Mark Vella is not disappointed in the showing of ParentsVoice BC candidates in Coquitlam and Port Moody.
The founder and president of the B.C. elector organization says the shutout of the group's Tri-City school trustee candidates in the Oct. 15 municipal election is just a setback due to a short timeline.
He said the voter support across the province is a building block toward more success in the future.
"We're the vessel of this growing movement. We’ve had lots of people who are interested in running for us next time," said Vella.
In Coquitlam, voters chose incumbent candidates plus a previous school trustee over three ParentsVoiceBC candidates by a 3,000-vote margin while, in Port Moody, the ParentsVoiceBC candidate came in last with 1,330 votes.
However, Vella points to the election of a candidate in Chillwack and two in Nechako Lakes as signs that his group has a foundation it can build on for 2026 school board elections.
Vella attributes the local election losses to the fact that the group only got started in June — and only had time to field 28 candidates, although it raised $100,000.
As well, he said some media unfairly criticized the group as socially conservative or anti-SOGI when, in fact, he said it's a centre–right electoral organization that's working to counter union-supported candidates.
"The key that what we wanted to do is be a counter to the unions. In our mind, the unions are a quasi provincial party. They win with professionally run campaigns. There was nothing equivalent on the right until now," said Vella.
At the school board level, he said parents want more transparency in policies and decision-making.
But when asked why ParentsVoice BC candidates in Coquitlam and Port Moody weren't more open about their views, he said the electoral organization let them decide what they wanted to say.
Candidates were given the freedom to choose their stances depending on their own particular situation and community, Vella said.
"The media was already putting hit pieces out on us, so it looked like we weren’t going to get a fair shake," said Vella, adding, it was "up to the candidate if they wanted to speak."
'Take back our schools'
But despite ParentsVoiceBC's campaign slogan "Take Back Our Schools," there was with no specific mention of what that meant.
SOGI wasn't in the group's policy or literature, and although Vella has written in the BC Catholic about the importance of Christians being active in politics, the group stayed away from espousing social conservative issues on its website.
Locally, it was hard to tell where Coquitlam and Port Moody candidates stood on issues such as SOGI and diversity of gender identity in schools.
One Tri-City resident did try to get more information on candidates running in Coquitlam, especially as to whether they supported the province's education around SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.)
Nicola Spurling, a local social justice advocate, sent questionnaires to all Coquitlam council and school board candidates, canvassing their opinion on a number of issues, including whether they supported SOGI policy.
Parents Voice candidates Belinda Wheatley, Danlel Westley and Geoffrey Way did not respond to the question, while the elected candidates all said they supported it in the results posted to her blog.
Spurling, a former Green Party candidate who also previously ran for a Coquitlam city council seat, said she tried to help voters make informed decisions, but she's not sure what impact she had on the election result.
"I think it [the result] shows voters don’t either like slates because they were running together as one organization, or it might indicate voters didn’t like what they stood for or thought they stood for."
Vella, meanwhile, said parents are confused about issues, and though he didn't mention SOGI specifically or Coquitlam, said his group will spend the next four years firming up ideas and policy on issues that his candidates heard on the doorstep.
