Meet The Rookies: why 3 people are running for office for the first time in 2017
First-time candidates tell us what they want to accomplish if elected as MLAs
Between broken promises, scandals, mudslinging, attack ads, -gates, and now, fake news, it's pretty easy to be cynical about politics these days.
Even in fictional politics, it seems like the villainous Frank Underwoods, Charles Foster Kanes and Sideshow Bobs vastly outnumber the idealistic Jefferson Smiths.
So why would anyone even want to bother entering the cutthroat political world?
That's the question On The Coast is trying to answer during B.C.'s 2017 election cycle with a series called The Rookies.
In the lead-up to the provincial election, On The Coast will get to know a first-time candidate from each of the Green, Liberal and New Democratic parties.
Let's meet those candidates.
Green Party: Jonina Campbell
As a teacher, then chair of the school board, New Westminster Green Party candidate Jonina Campbell, says she has always been a leader.
She knows it's a cliche, but she says a childhood incident made it clear.
"Our neighbours threw us a big going away party," she told On The Coast's Vivian Luk. "All the kids in the neighbourhood decided we would make up our own little band. Everybody picked up what they could to make their own instruments.
"Kids picked up sticks, found pens. I was the conductor. There wasn't any specific instrument I liked over the other, so I thought, how about I lead? I'll bring you all together."
She's taking a year off work for her campaign. She still gets her three kids ready for school in the morning, helps them with their homework, puts them to bed at night.
But the room in the basement has become her office. She has calendars up on the walls, covered with yellow sticky notes, and folders with labels like "Donor list" and "Fundraising plan."
She's on her laptop late at night, and she sleeps less than she used to.
"We don't have the means in terms of finances the other parties have," she said. "Fortunately, door-knocking is free … By working hard, we can do this."
Liberal Party: Trang Nguyen
Vancouver-Kingsway Liberal candidate Trang Nguyen has worn different hats over the years: court interpreter, journalist, federal citizenship judge and small business owner. She's a single mom with two young children.
She likes to talk about her history as a boat refugee from Vietnam. It took her family nine attempts before they were finally rescued by a freighter and sent to a refugee camp in Malaysia. They arrived in Canada when Nguyen was nine.
"I had to push a paddle boat with my family because we had to push it across a river to go into the bigger ocean to meet the bigger boat," she said. "It was stormy, it was raining and it was terrifying.
"Unfortunately, we didn't make it that time. We had to go to reeducation camp."
Nguyen says her appreciation of the rights and freedoms in Canada is why she wants to run. She previously attempted to run federally, for the Conservatives, in 2011.
In her living room, between a Buddhist shrine and a small shelf, is a B.C. Liberals campaign sign laid out next to some campaign buttons. "Balanced budget" and "B.C. is leading the country in job creation" are her messages to her riding, which has been held by the NDP for 12 years.
"We always think status quo, so-and-so will continue on," she said. "If you bring in a new face, new voice, new change and bring forth sound policy … voters see this person can bring what we want in this riding, and you can see you'll get overwhelming support."
New Democratic Party: Morgane Oger
Vancouver-False Creek NDP candidate Morgane Oger is not only a first-time candidate: she's the first openly transgender woman to run for a major political party in Canada.
In years past, the French immigrant, submarine robotics engineer, software engineer and small business owner knew something was different about her.
"People said I acted really weird and really different. 'Don't be such a wuss. French people are so wussy,'" she said. "I found myself telling my children that it doesn't matter what other people say.
"And I was struck by the scale of the hypocrisy of saying that to my children, considering that I was not being honest with who I was, even with them, and I was hiding it, and it was still a source of shame."
Morgane came out as transgender in 2013 and then fought for gender identity and gender expression to be added to the B.C. Human Rights Code.
As a candidate, she says her campaign focuses on education, affordable housing and jobs.
Oger says she's already had to block a couple of Twitter trolls and has a volunteer to monitor her campaign website for any hateful messages aimed at her gender identity.
"There are people who try to always bring it up," she said. "It's not that I'm a trans candidate. I'm a candidate who's trans."
With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast
To hear the interview with Jonina Campbell, click the audio labelled: Meet The Rookies: the Green Party's Jonina Campbell
To hear the interview with Trang Nguyen, click the audio labelled: Meet The Rookies: the Liberal Party's Trang Nguyen
To hear the interview with Morgane Oger click the audio labelled: Meet The Rookies: the New Democratic Party's Morgane Oger