Saanich News
Election Wrap SAANICH SOUTH: Popham pledges push for light rail
By Keith Vass - Saanich News
Published: May 14, 2009 2:00 PM
Updated: May 14, 2009 2:18 PM
Lana Popham wasn’t quite ready to believe the result until the last poll was counted.
“I needed to see my name with that check mark beside it and that didn’t happen until 11:30,” said the newly-elected Saanich South MLA, the morning after voters chose her to represent the riding by a narrow margin of 413 votes over her nearest challenger, Liberal candidate Robin Adair.
The close result, in which Popham claimed 47 per cent of ballots cast, made a point she says she’ll take with her to the legislature.
“For me, the message was I’d better work hard for these guys because they put their faith in me last night and I’m not going to let them down.”
Over at McMorran’s Beach house in Cordova Bay, a crowd of more than 200 Adair supporters felt the highs and lows of watching their candidate’s numbers flirt with the lead. During one 30-minute stretch, the running tally went from showing Popham leading by 400 votes, to Adair pulling ahead by 200 and then back to Popham in the lead.
“Everybody said this was going to be a very close race and they were right,” Adair told the crowd when he appeared onstage to concede defeat and thank his team just after 11 p.m.
Adair told reporters his plan now is to return to his communications consulting business.
But he added the community may have had a better shot at winning government infrastructure investments if they’d elected a government member.
“I don’t know how effective (Popham) will be in getting the kind of infrastructure money to Saanich South that (it) needs for overpasses or roadways or buildings or other things it needs,” he said.
Popham countered by saying she will go the legislature as part of a chorus of voices, including community groups and South Island municipalities, calling on the province to invest in light rail transit for the region.
“We may have gotten an overpass if (Adair) was elected ... but I don’t think that’s one of the projects we need,” she said.
Popham will wait to learn if she will be selected for an official critic’s role in the NDP opposition. But the organic vineyard and winery owner said she would like to be considered for the agricultural critic’s job left open by retiring NDP MLA Corky Evans.
She has leased her land and winery to other producers, enabling her to focus on her new job as an MLA, she said.
“But I’m a farmer at heart so I hope I’m able to spend some of my time with that. I also have a 10-year-old son who I need to spend time with,” Popham said.
“It’ll be a challenge, finding the right balance, but I can do it, I’m sure. I’ve got endless energy.”
kvass@vicnews.com
Saanich South results
X Lana Popham, NDP - 11,141 47.11%
Robin Adair, Lib - 10,728 45.37%
Brian Gordon, Green - 1,551 6.56%
Doug Christie, WCC - 228 0.96%
Results aren’t considered official until Elections B.C. conducts a final count May 25.
Saanich South electoral history
2009 - Lana Popham (NDP)
2005 - David Cubberley (NDP)
2001 - Susan Brice (Lib)
1996 - Andrew Petter (NDP)
1991 - Andrew Petter (NDP)
The riding was created in 1990 after the previous two-member riding of Saanich and the Islands was divided in two.
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for the Provincial Constituency of Saanich South, Victoria, B.C.
- Lana Popham
- Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Elected as a Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for the Constituency of Saanich South on May 12, 2009. New Democratic Opposition Critic for the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. Raised on Quadra Island and has an undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia. Extensive track record as a community leader, advocate and environmental activist.
Community History
- Member of the Legislative Assembly of B.C., 2009-
- Planning Transportation & Economic Development Committee - Saanich
- Peninsula Agricultural Commission - Commissioner
- Island Organic Producers Association - Chair of the Certification Committee
- Agri-Food Initiative Advisory Committee
- Central Saanich Little League - Treasurer
- Brentwood Elementary School - Compost Committee
Visit me on Facebook!
There is more to me than plastic bags.....
Nomination
SAANICH – Lana Popham, local business owner and community activist, was nominated on March 8th in Saanich South as the New Democrat candidate for the May 12 provincial election.
“I’ve spent my whole life speaking up, speaking out and speaking for things I believe in,” Popham told over 100 supporters today.
