Manitoba transplant Robert Crooks is helping take the reins of the Communist Party of B.C. as he tries to take a seat in the Legislature for Victoria-Swan Lake ahead of the B.C. election on Oct. 19.
The party's provincial organizer moved to B.C. in January following years of working for non-profit organizations in Winnipeg's North End and working with the Communist Party of Manitoba.
"I was getting a master's degree in philosophy, and I was becoming more and more involved politically. I was thinking that I was going to have an academic career, I was going to try to go on and have a PhD and try to pursue a professorship in philosophy, But the more I got into politics, the more I was compelled to get out in the world and actually try to apply the philosophy that I was learning," said Crooks.
In October 2023, Crooks ran in the Fort-Rouge riding in the Manitoba provincial election, and he ran in the Winnipeg North riding in the 2021 federal election, both under the Communist Party banner.
"I don't think we're under illusions that we're going to win in my riding, but I think that it bodes well for the future, because one thing that we've been saying consistently throughout this election is that we don't see winning a spot in legislature as a magic bullet that's going to be able to get all these policies passed," he said. "What we have to do is we have to build grassroots support in the community, and that means people, you know, everyday people. It means people in unions, and it also means progressive people in the NDP and the Green Party," he said.
Crooks said the ongoing housing crisis is among the biggest concerns for Swan Lake residents on top of health care and education.
He said community members are "constantly under fear" that they will be evicted so landlords can raise rent, and people are sometimes spending 50 to 60 per cent of their income on rent.
"People who are younger have absolutely no hopes of owning a home," he said. "We've been quite active at the university and the colleges in Victoria and education in terms of tuition and student loan debt is definitely on a lot of young people's minds as well."
He said his party supports vacancy control so rent is tied to the unit, rather than the renter, so landlords can't drastically raise rent when a tenant moves out. They also want to establish more public housing, rather than non-market housing which still uses public money for private developers.
