KIMBALL CARIOU for VANCOUVER HASTINGS
The Communist candidate in Vancouver Hastings is a familiar face in east Vancouver. The former editor of People’s Voice newspaper, he has been a long-time participant in many local movements for peace, anti-imperialism, social justice, and working class rights. Since the mid-1990s, he has often been a Communist candidate in the area around Commercial Drive, where he lives in a housing cooperative with his family. Now retired, he volunteers at the Centre for Socialist Education, and he is a leader of the Vancouver Peace Council, campaigning to resist the Carney Liberal government’s massive escalation of war budgets.
Kimball was born on Treaty Six territory in Saskatchewan. Growing up in a very conservative area of central Alberta, he became a revolutionary anti-war activist by the age of sixteen. His family heritage includes immigrants from Ireland and Norway, as well as ancestors from the historic Red River Metis nation. He joined the Communist Party as a student at the University of Alberta, and was later elected as the Party’s Saskatchewan leader for a decade, before moving to Vancouver in 1993. Now a proudly radical senior, he remains a fierce critic of the violent system of imperialism and colonialism, and an outspoken advocate for socialism. He condemns Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, and the brutal US blockades against Cuba and other countries. Kimball extends his deepest solidarity to all those in our community engaged in the common struggle for a better world. As he says, “a vote for a Communist candidate is a vote for a future of true liberation, where our children and grandchildren can live in harmony, without fear of capitalist exploitation, poverty, war, and environmental devastation.”
ROBERT CROOKS for VANCOUVER STRATHCONA
Robert Crooks is the leader of the Communist Party of BC. He is a long-time tenant’s rights organizer and anti-imperialist peace activist. Robert was born on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and hasn’t missed a step in continuing his political work since relocating to BC. He strives to build relationships in the community with the goal of forging a broad democratic leftwing coalition that can focus on freeing people’s basic rights to housing, healthcare and education from its subordination to profit.
Robert Crooks is the leader of the Communist Party of BC. He is a long-time tenant’s rights organizer and anti-imperialist peace activist. Robert was born on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and hasn’t missed a step in continuing his political work since relocating to BC. He strives to build relationships in the community with the goal of forging a broad democratic leftwing coalition that can focus on freeing people’s basic rights to housing, healthcare and education from its subordination to profit.
PEPPER SALTMAN for NANAIMO-LANTZVILLE
Pepper Saltman is a recent computer science graduate with a history of advocacy for the working class and solidarity with oppressed nations. Pepper, 41, has an economics degree from UNBC in Prince George and an accounting diploma and computer science degree from VIU in Nanaimo. Her 15 years in food service and hospital housekeeping led Pepper to recognize exploitation and class struggle as the daily reality of the worker. She has volunteered with the Communist Party since 2019 to help the working class overcome capitalist exploitation, war, and ecological crisis.
JAMES CHUMSA for COWICHAN VALLEY
James Chumsa was born and raised in the Cowichan Valley, the unceded territory of the Quw’utsun nation, to two parents who immigrated to Canada. He first ran as a Communist Party candidate during the 2019 federal election for Nanaimo-Ladysmith while graduating from VIU that same year with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in sociology and minoring in history.
James Chumsa was born and raised in the Cowichan Valley, the unceded territory of the Quw’utsun nation, to two parents who immigrated to Canada. He first ran as a Communist Party candidate during the 2019 federal election for Nanaimo-Ladysmith while graduating from VIU that same year with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in sociology and minoring in history.
James has been to Cuba twice on the Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade run by the Canadian Network on Cuba, most recently in May. There he visited Cuban farms, schools, and community projects; listening to locals and learning about the challenges the island nation faces due to increased US sanctions and how they are able to survive under it.
Currently, James is active with several grassroots organizations in the Cowichan Valley that are involved with countering transphobia, promoting democratic participation, and solidarity with Palestine. He is an activist who tries to support as many struggles that align with his convictions as he can while building community.
James is running for the Communist Party because it offers an alternative to capitalism, the root of many of the issues we are faced with today such as poverty, racism, and war. That alternative is socialism, a system that puts people and the planet before profit.