MP Aaron Gunn to host town halls; Cortes Island possible stop

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Our local MP, Aaron Gunn, is holding a series of town hall meetings in the North-Island Powell River riding. He will be in Courtenay tonight (Feb 17), Campbell River on February 21, Port McNeil on March 16 and Powell River on March 19.  Gunn may also come to Cortes Island, but the dates have not been set.  Aaron Gunn: " We want to come to Cortes, but if I just come to Cortes with no plan - I haven't really accomplished anything other than a photo op. So we always try to set up some kind of coffee or meeting where people that live there know that I'm coming and if they want to come and engage, they have an opportunity to do so." Cortes Currents: We will promote it on the radio. We will promote it over our bulletin board. It's called the Tideline. The size of the crowd's hard to tell, could be as few as 20, or as many as 100. The hundred would be surprising, but who knows? We haven't had a Conservative candidate or politician on the island for years. Aaron Gunn: It's always better to have more people show up, but the most important thing from my perspective is you give everyone an opportunity to come out and voice their opinions and ask their questions. Different communities certainly have different amounts of political engagement. Power River has an incredible amount of engagement for the size of its community.We'll see how the Comox Valley goes tomorrow, but of course only half of the valley's in my riding. So a bunch of people who I'm not representing might show up at the door, but that's okay." While the Conservative party saw increased support on Cortes during the last election, Gunn will face a variety of perspectives.  Max Thaysen, the alternate director for Cortes Island and co-leader of the Cortes Climate Action Network, responded, "I welcome him to come and I will be happy to ask him some questions, find out more about what he thinks about some really important stuff. I think having open and public dialogue with people who've been elected to the House of Commons is very important. There were some early concerns that Aaron Gunn was not interested in hearing from constituents. That was something that I heard in a few different places from people who were trying to get hold of him to share their concerns with him. I think he's become more open to hearing from people and sharing with them. That's a good thing." "I also want to say that, as a very climate concerned person, I am very concerned about the public position that the Conservative party has taken. It borders on climate denial and that is very dangerous. I think we'll have some pretty serious conversations to have. I hope we get lots of people out. It should be fun. Come bring your own questions." Cortes Currents asked Gunn what he hoped to achieve through his town hall meetings. Aaron Gunn: "The primary vision is to give constituents an opportunity to hear directly from me and ask any questions that might be on their mind. We get hundreds of emails every week and try to meet with as many constituents as possible, but this is a very efficient and transparent way to engage with the people that you're representing and give them a chance to hold you accountable."