Conversations with Candidates: Jordan Kealy
The Broken Typewriter invited local candidates to discuss topics of interest to voters in Peace River North. The second candidate to be profiled is BC Conservative candidate, Jordan Kealy. However, Kealy declined to participate in an interview. In the interests of providing readers with information on all local candidates, the following article is, unless otherwise stated, from his speech at Charlie Lake Community Hall on September 17, 2024..
Jordan Kealy came to the North Peace in search of a rural life, and a place to apply his chosen trade of millwright. He fell in love with his wife Karen, and with region. In addition to his career as a millwright, Kealy farms in Cecil Lake and for the past two years has represented Area B on the Peace River Regional District board.
Now, he wants to represent the residents of Peace River North in the provincial legislature, as a member of the Conservative Party of BC.
On being relatively new to politics:
Kealy chose to become a millwright because he enjoys fixing things. When he had the opportunity to get involved in local government at the regional district level, he says he saw there were things he was able to help with and make a difference.
One of those things was the land-sharing proposal that came before the PRRD board in 2023.
“I stood my ground, and I said you know, farmers aren’t going to like this, maybe we should rethink this idea,” Kealy told a recent audience in Charlie Lake.
“They passed it, and we saw the repercussion, a lot of people didn’t like that, they came out to the Pomeroy, and they expressed that. Fortunately, later on, after everybody broke the fire code, I had to ask everybody to leave, I was able to get the PRRD to reconsider their votes, and they voted against doing the land sharing,” he said.
“That was a perfect example of democracy and people giving feedback. It’s one of the main reasons why I believe that I can do something.”
Kealy said that when John Rustad approached him in November to be a candidate, he said that if he did, he would represent the region first and foremost.
He told Rustad that “if you try and whip me, I won’t be whipped. I am here for this region, to be a voice, and I want to be a strong voice for this region. Because we need it.”
On his party’s plans to return BC to a place where people want to live, work and raise their families:
There are major things that need to be worked on in this province, Kealy says. Primarily, that means scrapping the carbon tax.
“The carbon tax, when you look at it, it’s not just a one-time tax. Every time something’s transported, you’re paying carbon tax,” he said.
“And it causes that inflation. It’s insidious the way that it works. As soon as we form government, we’ll get rid of it.”
The BC Conservative Party wants to highlight the province’s resources and use them to bring fresh revenue streams to the government.
“We have an abundance of natural resources, we can bring fresh revenue streams to the government, so we don’t have to pay huge amounts of taxes,” he said.
Kealy says the rural areas, like Peace River North, were built on utilizing natural resources.
“It seems like this current government is happy to shut them down, one by one. Or starve them of permits to the point where they pretty much drive out the companies and corporations that want to do business here. Canfor is one of them with our sawmill.”
There’s no reason we can’t sustainably harvest our natural resources, he said, and revenue from those natural resources, like forestry, mining and natural gas, can go towards the provincial economy.
“By not considering the rural areas, and how this affects our towns, they’re systematically shutting down all of our rural areas.”
Another major issue is the healthcare system.
“We seen it, time after time after time, emergency rooms are closing. And in Fort Nelson we’ll see that it’ll be a shortage of one nurse; in FSJ a shortage of one doctor.”
Kealy is in favour of returning to community health boards, where elected officials, members of the communities could sit on the boards and have input.
“If we could go back to that, they work more efficiently,” he said.
The BC Conservatives will be looking at the bureaucracy and administration within the healthcare system and work to make it more accountable, while also looking at ways to reduce wait times for patients.
“By alleviating that waitlist, we can take that pressure off our healthcare workers in our system and try and encourage the ones that got pushed out during Covid to come back. We need those workers. Every single one counts. One extra person can keep Fort Nelson open. One more doctor could keep the Fort St. John ER open.”
The hard-core drugs on the streets are also having a detrimental effect on the healthcare system. Kealy says it seems like the current government is promoting and encouraging drugs, and as a result there are drugs on the streets that shouldn’t be used outside a hospital setting.
“This is degradation to our society, it’s the opposite of what we want. We want to improve our lives,” Kealy said. “We want to make it so that we can treat the people that are in those scenarios and have facilities to be able to do that. Get them back so they’re actually productive members of society and not have a smorgasbord of drugs available for them, so that when they come out from treatment, they don’t get stressed or triggered and go back on those drugs.”
On First Nations, Reconciliation and the Economy:
The BC Conservatives plan to remove DRIPA when they form government, Kealy said. The extra levels of bureaucracy that were added to the decision-making system with DRIPA are affecting natural resources and the ability for projects to go through.
“We should never have a small group dictate, what is best for the whole province of five million plus people. The whole point of the government is to make those decisions about what is best for everybody.”
They’re not doing this to upset people, Kealy, but to promote economic reconciliation and still work with First Nations.
“We can’t have our industries taking a year to get a permit. Whether it’s our government bureaucracy that’s slowing those permits down, or other stages that are slowing those permits down, we need to enhance our industries.”
On listening to, and being available for constituents:
Kealy was pleased to see the approximately two hundred supporters show up to his recent Open House and BBQ in Charlie Lake.
“It’s great to see people be able to come together and be able to communicate and talk about the issues that are pressing, and concern us,” Kealy said. “To able to do that freely and have someone that will listen – I’ll always be that type of person that’ll be here to listen, and I promise that I will always try and follow up when I say that I’m going to do something.”
To that end, he told the gathering at the candidates’ forum at the Phoenix Theatre in Fort Nelson last week that if elected, he plans to maintain a staffed constituency office in Fort Nelson.
“I think it’s very important to have an office up here, I think it was a great idea to do that,” Kealy said. “We live in a very unique area, it’s a very vast region with different diversities and different cultures that we have to approach it in a different way. I think having that office is very worthwhile.”
On his chances in this election:
Even though he hasn’t spent his life in the Peace, Kealy says he doesn’t plan on going anywhere, and he’s proud to be part of the Conservative Party of BC.
“I think with our party, we stand a very good chance of forming government,” he said. If that’s the case, Kealy says it will be a unique government, as it will be the first time that the premier is from the North.
He says he’s looking forward to the opportunity to work for residents of the North in a greater capacity.
“It would be amazing if I could apply for the portfolio of Agriculture Minister,” Kealy said in response to an audience member at the Charlie Lake Open House and BBQ.
Perhaps Larry Neufeld in Peace River South could apply for the portfolio of Energy and Mines, he suggested.
“To have that kind of power back for this region, to have that kind of say over our natural resources, is huge. An independent can never have that.”
“I believe that when you get into something, when your heart’s in the right place, and you’ve got drive and determination, that’s what makes it so that you’ll do whatever you have to do get the job done,” Kealy told Fort Nelson residents. “I don’t believe that you have to have experience to be good at what you’re doing. You need to try and approach it and have the drive to do your best and to adapt.”
“I would love it if I could pursue that (Agriculture portfolio) as a farmer to be able to make life better and more sustainable for farmers across our province. I don’t think I have to have experience as an existing politician to make that happen.”