Cowichan Valley Regional District

And that was a really hard contrast for Premier Eby to be up against, particularly given the challenges that had happened in the past year, the budget...

Some of the DRIPO-related decisions, the Cowichan decision, a whole pile of things that the premier had yet to address and fix and didn't come to the campaign with solutions for those things.

So up against normal, it was a real tough pivot versus up against Carolyn Finley, which would have been a very different campaign.

Speaking to Michael Gardiner, managing partner at Current Public Affairs, former executive director of the BC NDP, and he's the director of John Horgan's successful leadership campaign.

The words repeal, I don't agree with it.

There was a lot of pressure given the Cowichan decision and you take a look at other decisions that were made on Vancouver Island.

But the reality is Indigenous people have been trying to negotiate Crown land, which is the treaty lands or territorial lands back into their community.

That's been going on for 30 years.

604-669-3733, 1-800-825-5950.

And let's go to Adrienne in the Cowichan Valley.

Hi, Adrienne.

Thanks very much for calling in.

What would be the impact of repealing DRIPA?

I am a Métis Nation British Columbia citizen protected in the Cowichan Valley.

I'm also a member of Métis Nation Alberta, or Chippewa-Missouk government.

who I had to go to to open genealogy to confirm my inclusion under Métis Nation Alberta.

Additionally, we have nine wine regions.

And as I'm sure you know, a Pinot Noir from the Similkameen is an entirely different Pinot Noir than the ones you find in the Cowichan Valley or something like that.

The diversity of that is fascinating.

But from a membership perspective, that all adds up to something.

This is where you get your exposure to BC wine.

It's also wine trade and wine media like you, right? We want you to come and talk to the people who actually make the wine because the people behind those tables pouring them, these are often the brand new 2025 vintages, right? Or stuff that they, you know, the red wines have been aging for a few years.

They want to showcase what they have and you get to meet the people who grew those grapes who planted them and picked them and you know the winemakers and you get to have those conversations about their individual business find out their story it is the best way to explore BC wine and what I'm particularly about particularly excited about this year too is I think we have someone from all of our nine wine regions and so you can go around the room and as I said earlier you can taste Pinot Noir from the Similkameen and then taste you know Avril Creek from the Cowichan Valley and you'd be like wow that diversity of what we can do in They can't grow Syrah on the island, but they can down into Soyuz, right? And we've got that kind of excitement going on, different sparkling wines, new products.

So, yeah, it's a huge day.

Royal Roads University's David Black said a rising Green vote could put several island NDP seats at risk.

He named Cowichan Valley, Wanda-Fukamalahat, Nanaimo-Landsville, Mid-Island Pacific Rim, and Ladysmith Oceanside.

NDP leader David Ebby appeared to acknowledge the vote-splitting threat.

He told undecided voters and people leaning green that every vote will matter.

Yeah, it's super cool.

I mean, it's one of the things I've always loved about Souk and the island itself, because you could see this all over the island, whether you're in Victoria or in Cowichan or Duncan or wherever you are, is that there's all these small little farmers and producers sort of all over the island.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, I talked to a lot of chefs here in Vancouver and they say, well, where are all those, where are those people here? Like they're hard to find.