Late last week, as part of rabble.ca’s “candidates to watch” series, Libby Davies got in touch with Tria Donaldson, the NDP candidate for Regina — Lewvan, to talk about her vision for her community, for Canada, and how she wants to shake things up on the federal scene. Their conversation is below in full and has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Libby Davies
I’ve been looking at some of the history of Regina, and realizing that you’re facing what’s been called the “Blue Wall,” where there is a slate of incumbents that are conservatives. The NDP has had a long history in Saskatchewan, and particularly in Regina — Lewvan where you are running for the NDP. The riding was formerly held by the NDP and years before that it was held by Dick Proctor. So there’s certainly a deep tradition for the NDP in Saskatchewan. In the context of what you’re facing, why did you want to get involved in federal politics and why now?
Tria Donaldson
There’s so many reasons. The first is that this whole province has a very strong history with the NDP. We all know about Tommy Douglas and the founding of Medicare. That is very much an experience and a memory valued by folks in Regina. I was just talking today with somebody whose father used to manage Tommy Douglas’s campaign. So, it’s really interesting knocking on doors. And just even though we are in this conservative province, we have a deep legacy and a deep connection to the NDP. This riding has been held by New Democrats in the past. I worked on the 2015 campaign, it was really disappointing to see the province go completely conservative, and I wanted to put my name forward. We’re running at a time like this to take on some of the big challenges we’re facing as a world. Challenges like racism, inequality, climate change, we really need to tackle them now. Not 10 years from now. So that’s why I put my name forward in this election.
Libby
How does your lived experience influence your attachment to this campaign and your ability to advocate for the communities and the people that you hope to represent?
Tria
I have quite a diverse background. My grandfather on my mom’s side was a residential school survivor. My grandmother was an immigrant from the Punjab region of India. I grew up in a working class family that struggled living paycheque to paycheque. I’ve worked in the environmental movement, I’ve worked in the student movement, and for the last 10 years, I’ve been working in the labour movement. I have firsthand experience facing inequality, facing injustice and fighting for it and winning. The NDP slogan this year, “fighting for you,” is a great fit for me, because I have a strong history as a champion for working people, a champion for the environment and getting results for people. I’m excited to keep fighting the good fight that makes the world a better place.
Libby
What challenges have you faced on the campaign trail? It’s a very different kind of campaign — we’re still in a pandemic after all. What does that mean for you in terms of the challenges that you are facing in the campaign?
Tria
There’s two big challenges. One of the big ones is how divided people feel as a nation. The politics around vaccines and mask mandates and things like that are intensified. In Regina — Lewvan, we hear from people with different opinions on how the pandemic should be handled, as well as differences around how people view things like race, race relations and reconciliation.
There’s a lot of feelings on a bunch of different sides right now. There’s a lot of division. And so that’s challenging to overcome, because you never really know what you’re going to hear knocking on people’s doors, but it’s guaranteed to always be interesting. So that’s the first challenge, is just this divisive atmosphere that also turns a lot of people off politics. But then there’s a second bigger part: A lot of people are feeling powerless. Especially in Saskatchewan. A lot of folks I talked to have this idea that [the election] doesn’t matter because things are decided far away in Ontario and that by the time our polls close, things are already being decided in eastern Canada.
So there’s a lot of disengagement and disillusionment. The way we combat that is by getting down to what power is and what kind of power people have. Voting is one form of exercising our power, but so is mobilizing. We need to make sure that we’re holding our politicians accountable. The cynicism people have is really challenging and something we all need to overcome when we’re encouraging people to live their politics and get out and vote or take action for things like public health care or education funding. These are many issues people care about, but they don’t feel like voting will make a difference. I think we just need to do a lot of work on getting people to engage politically.
Libby
I think that’s definitely a key and it leads right into my next question, which is about voter engagement. What ideas do you have about how to bring together some of the national issues and make them impactful locally, or bring the local issues to the national scene? What thoughts do you have about that?
