BC Group Promoting Trustee Candidates Who Prioritize Parental Choice Has Three Candidates Elected

Children walk with their parents to an elementary school in North Vancouver on the first day back-to-school on Sept. 10, 2020. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

When Marc Vella brought together 28 trustee candidates to run in eight B.C. school districts in the Oct. 15 provincial municipal elections, the leader of Parents Voice BC (PVBC) never expected they would win three seats and come close in several other races.

PVBC is a group “dedicated to electing independent candidates for school trustee that will put the needs of students and families first,” its website says.

The group had only become an officially recognized party on June 20. Getting candidates elected despite limited resources and exposure “is like icing on the cake” and indicates voters’ broad desire to see the group’s concerns addressed, Vella told The Epoch Times.

PVBC believes that “the primary responsibility for children’s education lies with their parents, not the state,” and that school trustees should represent parents rather than special interests. As well, “schools should focus on preparing students for a productive adulthood, not the passing trends of the day.” And what happens at schools needs to be completely transparent, it says.

Daniel Albertson is one of the three PVBC candidates elected. When his kids began bringing home school material that seemed questionable, the Vanderhoof, B.C., father approached teachers and the school board with his concerns. What he found stunned him, he says.

At the first board meeting he attended a year ago, four students from one local elementary school presented topics they learned the year before. After hearing their presentations on topics such as how Disney is racist and how the police are untrustworthy, he knew his concerns were justified, Albertson says.

He created a petition for parents called “Academics or Activism?” Support for it led him to run for school trustee in the Nechako Lakes School District under the PVBC banner.

“I’ve come to discover that in recent years our Schools have become places of indoctrination rather than educational excellence,” Albertson said on the PVBC website.

Supporting Independent Candidates

Carroll Walker is another PVBC candidate who won a seat, in the same school district as Albertson’s. PVBC’s values motivated Walker after he saw a neighbourhood school take down the Canadian flag and cancel Mother’s Day.

“The [board’s] reasoning behind it was ‘trauma informed practices,’ which means you don’t bring up topics that will hurt children’s feelings,” Walker said in an interview. “I told them it’s not up to them to socially re-engineer our society. It’s up to them to work with the home and support the home. And by cancelling Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, when you start tearing those things down in a cancel culture, you’re tearing the family down.”

Vella said he believes the concerns echoed by Albertson and Walker have been resonating for years with parents. He said one of his friends ran for school trustee four years ago as an independent, and despite coming close, lost to the established left-leaning side, which he says had the money, union support, and experience to advertise and work with party name recognition.

“We have to put a structure in place that can offset those strengths so it becomes a level playing field where truly, independent candidates have a chance,” Vella said.

Parents Voice BC supported its candidates such as by providing help with promotional materials and guidance on how to clearly define their messaging, including on social media.

Richard Procee, who won his race in Chilliwack, joined PVBC because he embraced its principles and also saw it as an opportunity to be part of lasting change in B.C.

“With Parents Voice, I felt the strength was always that we would build a political community that would actually have parents involved,” Procee said. “My goal is students first. And I’m hoping that will resonate and build for the future of our slate.”

Efforts Across Canada

Concern for educational direction has spread to other areas in the country with citizens launching different initiatives to take action, such as Blueprint for Canada’s efforts to encourage people to “remove extremist political ideology from the classroom.”

And while founder Peter Wallace doesn’t have the same party banner as PVBC, he’s encouraged by the number of people running for school trustee positions who support Blueprint for Canada’s policy positions.

In an e-mail to The Epoch Times, Wallace, who is running for a trustee position with Ontario’s Trillium Lakes District School Board, said he put together a campaign website for himself but changed it to focus on being a shared platform for other independents to use as well. He aims to create more exposure and to keep educating parents regardless of the Ontario election results on Oct. 24.

“It became apparent to me over the last couple of years that an illiberal strain of ideological political ideas rooted in what some call ‘critical theories’ has gained enormous influence on school boards, particularly in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and Ottawa,” Wallace said. “The level of political correctness has just gotten completely out of hand.”

Hamilton mother Catherine Kronas created the website StopWoke.ca and a petition in opposition to Bill 67, the Racial Equity in the Education System Act, which was introduced in the last session of the province’s legislature. Controversies surrounding the bill also has the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) publicly expressing concern that the bill would build more division than it proposed to prevent.

“While its proponents suggest this bill is ‘anti-racist,’ our concern is that it will, in reality, further racism,” FAIR’s website said. “The bill’s proposed summary convictions for racist speech, as well as its requirements for teachers and council members to ‘have a proven commitment to racial equity or take anti-racism training,’ runs the risk of inviting and affirming divisive ideological frameworks.”

Similar to Blueprint for Canada, Christians That Care is an organization established to help train and assist Christian candidates running for government positions in B.C., Ontario, and Manitoba, the latter of which holds its civic elections on Oct. 26.

‘Parental Rights’ in Education a Key Issue

Progressive evolution in the school system doesn’t surprise David Leis, vice-president of engagement and development with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Nor is he shocked by parents’ opposition to it once they realize what’s happening.

“In Canada, people haven’t fully understood what’s really happening in your school curriculum,” Leis said. “And it’s not just simply about the sexualization of children. It is also about parental rights to educate their children the way they see fit.”

This is a key issue that’s “still only emerging in candidates. It still has not been fully recognized by parents,” he said. “What’s really happening is their role is being undermined by education bureaucrats, but I think that perception is changing.”