Business owner and longtime Greater Victoria resident John Wilson was nominated as a last-minute candidate for the B.C. Conservatives in the Esquimalt-Colwood riding on Sept. 21, just weeks away from election day on Oct. 19.
The self-described family man is the president of the Wilson's Group, the largest bus charter on Vancouver Island and one of the biggest in the province. He has also been involved with a number of hockey and baseball teams, including as chair of the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society, with the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Victoria Sports Tourism Commission.
"I've been involved in this community for 40 years," he said. "Our family and myself have always had the mindset of giving back more to the community than we take out."
He says affordability, public safety, and health care are some of the biggest issues Esquimalt-Colwood residents are facing, and if elected, he and the Conservatives will make "common sense" spending decisions to fix the "broken" systems.
"As a lifelong Victorian, I've seen a lot of change in public safety," he said, "I believe one of the foremost responsibilities of any government is keeping their citizens safe."
Regarding health care, Wilson says he supports the Tories' Patients First health-care plan, which involves increasing health-care funding and reducing bureaucratic bloat to reduce wait times, as current wait times in emergency rooms are "unacceptable."
"It's not about cuts, it's about smarter spending and common sense," said Wilson. "We have a spending problem and that's where I think my experience in business and in the community can really help us move forward."
In his riding, he hopes to end transportation challenges for West Shore residents, with the goal of bringing an end to the "Colwood crawl."
"We really want to deep dive [into the Colwood ferry plan]," he said. "We have a lot of waterways on the Island that are underutilized as far as commuting is concerned."
What he says is close to his heart, is ending deficit budgets on the provincial level.
"A $9 billion deficit and more to come is not acceptable. It's not acceptable to our children and our grandchildren. And it is not responsible of us as a government and we need to do better," he said.
He says the current NDP MLA in the area, Mitzi Dean, who is not running again, has not done a good job staying connected with the community, and he hopes to have an open-door policy so potential constituents can stay directly connected to their provincial representative.
[There are] 45,000 people in the riding, it's a growing riding" he said. "I think they deserve being well represented in the Legislature, and that's what I would most definitely do for them."
Though he's a rookie in the B.C. political sphere, he says it could prove to be an advantage come election day.
"I am a business person, a community person, and that's why I've put [my name] forward," said Wilson. "If you want to see change in your community, you need to get involved, you need to take action, be part of the change.
