Joan Phillip was nominated today as the BC NDP’s candidate in Vancouver-Strathcona.

First elected in 2023 as the MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, Joan Phillip has dedicated her life to fighting for justice, human rights and the environment. A respected Indigenous leader, she has been a youth counsellor at Britannia School and lands manager for the Penticton Indian Band. Married to Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the long-serving President of the BC Union of Indian Chiefs, and a proud mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she is ready to take action to make life better for families like hers in Vancouver-Strathcona.

“Vancouver-Strathcona is one of BC’s most socioeconomically diverse ridings. It faces housing, healthcare and cost-of-living challenges. People here need a government that is up to tackling those challenges. We know that’s the BC NDP,” said Phillip. “John Rustad has promised to slash healthcare. He’s said he’d roll back David Eby’s Housing Action Plan, shutting the door on people burdened by housing costs. That’s the wrong approach, and we can’t afford it.”

Since forming government in July 2017, the BC NDP has taken action on crucial issues that matter to the people of Vancouver-Strathcona, including:

• Helping BC’s renters find — and keep — their homes by limiting rent increases, providing a renter’s rebate, and bringing tens of thousands of rental units back to market through the speculation tax and tough new restrictions on short-term rentals;
• Connecting people to the care they need by hiring 700 more family doctors, licensing internationally-educated healthcare workers in BC and building a new medical school at SFU Surrey to train even more doctors;
• Helping people with costs by eliminating MSP Premiums, reducing ICBC rates by $500 a year, boosting the BC Family Benefit by $445, cutting childcare fees in half, and making birth control free; and
• Working with the Green Party to develop CleanBC, the most ambitious climate plan in North America, and taking action to electrify the economy, create green jobs, and more opportunities for BC businesses.

“The people of Vancouver-Strathcona, which contains the city’s Downtown Eastside, need someone who is a fighter, and that fighter is Joan Phillip,” said Premier David Eby. “Joan has spent her entire life working for people. She isn’t afraid to speak truth to power. She is a strong voice for the people of her community, taking action for them on housing, healthcare and the cost of living.”

Joan Phillip will join David Eby and 91 other exceptional BC NDP candidates in this fall’s provincial election, all committed to real action to help people build a good life here in BC.