Comox Valley doctor and town councillor talks platform in race for BC Greens leadership

Jonathan Kerr (right) meets with BC Greens for coffee in Prince George on his leadership campaign. Photo provided by Jonathan Kerr

The BC Green Party leadership race is on, and Comox Valley’s own Jonathan Kerr is one of three candidates running. Kerr is a local family doctor, Vice-Chair of the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD), and is serving his second term as a councillor in the Town of Comox.

Jonathan Kerr spoke with CHLY and CVOX about his choice to run for leader of the BC Green Party.

“It's a really exciting time. I've dedicated my life to serving my community, I've been a family doctor for 17 years and for the past four years I've served here [in] our local government as a twice-elected Green councillor and a regional director. And I've really been listening to the people in my community of Comox and the Comox Valley, and I'm really excited to get to work on issues that matter to all British Columbians,” he said.

Kerr is enthusiastic about his campaign, and said that now is a critical time for serious action.

“Our province is facing a lot of challenges, and often we see the other big parties, they get tangled up in political games and don't really focus on getting things done. But what we've seen locally is that Greens that get elected actually get stuff done. We're the only party with a long-term vision for the future. We're science-based, evidence-based approaches, and these will make our province the best place in the world to live for generations to come. So it's been really exciting to meet people all across B.C., I've traveled to 12 different communities in the past three weeks, including Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake up North. And really the momentum and excitement of this growing Green movement and party has been profound. And I'm really excited that I might have the chance to be the next leader of this party,” he said.

Kerr has been releasing a new major “plank” of his platform every week, starting with Environment and Climate which are core to the values of the BC Green Party. In the past few weeks he has shared his platform on Cost of Living, Housing, and most recently, Energy Security and Innovation. He said Economy and Democracy will be next.

“I invite anyone that's interested in looking at my platform to visit JonathanKerr4BC.com and you will be able to read those. And I encourage you to give me feedback, I'm really accepting feedback and advice. This is a living platform and I'm trying to improve it as I go along,” he said.

Kerr shared an example of one platform piece he has already taken feedback on, from one of the communities he’s visited so far on his campaign.

“I released my Environment and Climate platform recently, and in part of that was a large section on forestry. And then when I was up in Prince George I had an opportunity to meet with the Conservation North Steering Committee, and this is a group that looks at protecting primary forests in the North, and they have really good forestry policy. And after meeting with them I made some big changes to my platform to incorporate the knowledge that I'm learning. So I'm a lifelong learner, I'm a family doctor, I love to learn, and as I travel the province I'll be doing this. I'll be incorporating good ideas that I come across as I meet people,” he said. 

Kerr said that while the BC Greens are known for, and will always be, the home to people that care about the environment they also have important policy on cost of living, housing, healthcare and energy.

“And so what I really am excited to share, and have been sharing, is all of these great ideas that BC Greens have on these other topics. And really, we know affordability is such an important issue right now across BC, and we have an amazing plan to tackle that. Including providing free public transit for all British Columbians, developing free universal pre-kindergarten integrated into the Ministry of Education, and [making] the tax system more progressive and fair,” Kerr said.

And when it comes to the Global Greens core tenet of Participatory Democracy, Kerr said that means involving citizens directly in forming the policies that govern them.

“I'll give you a little example of participatory democracy in my town here in Comox. So I sit on Comox council, and we had a forest and two wetlands that were slated for development. And local biologists, community members, came forward and said, ‘hey you know what, there's actually a red listed wetland, two of them in fact in this forest, and it shouldn't be destroyed.’ So with a lot of feedback, public input, conversations with the developer, we were able to save this part of the forest from being bulldozed. And it's a real win for the community and what democracy can do when it's working really well,” Kerr said.

A big piece of that is engaging people across diverse experiences, including youth.

“BC Greens have called for lowering the voting age to 16 in the next election, and I think that's something that we should do. We know youth in our province are interested, they really have a stake in the future of our economy and jobs and the environment, and they want to be involved,” Kerr said.

The BC Green Party has made the leadership contest more accessible to youth by making membership free for youth aged 14-29.

When it comes to the other candidates in the leadership race, Kerr said the party is lucky to have “three excellent candidates.” He said that what sets him apart is his experience as an elected Green on the Comox Council, where he was re-elected for his second term with the highest number of votes.

“Here in Comox I've been able to get things done for my constituents. For example, when I was knocking on doors in the election, the number one thing that I heard was ‘we need a family doctor. Our family needs a family doctor.’ So I set forth, set up a task force, worked with the Division of Family Practice, and we helped bring in 45 new family doctors and nurse practitioners in the Comox Valley in just three years. Which is amazing for our province and for our country, we're leading the country in this respect. And so people see, ‘yes, Jonathan, he's the environmental activist. He's the protect the forest and trees and tree canopy, but he also gets things done on other fronts like healthcare,’” he said.

