Glimpse into the inner workings of the NDP Electoral District Association

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There are 87 electoral district associations (EDAs) in BC, each one of which sends an MLA to the provincial Legislature. 

In July Max Thaysen was elected Vice President of the Executive Committee of the North Island NDP Electoral District Association.

“It's been interesting and inspiring to get involved in this stuff, and I've been delighted to work on society's great challenges with other people, and it's been going really well,” he said.

CC: How do you meet?

MT: “Mostly on Zoom, which is quite interesting to notice how society shifted a little bit during the pandemic. Even people who live away from city centres can now participate in democracy a lot more. This  technology  is changing how democracy works. I think that a lot of our democratic processes are stuck in the 19th century, when they were built.  I would not have been involved  if my participation could not be facilitated by electronic commuting to meetings. It's pretty cool.”

CC: How did you become involved?

MT: “I was initially inspired to join by a friend of mine  who had joined and was working within the party to achieve some of her goals that I also cared about. It just wasn't really on my radar as a way that I could be of service to the world.  I'm pretty concerned about a bunch of things,  but I spend most of my time thinking and worrying about climate change, and I think that the NDP has the best mix of values to address the climate crisis. I wanted to get involved and help other people think about  these issues and make some good decisions for the benefit of all humans.”

CC: What is the EDA’s relationship with Michelle Babchuk, our MLA?

MT:  “She comes to most of our meetings, participates  in the conversations and discussions.”  

“I haven't been on this team during an election, but my understanding is that  the executive committee, especially in the EDA In general,  is on Michelle's team because we are participating  in the campaign, doing door knocking, doing fundraising, doing outreach, holding events, getting signs put out into the world, those sorts of things. We are like the foot soldiers in a campaign.” 

CC: What else does an EDA do?

MT: “The constitution of the BC NDP says that the party will be controlled by the membership.  I don't know  what exactly that means, or how that all gets interpreted and I'm sure it's variable depending on who's involved and what they're willing to do. In theory and on paper, all the members basically get to decide everything  that the party does.” 

The EDA is currently gearing up for the BC NDP Convention in Victoria, November 17th to 19th.