM Local Lodge 16. “We’re calling this a Machinist Vote and we’re trying to grow the brand,” explains IAM District Lodge 250 Secretary Treasurer Cordell Draayers.
The IAM is concentrating on target ridings from the last election where the difference between winning and losing was a few hundred votes or less. “We’re pushing hard in those ridings with door-to-door and phone banks in an effort to push the NDP over the top,” said Draayers. “We’re also concentrating on close ridings we won the last time to ensure that we keep them.”
A late April opinion poll gave the NDP under John Horgan a ten point lead over the incumbent Liberals of Premier Christy Clark. Clark’s popularity is at an all-time low of just 26 per cent.
“I think people are beginning to connect the dots regarding Liberal promises and Clark’s voting history on key issues like education,” explains IAM District Lodge 250 Directing Business Representative Walter Gerlach. “People want change and it’s reflected in the increasing number of NDP signs popping up everywhere.”
Voting in advanced polls over the weekend was heavy and the Machinists are encouraging all of their members in British Columbia to exercise their right and vote.
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