North Peace residents deserve better quality of life: Kealy
Area B Director puts his name forward as BC Conservative Party candidate
“The primary reason why I decided to go and pursue local politics was to try and make a difference. When I got into that, I could see certain things that I could have an effect on, and I love doing that,” said Jordan Kealy, who became the Area B Director for the Peace River Regional District in October 2022.
However, during the past year on the Regional District Board, Kealy has discovered that many of the problems experienced in the region are primarily provincial ones. “Local government can only advocate so much to influence that.”
This lack of influence by local government is illustrated by this year’s wildfires. Like many area farmers this spring and summer, Kealy was out helping his neighbours during the wildfires. Through that process, he found that the region’s concerns largely fell on deaf ears.
His opinions on the issue were cemented further when the province brought out its new Emergency and Disaster Management Act, a piece of legislation designed to replace the existing Emergency Program Act. The government has asked for feedback on select portions of the Act, in what the PRRD deemed an unrealistic time period.
“If they’re in the Legislature with it already, they’re most likely not going to hear feedback. Or the feedback that they do receive probably isn’t going to make much of a difference,” said Kealy.
“It seems like one of those usual things that, instead of making the fixes that are needed, they’ll come up with a whole better system, throw out the existing one and we’re left with nothing. Or we’re left with a system that works less effectively than the original one.”
“At that point, I decided I’ve got to do something different. There’s the change that I’m trying to do here, obviously the route that I’ve gone isn’t that effective. So, I need to think of a different way.”
That different way is putting his name forward to represent Peace River North as the Conservative Party of BC’s candidate in the October 2024 provincial election.
“If you can’t fix it one way, you find another way to do it. You don’t just beat your head against the wall,” he said.
Kealy says the BC Conservatives offer a conservative, commonsense approach that is sorely needed in the Legislature. He feels the current structure of the provincial government is off-balance because there’s no one representing the conservative residents of BC.
“I heard Kevin Falcon say the other day that the BC United is a centrist party. If they’re a centrist party, then there’s really nobody in the House that’s representing conservatives,” he said. “If there’s nobody in the House that’s representing conservatives, then that House is now off-balance. And there are a lot of people, primarily rural people, who aren’t represented in that House.”
Those rural people, along with the entire province, deserve a better quality of life than they’re getting from the current government, Kealy said.
“Right now, we’ve got a government that spends like crazy, that taxes like we’ve never seen before – in BC there’s over 20 taxes. They’ll tax us right into debt.”
For example, Kealy said that carbon tax is good, if you want inflation to go up. “It’s the perfect tool to make that happen. It has a ripple effect through everything. By doing that, you’re artificially creating inflation. What makes it worse is that they just keep spending more and more money.”
“None of that helps our quality of life.”
Governments, both provincial and federal, are sucking the financial life out of the middle class, Kealy says.
“What makes it worse, is they say it’s for the environment, but they’re not using it to do anything for the environment. We can’t do anything to stop Mother Nature. What we can do is figure out how to adapt. But the current government isn’t even trying to do that.”
Using technology and looking to our own resources, producing our own products and being self-sustaining, Kealy said, would only benefit BC in the long run.
Take food security as an example. “Right now, we ship most of our crops all over the world, and we don’t really focus on what we need just in Canada.”
“I think promoting our own local resources, industries and businesses is one of the biggest enhancements we can do for getting fresh dollars into our system, and not recycled government tax dollars. When you have private businesses and resources that are developed you get fresh dollars and fresh tax-base out of that.”
Whereas when you shut down lumber, or forestry (for example) you can destroy towns that rely on those resources, Kealy said. “I think we have a huge potential to be able to harvest our own resources in a very efficient manner.”
Kealy noted that lumber and pulp companies are pulling out of BC, because it’s not viable here anymore. “When you incorporate the two stumpage fees and the carbon taxes – if they got rid of the carbon tax and those stumpage fees, it would become a little bit better. Right now, if these companies leave, nobody is taking care of the woodlots,” he said. “The best thing we can do is encourage utilizing the forest properly and harvest the wood.”
It’s not just economic policies that are lacking in commonsense. Healthcare, drugs, and crime policies are also in need of a shake up, he said.
“We’re seeing now, especially with the financial life getting sucked out of everybody, we’re seeing more people who have nowhere to turn to except the streets.”
With the decriminalization of small amounts of hard drugs, Kealy feels that it just makes it easier for people to get them, and subsequently become addicted.
“The addictions that comes from those are far beyond what they used to be,” he said. “I think we need proper treatment for people, and we need the criminal system and support for police to start working again and functioning properly. That needs to be criminalized. That way when people get proper treatment and they’ve dealt with their addictions, all those drugs aren’t there again.”
Kealy wants to see treatment facilities throughout the province for people with addictions, “Rather than just providing them a place where they can inject themselves, and they can get their drugs.”
“Right now, we’re seeing more and more people dying from overdoses and suicides than from any illness.”
It’s not just addictions treatment that is lacking, but mental health services as well. “You need to focus on the treatment and finding out what triggered their mental illness in the first place, and how you can help them. I think when you focus on that, that’s when you can get people the help that they need.”
Our quality of life has deteriorated badly over the last ten years, Kealy said. “When you look at going into a hospital, or you look at being able to afford something, or you look at the quality of life your children can have – these things are all degraded, and there’s no reason why that should happen.”
“When you look at everything that’s being done and the state that we’re in, there’s actually nothing being done to correct the direction that we’re going.”
Although he hasn’t yet been chosen as a candidate, Kealy says he knows that if he is accepted, he’ll have to take a step back from the Regional District come election time. Area B Alternate Karen Goodings is only able to fulfill the role on a part-time basis, so Kealy and the PRRD will be looking for someone to step into his shoes, during the election and afterwards, if he is elected.
Regardless of the election outcome, Kealy says that he will continue to advocate for change for rural people in the Peace River Regional District.
“If I could have a legacy that I leave behind, it would be quality of life improvements for others.”