Kerr also shared his experience as vice chair of the CVRD, championing the creation of a housing authority that he says will be set up by the end of the year. This will provide more below market rental housing, filling what he called a “desperate need” in the Comox Valley, and making a “huge dent in our housing crisis.”

Kerr said that if he wins the leadership race, this experience will apply because politics is about the same thing at every level, whether municipal or provincial. He said it is about listening to constituents, and working with others to make policies that will make a real difference in people’s lives.

“Politics at any level is really about relationships. It's about connecting with people in your community, those that you represent. I'm very fortunate to, whether I go to the grocery store or walk down the street, connect with people. They tell me about issues that are affecting their lives, and then I really set forth to do something about it. To have good policy, to make good decisions on council during meetings, to make sure that people's lives are improved,” he said.

Kerr also said his experience as a family doctor is great training for politics, with both roles sharing the same core responsibility to the people they serve.

“It's to listen to those in my community to really empathize and care about what they're going through in their lives. And then to find out, hey, let's diagnose the problem, what is the problem here? And then let's go about finding a solution and a treatment for it,” he said.

But not every story is a success story, and he sees the value in those moments too. Kerr shared how an early lesson in politics is that not everything will work out how you think it might. He recalled a recent loss of a forest slated for development in Comox, that the community came together to try and protect, but was clearcut in the end. He joined a ceremony called “Wake for the Trees” to respect the loss of urban forest.

“It was a powerful moment that, you know, I really worked hard to try to save this area, but it wasn't possible because of the market forces and economics and push for housing by the province. So, I learned from that though, and we move forward. We try to find ways that we can do better next time, but as a community it was a chance to get together, to learn from each other, to listen to each other, and to heal,” he said.

If he were to be elected party leader, Kerr does not know yet which riding he would run in, and says that is a strategic conversation with the party staff and strategy team that he looks forward to if he gets the chance. Not only discussing his own placement, but also positioning strong candidates in important ridings. 

Local riding Courtenay–Comox is known to be closely contested, with the tightest race in B.C. in 2017 according to the Times Colonist, and a margin of only 92 votes in the most recent election in 2024.

“The BC Green support in our riding, the Courtenay–Comox area, is really strong. We were one of the only two ridings in all the province that grew the Green vote in the last election, despite all of the market forces and tariff concerns and Trump concerns that affected this riding and made the smaller parties have more of a challenge. We saw that in the federal election as well, smaller parties didn't do as well. But when all of these clouds lift, we're gonna have even more support. The Green support in Courtenay–Comox riding provincially has grown in the last three elections, and it's on an upswing. So I'm really optimistic, no matter whoever the candidate is here locally, that will have a really good chance at the next election,” he said.

Kerr spoke highly of the most recent candidate, Arzeena Hamir.

“One of the core six values of the BC Greens and all Green parties around the world is respect for diversity, and we had an amazing candidate here in the last election, Arzeena Hamir, what a great example of a diverse, powerful, strong leader in our community. She has done so much with our local farm industry, working with local farmers and growers, and she's just been such a great voice here in the Comox Valley. And what I've been doing over the past three weeks is I've been traveling the province, looking for great candidates in every community across BC that we can ensure that we have a winning team going into the next election, a great platform and fantastic candidates to win more seats for the BC Greens in the next election,” he said.

Hamir spoke to CHLY and CVOX in April about the vote split, and strategic voting under the current First Past the Post electoral system.

Kerr said the most important thing for our province from a democratic standpoint is to have a better system of voting. He said he hopes that the government will heed whatever recommendations are made by the Electoral Reform Committee that is travelling the province to hear what people have to say.

“In that case, everyone's vote will matter. Everyone across the province, whether you are a progressive voter, Green or NDP voter in a very rural Conservative riding historically, your vote will matter. Let's say you're a Conservative and you live in downtown Victoria, which is mostly Green and orange country. Your vote will matter. So we really need a system where everyone's vote matters and we have the number of MLAs in the legislature that reflects the votes that happen by people across the province.”

When it came to his own campaign trail, Kerr was feeling positive about the conversations he’d had so far through various parts of B.C., and was looking forward to continuing his tour next in the Sunshine Coast, Nelson, and revisiting the capital city, meeting more Greens along the way. 

“And really feeling the momentum that we're having in this campaign has just been a really exciting thing for me as a candidate and for our whole team. Our team is very diverse, we have members from all across the province. And it's really been an exciting last few weeks, and the next few weeks will be even more exciting I'm sure,” he said.

Kerr said voting in the leadership contest is a valuable way to exercise one’s democratic rights.

“Party leadership races are the opportunity for people to get involved in politics where your vote counts so much more. It's such a small number of people that actually vote in a leadership race, and that really does change the direction of a party and even the province.  So I do encourage anyone, you need to sign up by August 10th in order to vote in the September election,” Kerr said.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with CVOX.