Tria
One of the things that really strikes me is when you talk to people, it becomes very clear there are so many ways that federal policy touches people’s lives in Regina — Lewvan and in every community across the country. Some of the stories I’ve heard are about families paying $1,000 a month for insulin that they need to survive, or $250 for asthma medicine, or like the folks that are worried about having to put their parents in long-term care because they think the conditions are not great, as we’ve seen through the pandemic. These big-picture policy issues — that seem so far away when you’re listening to leaders debate — have real life consequences for people in Regina.
One of the most powerful things you can do as a candidate is listen and then amplify people’s voices. I met a woman who had three members of her family overdose in one week. In Saskatchewan, the overdose crisis is not talked about at all and is seen as something that’s happening elsewhere, like in B.C. or other places. So hearing those stories on the doorstep is so powerful, and gives us the information that is outside of our bubble, outside of our lived experiences, so we can advocate and bring it forward. It’s really important to have these conversations about how policies impact people’s lives.
Libby
What impact is provincial politics having on the national campaign? Is there disillusionment with provincial leadership?
Tria
In Saskatchewan last year, we had a municipal election, a provincial election, and now we’re having a federal election in less than 12 months. So it’s been a lot of politics for people. People are feeling overwhelmed with having to make another choice. It’s interesting how I’ll go to the door and people are like “yeah, I’m voting for you. I hate Scott Moe.” And I have to make it clear that this is a different election!
The conservative premier is not doing great. There’s another piece, specifically in Saskatchewan, around how the conservative provincial party — the Saskatchewan Party government — was able to get public support around standing up to Justin Trudeau. So they talked a lot about standing up against Ottawa. I hear that on the doorstep. There’s a lot of people in Saskatchewan who are unhappy with Trudeau. That’s definitely a factor, and so the dynamics provincially kind of play into that a lot in this election as well.
Libby
Just coming back to yourself now as a candidate, I think this is the first time you’ve run Tria?
Tria
Yes. Aside from student council and university, it’s my first time running on the national stage.
Libby
It’s exciting to run in a campaign. What have you learned about yourself as a candidate and as a person? Anything that surprised you?
Tria
I’ve worked on a lot of campaigns. I’ve managed campaigns, I’ve done get out the vote, I’ve done a little bit of everything. And it’s so different being a candidate. It takes a lot of emotional energy. I think I’m gonna have a bit more patience for candidates moving forward! It really is a lot of hard work. One of the things that surprised me is that I have much more of a capacity to listen to people that have different opinions from me than I thought I did. It’s really eye opening to have those conversations with people from different political spectrums. I had a great conversation with somebody who is a traditional conservative voter, but is considering voting NDP, because he’s unhappy with our local candidate. And we had a great conversation. I’m a young person who grew up on social media with an echo chamber of folks that think the same way as me and have the same concerns. It’s just so nice, getting out there talking to a variety of people.
It’s a really grounding experience, because you’re talking with people about their experience, their lives, and you have to deal with that across the spectrum.
It’s an honour for me to hear about the struggles that are happening, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum. As people running for office, we need to hold that space for people to talk to you and honour the fact that they’re sharing moments of their life with you.
Libby
Finally, how are you feeling about the campaign at this point? How is it feeling to you on the ground there?
Tria
It’s honestly feeling great. I didn’t know what to expect getting into this. I was nominated on July 26. So all of this has been such a whirlwind. But I’m overwhelmed by the amount of support I have in the community, from my friends, from longtime New Democrats, from new people that are volunteering and going out [campaigning] regularly with 15-year-olds. It’s the most amazing thing in the world to see the next generation coming up and cutting their political teeth in this campaign. It’s really lovely to see all the support coming around me in this campaign. So regardless of what happens, I’m going to feel really good about the campaign. We are definitely making the Conservatives very, very nervous. And that’s very fun.
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