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Retired journalist Susan Einarsson running for OneBC in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows
Former broadcaster Susan Einarsson is carrying OneBC’s banner in Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows. She says the party’s priorities reflect her own, including reducing provincial debt, changing health-care and education policies, and repealing B.C.’s Indigenous rights declaration law.
Retired broadcast journalist Susan Einarsson is running for OneBC in the Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows riding. She said she chose to run for the new party because its platform mirrors her views. OneBC was formed in June last year by former Conservative MLAs Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong; Armstrong has since left the party, and Brodie is now its leader.
Einarsson said the NDP government led by David Eby has increased spending to the point that B.C.’s debt for 2026-27 is forecast to exceed $180 billion. She cited the province’s own report, which puts the figure at twice the $90 billion recorded five years earlier. She said the debt is crippling the province financially and that she sees no sign the NDP will balance budgets and avert a crisis.
Health care is another priority. Einarsson said OneBC would allow private care to operate alongside the public system. She said she has personally waited five years for treatment and has family members who have been unable to get the care they need. She said the system is broken and private health care is necessary, adding that people die while on waiting lists. She said she has seen close up how the system is failing and finds it difficult to watch people suffer.
Einarsson supports her party’s position that B.C. should repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and declare that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has no force in the province. She said DRIPA threatens private property rights, requires all B.C. laws to align with UNDRIP, and affects the forestry and mining industries.
On education, she said schools should focus more on instruction and supports OneBC’s position to repeal guidelines for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) education. She said SOGI was well-intended as an effort to reduce bullying and discrimination but has not been well executed. She said young children should not be shown the material. Schools need to provide an academic education, she added, because students are falling behind.
Einarsson said Eby called an election two years before it was necessary and wrongly blamed U.S. President Donald Trump and his trade war for problems caused by the NDP government. She said there was no actual reason for him to call the election: his job was to stand up for British Columbians and negotiate with the province’s closest trading partner, and she believes he is not doing that job.
Einarsson worked as a journalist with News 1130, CKNW and CFMI over a 25-year career, and taught journalism at BCIT for 13 years. She was also a longtime member of the federal Conservative Party in the Pitt Meadows–Maple Ridge riding. She owns a news organization that shares local stories on social media.