Lower Mainland Budget Coalition

George Hewison (Chair, Lower Mainland Budget Coalition) [00:00:00] So, the day after the election – or rather, after they dropped these Bills, right after the election – as we were facing a lot of demoralization from the left, it was amazing that the Unemployed Committee, which is usually 12 people coming to meetings, suddenly in the Fishermen’s Union board room, there’s close to 100 people there. 70, 80. People I’d never seen before. Everybody. Wanting to know what we’re going to do about this, this crisis. And demanding that the labour movement has to do something. And so, I’m interested, so they formed the Lower Mainland Budget Coalition and nominated and elected me as their spokesperson, or Chair.

And I’ve got Father Roberts, I’d never worked with before – the last time I’d had anything to do with the church, I got stabbed in the back up in [Prince] Rupert. So, I’m really… who are all these people? Women Against the Budget… I mean, I’ve gotta admit, I had, I’d never met any of these people. The tenant’s groups. The labour movement – the labour movement and the social justice movement in British Columbia, up until that point, had been two solitudes. So, it was a, so we called the meeting for the next day, or in the next couple of days, in the auditorium of the Fishermen’s Hall, and we ended up with, I think, over 400 registered at the auditorium. It was amazing, and so I’m in the Chair, I don’t know if we didn’t yet have a co-Chair, should have had one, but it was part of our education as a labour movement in the sensitivities towards the community.