Popham said she is looking forward to holding Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberals to account by running in the May election with Carole James and the New Democrats.
“Gordon Campbell is not in the business of representing communities, he’s not in the business of representing you or me – he’s in the business of mis-representing our interests,” said Popham. “I am proud to be from Saanich and have the experience and drive to take our community’s concerns to the Legislature.”
Popham owns and operates The Barking Dog Vineyard - a successful Saanich small business and the first Certified Organic Vineyard on Vancouver Island – and is currently chair of the Certification Committee for Island Organic Producers Association and past President of the Vancouver Island Grape Growers Association. She’s a member of Saanich’s Planning Transportation & Economic Development Committee and is an active parent at her son’s school.
Popham’s “Think Outside the Bag” campaign has been a very successful on the ground environmental initiative that encourages people to switch to reusable bags.
With the support of her husband Jon, a firefighter for Oak Bay, and their 10 year old son, Popham is already campaigning to win a seat in the Legislature on May 12.
Books I love.....
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs
- In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
- The Geography of Nowhere - James Howard Kunstler
- Heat :How to stop the planet from burning - George Monbiot
- The Long Emergency - James Howard Kunstler
- Urban Meltdown - Clive Doucet
- Home From Nowhere - James Howard Kunstler
- Urban Nation - Alan Broadbent
- The Economies of Cities - Jane Jacobs
- Dark Age Ahead - Jane Jacobs
- Farmageddon - Brewster kneen
Michael Pollan
Climate Change
Some interesting letters I have received:
Hi,
I listened to the discussion on the radio about plastic bags this morning. Seven years ago, when I immigrated to Canada from Germany I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw how plastic bags are used here. Back in Germany we’ve charge for them for years and it is normal to use baskets and cotton bags. Also, most stores have a corner where they pile up the boxes they receive the goods in and people are free to use them. Plastic bags are completely out and you almost feel bad if you have to buy one.
We are so behind here and it is truly just a question of habit, not convenience. I am glad there are signs that things will become more environmentally friendly over here.
Carola Daffner
Dear Lana
I wholeheartedly support your campaign to ban disposable plastic bags and wonder, since they have caused such harm to so much of our environment and promise to do so way into the future, why they were presented for general use and why were we allowed ... encouraged? ... to use them in the first place. Someone must have known!
I live in View Royal where concern has prompted the town's use of bio-degradable dog litter bags and now also, more recently, some action toward using bio-degradable plastic garbage bags. Are they really bio-degradable and part of a solution?
More questions:( rhetorical, since I don't expect replies..you are busy enough)
Is recycling of soft plastic available in the CRD? Presumably, not. Do you know why? What really has been happening to the grocery bags that we have been returning in good faith to the grocery stores?
Thank you for your caring and dedication
Andria
I listened to the discussion on the radio about plastic bags this morning. Seven years ago, when I immigrated to Canada from Germany I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw how plastic bags are used here. Back in Germany we’ve charge for them for years and it is normal to use baskets and cotton bags. Also, most stores have a corner where they pile up the boxes they receive the goods in and people are free to use them. Plastic bags are completely out and you almost feel bad if you have to buy one.
We are so behind here and it is truly just a question of habit, not convenience. I am glad there are signs that things will become more environmentally friendly over here.
Carola Daffner
Dear Lana
I wholeheartedly support your campaign to ban disposable plastic bags and wonder, since they have caused such harm to so much of our environment and promise to do so way into the future, why they were presented for general use and why were we allowed ... encouraged? ... to use them in the first place. Someone must have known!
I live in View Royal where concern has prompted the town's use of bio-degradable dog litter bags and now also, more recently, some action toward using bio-degradable plastic garbage bags. Are they really bio-degradable and part of a solution?
More questions:( rhetorical, since I don't expect replies..you are busy enough)
Is recycling of soft plastic available in the CRD? Presumably, not. Do you know why? What really has been happening to the grocery bags that we have been returning in good faith to the grocery stores?
Thank you for your caring and dedication
Andria