Tamara Davidson, Laanas, is campaigning to be the next BC NDP candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii.
If she wins the party nomination, Davidson will be a leading contender for North Coast-Haida Gwaii MLA in the upcoming provincial election set for Oct. 19.
Haida Gwaii News sat down with Davidson at a picnic table behind The Ground coffee shop in Masset on June 8, day two of what will be a very short nomination race. The BC NDP riding association for North Coast-Haida Gwaii is set to chose a candidate on June 29, less than two months since local NDP MLA Jennifer Rice announced she would not run for re-election in October.
“I really believe in putting people first,” Davidson said.
A manager with a 28-year career in the federal civil service, Davidson has long supported the NDP as a union member. She also believes the BC NDP have the best, most innovative housing policy in Canada right now.
“That really spoke to me because I was a single mom for 10 years, and trying to find affordable housing when you have a child, it’s really difficult,” she said.
“In our Haida way, we say ‘Everything is connected to everything else,’
and there is a strong link between housing and healthcare,” she added.
“Here and in Prince Rupert, the doctors and the nurses aren’t able to find affordable housing, and long term housing. So that impacts the healthcare people are receiving, especially on the North Coast.”
This will be Davidson’s second time running for elected office.
In 2021, she was elected as Council of the Haida Nation representative for T’agwaan, Vancouver. In that role, she joined the Haida Nation negotiations team for the recent Haida title agreement signed with the provincial government.
Davidson’s federal career included nearly three years as the visitor experience manager for Gwaii Haanas — a position that let her move from Vancouver to her Haida Gwaii homeland.
As a manager with Pacific Economic Development, Davidson has also done extensive planning work in several of the coastal First Nation communities in the North Coast-Haida Gwaii riding, including Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Lax Kw’alaams.
Asked what in particular she admires about the BC NDP’s housing policy, she said the province isn’t only providing money but also running flexible, opt-in programs that work for small municipalities as well as big cities.
Davidson said she wants to see more, but welcomed the recent housing projects led by non-profits like the Daajing Giids Housing Societies and by the Old Massett Village Council.
“I’m so happy to see, under the leadership of Duffy Edgars and the council, just how much they’ve changed the housing over the last three years in Old Massett,” she said, noting that the OMVC removed several vacant houses as well as built new ones.
“There was no uproar — people knew exactly what was happening,” she added.
Even Haidas living off-island heard about the housing plans, she said, because the OMVC housing coordinator held hybrid meetings in person and by teleconference.
Besides housing, Davidson is also concerned about infrastructure — at the recent Salmon Fest in Prince Rupert, she heard a lot about the ongoing work to finally replace the city’s aging water and sewer pipes after some critical failures had officials thinking about evacuation. Many of the city’s pipes date to the early 1900s, and their replacement has so far required a combined $142.2 million from the B.C. and federal governments.
“Now that they know that’s secure, what are the other big projects they’re going to be looking at?” she said.
When a passing supporter outside The Ground asked Davidson, “What’s your program, sister?” she smiled and said, “Haida title! Haida title now.”
Davidson said she isn’t sure the Haida title agreement and negotiation plans will be a campaign issue in the provincial election this October. But members of the BC United and BC Conservative parties did vote against the title agreement.
Davidson said the Haida Nation negotiations team tried twice to meet with BC United representatives before the B.C. legislature vote to try and allay their concerns.
“They didn’t really have solid concerns,” she said. “They just kept saying we need more time with this.”
But Davidson said the title agreement couldn’t wait any longer, given that the Haida title case is expected to go to trial in 2026. Without the title agreement, she said what is already expected to be a long trial would have run another 170 court days just to prove the Haida Nation has Aboriginal title on Haida Gwaii.
After campaigning at the coffee shop in Masset, Davidson was looking forward to some family business — driving down south to attend the Skidegate Haida graduation ceremony.
Six years ago, when Davidson’s mother was working with the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development, she began helping to raise a 12-year-old boy whose father is Haida father and whose mother is Tsimshian and Nisga’a. At the time, he was having a hard time and not attending school.
“Now he’s graduating,” Davidson said.
“He got his Haida name, he’s going to get a Haida blanket tonight. It’s just so exciting.”