Liberal Party of Canada's Patrick Weiler has served as the member of parliament for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country since 2019.
He has served on numerous committees during his time as MP, including as chair of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and Fisheries and Oceans, among others.
Previously, Weiler was an environmental lawyer.
The Squamish Chief caught up with the West Vancouver resident by phone while he was in between all-candidates debates, for a wide-ranging discussion about his experience, what is at stake this election, the change to Mark Carney as leader, and what he thinks is getting lost in this election campaign.
What follows is a version of that conversation edited for length and clarity.
Q: How does this campaign compare with the others you've been through? It seems like a very different time from previous elections.
A: Yeah, this campaign does feel very different. I'd say more than in the last two campaigns, people are really focused on what's happening around the world and what that means for Canada. So, obviously, with U.S. President Donald Trump coming in and the threats to our sovereignty, it's really brought Canadians together in a way that I've never seen before in my lifetime. And I think it's really motivated people about what we can do to strengthen our country. How do we become more resilient in a very uncertain world? And so people are very focused on that. I mean, you see the Canadian flags flying everywhere. And people are very motivated this election, and I'm fairly confident that's going to lead to a very high voter turnout, which I think is very important to our democracy.
Q: You have attended a few all-candidates debates in different communities within our riding during this campaign, and you have been door-knocking.
What are you hearing are people's main concerns, and are they different in different regions of the riding?
A: I'd say there are differences between each community, but the top-level thing, just given the global context and our sovereignty being put under threat, that is foremost in people's minds. And how do we strengthen our country? How do we protect Canadians? That is the cross-cutting theme throughout. I would say another cross-cutting theme is how we're going to tackle housing affordability because that's an issue throughout the riding. Likewise, transportation challenges, the need for regional transit in the Sea to Sky, is very much top of mind. Ferries are always a big issue on the Sunshine Coast, and congestion and the need for transit on the North Shore. Different localized infrastructure issues come up. But it always strikes me how similar the challenges and priorities are for folks, even if they metastasize differently.
Q: I think everyone who knows you would agree that you've worked hard for your constituents. You're everywhere, all the time. But when I am interviewing people, many are really struggling and don't feel like they're better off than they were, say, four years ago, or eight years ago. So, what do you say to that?
A: I think affordability is a really key issue, and one that the federal government needs to play a strong role in. You know, we talked earlier about the issue of housing affordability, which is probably top of mind for many folks, particularly younger constituents. That is an issue that I take to heart. It's many folks that are in my generation, and so this has to be a big priority for the federal government. It's not like the Conservatives who want to scrap all the work that the federal government's doing on getting affordable housing built and ending the partnerships with municipalities that are speeding up their permitting, and cutting funding for groups like the Squamish Community Housing Society. The government needs to play a strong role to do its part to fight the affordability crisis, and housing is right at the top of that. The Liberal Party has a strong plan to do that, and it's invested about $272 million into affordable housing in our riding since 2019, that's making a big difference for a lot of folks. I hear it when I talk to folks that are living in some of this below-market housing, they tell me how life-changing it is. And so what that really means to me is we need to continue to move down this path of tackling these issues, rather than just saying that the free market is going to solve all of it. This has to be a key focus, whether that's on housing or other cost-of-living issues, and that's feedback that I take to heart every time I hear that from folks.
Q: What are you most proud of that you've been able to accomplish, maybe specifically in Squamish in this last term?
A: I think really the key is on building strong relationships, whether that's with the municipality, whether that's the business community, or whether that's the nonprofit to help them achieve their objectives and goals. That's been something I've been working on since I was elected in 2019.
Some of the most exciting projects are some of the big investments in affordable housing, whether that's affordable rentals in the SEAandSky project, whether that's with PearlSpace for women who are fleeing domestic violence.
It is investments in things like $10 a day child care, which are so, so critical, and we need much more of it in Squamish. Those are the things that are already making a big difference that we need to do more of. And then, looking ahead, what are the big solutions that we need going forward? And I'd say regional transit is right at the top of the list, and the federal government needs to play a role in that, just as we have in funding transit through an announcement I did with BC Transit about a month ago.
Q. The last times you ran were obviously, under Justin Trudeau, and you were part of the push to have a new leader. So, how do you see it as being different in this next term, under Mark Carney, than it's been the last two in terms of what you can accomplish?
A: I'd say that there was a clear desire for change from a former prime minister. That's something I heard about fairly consistently, and frankly, to a certain extent, even in the last election, those calls really amplified in the years after that. And it was clear that that desire had really grown, and so obviously this was something that I take to heart as someone who listens to my constituents and is willing to stand up for what they want to see.
And it is a big change with Mark Carney. He's someone who I've long held in very high regard for what he's done for Canada, for Britain, for the world, and he is uniquely qualified for the situation that we're in right now, where we need a steady hand at the wheel.
Someone who has navigated our country through a crisis who knows how to build strong companies and an economy, and that's what we're going to need to do right now. We have to reconsider what Canada's economy is going to look like, knowing that we can't rely on the United States.
The other thing is, I've seen a very different relationship from the leader and the prime minister's office. He is much more in tune with what members of parliament have to say. And frankly, I've had more conversations with Mark Carney in the last four months than I had with Justin Trudeau in the previous five years. And so there is a level of engagement and being attuned to the local issues there, and you're starting to see that in the policy announcements. And a lot of things that I know, personally, I've advocated for for some time, are becoming commitments that we're making in this campaign. And I'm very, very pleased to see that level of engagement because it shows Mark Carney is in tune with what's happening right across the country.
Q: Is there anything that is getting lost in this campaign that you would like to point out or stress for our readers?
A: When we're talking about some issues that maybe haven't had as much focus in this election, one that really sticks out to me is the ongoing fight against the climate crisis. We can see the increasing impacts every day, every year. And this is something that I haven't lost sight of, and something that our government hasn't lost sight of. We're committed to meeting our climate targets. We're committed to bringing in a cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, and committed to growing the green economy that is going to power Canada and the global economy going forward. But it stands in stark contrast to what we're seeing coming south of the border; it is a huge opportunity for us to do more and to get a lot of the investment that was going to the United States.
And it stands in stark contrast to what we're seeing from the Conservative Party that wants to completely abandon the fight on climate change which would weaken our country and would actually lead other countries, like the European Union, to bring in tariffs on us, and we really need to maintain that free market access when it's being jeopardized from south of the border.
Learn more about Weiler and his campaign on the Liberal website
Other candidates include Peyman Askari of the People's Party of Canada; Lauren Greenlaw of the Green Party of Canada; Keith Roy, of the Conservative Party of Canada; Jäger Rosenberg of the New Democratic Party; and Gordon Jeffrey of the Parti Rhinocéros Party.
