From Winnipeg to Vancouver and a stint with Public Enemy along the way, a long road has led to Robert Crooks' Communist Party campaign in Esquimalt-Sooke-Saanich.
Crooks first joined the party in 2019 when he lived in Winnipeg. His background studying philosophy introduced him to the works of Karl Marx, later inspiring his decision to join.
“By reading Marx and viewing the world through a Marxist lens, everything began to make more sense, and I started to understand why we have war, why we have poverty.”
Before politics, Crooks worked primarily in the arts, sitting on the board of an artist-run centre in Winnipeg and a community organization that provided free arts programming for North Winnipeg's inner-city youth.
“In that job, I was confronted a lot with the poverty that this society produces and the fact that there is uneven distribution of resources,” said Crooks.
He explained that many kids he worked with would not have access to the same artistic programming at their schools as others.
An artist himself, Crooks has long been interested in music and spends his spare time experimenting with drum machines and synthesizers.
“I still make music mostly as a way to decompress. It’s a sort of stress relief, something where I can tune out the rest of the world.”
Music has led to some of Crooks' most proud moments, including travelling with and opening for the legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy during shows in Winnipeg and Saskatoon.
“Up to that point it was probably the best weekend of my life,” Crooks laughed. He said his time meeting the group's front man Chuck D went better than he could have imagined.
“We got to speak a lot with Chuck D, and he was so down to earth and easy to talk to.”
Today, Crooks lives in Vancouver despite running in a Vancouver Island riding.
“It’s an important riding in the province and our party has had candidates in that riding for years, so we wanted to continue that momentum,” Crooks said.
While Crooks recognizes that working with a small political organization such as the Communist Party of Canada is difficult, it's one he is proud to be a part of.
“There’s a lot of opportunism in other parties that don’t necessarily exist in a small party like ours.”
“You’re not going to advance your career. In fact, it could hurt your career. It’s not a lucrative party to be a member of, so we’re not doing this for any reason other than we believe in the cause.”
