Four NDP leadership hopefuls have visited the Coast since Thomas Mulcair first arrived in Roberts Creek on Dec. 7.
Brian Topp came to Roberts Creek to meet party members on Feb. 17, and most recently, Peggy Nash held a meet-and-greet in Gibsons, Feb. 22. Paul Dewar was also on hand on Feb. 1.
I think that Jack [Layton] paid so much attention to this part of the world and realized he's got a lot of NDP voters up here, said NDP riding association president Charles Burns.
According to Burns, the riding has approximately 600 members, and visits from the leadership hopefuls have offered the chance to help swell the party rank.
Feb. 18 was the deadline for people to sign up and still be eligible to vote for their pick as the party's next leader, Burns said.
We go back a long way in the party, Burns said, describing the various NDP connections that have allowed the association to have their requests heard by the candidates.
Getting Mulcair to the Coast as early as they did also helped justify their cause when approaching the campaign organizers for Dewar, Topp and Nash.
While the deadline is passed for people to sign up and be eligible to vote in the race, Burns said the association is hopeful that more candidates will show up in the area before the fated March 23 to 24 leadership convention in Toronto.
As many as 90 residents attended the Mulcair speech, around 50 came to see Dewar and 80 came to hear Topp, Burns said.
The Nash meet-and-greet packed a Gibsons coffee shop and was a more intimate event that saw roughly 20 people in attendance.
Burns hinted that Nathan Cullen might also make the trek, a possibility that would bring the number to five of the current slate of seven who have come to the Coast to speak and meet with party supporters.
British Columbia has approximately 38,700 party members, many of whom are in Victoria and Vancouver.
They go there, of course, but there's also a good chunk of votes up here. That was one of the reasons they came, Burns suspected.
As party president and a venture capitalist, Topp is hoping the fact that he doesn't currently hold a seat will not hold him back in March.
Topp's primary concern, he said, is inequality amongst Canadians.
The lowest corporate tax rate in the western world makes absolutely no sense and is a key part of breaking the government, he said. They can't prove that a single job has been created by the tax cuts.
Nash can be described as a social democrat, one who said that job creation is the heart of her campaign.
Poverty level wages are keeping families below water, she said, outlining how she felt social programs like national child care could be good for the economy. That's because you're putting more people to work. Parents can go to work because their kids [are in childcare] you're hiring childcare workers, you're creating facilities. That's a good economic decision.
