Coast Reporter sent a Q&A out to each of the six West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country candidates for the 2025 election. The candidates include Jäger Rosenberg, Peyman Askari, Gordon Jeffrey, Patrick Weiler, Keith Roy and Lauren Greenlaw. Election day is April 28. See more at elections.ca.
Name: Gordon Jeffrey
Party: Rhinoceros Party of Canada
Do you live in the riding? Where and for how long? I've lived up and down the Sea-to-Sky, primarily in Whistler, for over a decade.
Social media: facebook.com/BCRhinoParty
Why are you running in this election? Because there is no "none of the above" option on the ballot.
How can the federal government help mental health and addictions support and recovery on the Sunshine Coast? The government has been doing a great job to increase mental health issues and addictions through the affordability and housing crises, and allowing tons of fentanyl to slip through a massively underfunded CBSA. We can start there.
How would your party help address the need for affordable housing? We're going to steal the Liberal plan to protect the assets of the wealthy by not building enough homes in order to keep prices high, then mass import immigrants to keep demand high and wages low. We will make ghettos for the lowly working class to squabble over.
How will your party fight climate change? We will turn the USA and China (the largest emissions producers globally) into the 4th and 5th Canadian territories, thus subjecting them to our environmental regulations.
There are more than 7,000 Sunshine Coast residents without doctors, on the federal side, what's your party's plan to support health care? The focus will remain on funneling as many tax dollars as possible to the friends and family of the party in power. There likely will not be enough tax dollars left to fix healthcare, so we will increase recommendations of MAID for those with serious health issues.
Amid rising economic uncertainty, small businesses are hurting. How does your party propose to support them? We will follow in the footsteps of the Liberal and Conservative parties to provide more tax breaks and havens to the ultra rich, and allow the biggest businesses to continue to lobby and shape our laws/policies to their advantage. The benefits will surely trickle down eventually.
Small towns across B.C. are struggling with crime, what's your party's plan to address this? To start, we're hoping to replace the criminals of the Liberal and Conservative parties with model citizens of the noble Rhino Party in as many as three ridings across BC.
Do you believe the coastal B.C. ferry system should receive federal financial support at a level commensurate with similar systems elsewhere in the country and how would you work to ensure that is achieved? Sure. More importantly, ferries will have fun themes such as pirate ship, Spanish galleon, and viking longboat.
What's your party's plan to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples on the Sunshine Coast? Most of the Indigenous people I've spoken to feel like the federal government isn't listening, so we could start there (if we're not too busy patting ourselves on the back for wearing orange t-shirts).
What's an issue you personally wish we talked more about in this election? The Rhinos are usually the party of political satire and parody, but this will be a serious answer. Political corruption is what originally drew me to politics. It seems like we expect our tax dollars to be stolen and/or thrown away. Scandals come and go within a week, and we're so accustomed to it that we've grown numb to it. Lobbying should be completely banned. Pay for play and other forms of corruption should be considered acts of treason and result in exile from the country.
