Less than 48 hours before Saturday’s provincial election, the three candidates vying to represent the riding of Coquitlam-Maillardville set aside their political differences Thursday to present a united front against bigotry and transphobia.
BC NDP incumbent Selina Robinson, as well as BC Liberal candidate Will Davis, joined the BC Green party hopeful Nicola Spurling for a Burma Shave event at the corner of Lougheed Highway and King Edward during the busy afternoon rush hour.
The remarkable demonstration of tri-partisan unity was sparked after Spurling said she was confronted, and her supporters harassed, by a man she identified as Chris Elston during a similar campaigning event on Wednesday at the corner of Lougheed and Barnet highways. The man wore a black sandwich board over his shoulders with “I (heart) JK Rowling” painted on the front in large white block letters.
Elston was recently linked to the erection of a large billboard in Vancouver that expressed the same sentiment and triggered a backlash both on and offline.
Rowling, a British author famous for her Harry Potter series of novels, has been under fire for comments she’s made on social media equating gender as a biological trait. That unleashed a global backlash from the transgender community that argued “sex isn’t the same as gender.”
Last May, a tweet on the issue posted by Spurling caught the notice of Rowling, who threatened legal action. The Coquitlam LGBTQ2+ advocate subsequently deleted her tweet.
Then, in September, Spurling brought attention to transphobic comments she said were left on her Facebook page by the leader of the B.C. Ecosocialist party, Stuart Parker, resulting in his resignation.
On Thursday afternoon, as Spurling’s supporters and her political rivals Robinson and Davis gathered in the parking lot of a Canadian Tire store, a man who said he wanted to be called “Billboard Chris” and wearing a sandwich board supportive of Rowling walked around the edges of the growing crowd, often extending his hand holding a cellphone in front of him to record video of the scene. Two members of Coquitlam RCMP stood nearby, their arms crossed.
When someone held up a campaign sign to block the man’s shot, he complained to the officers that he wasn’t being afforded the six feet of social distance required to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Robinson, clutching a small rainbow flag, said the show of support was bigger than politics.
“Hate has no place in the community, regardless of political affiliation,” she said. “At the end of the day, I expect British Columbians stand up for each other.”
Davis, wearing a rainbow bowler hat said, “A person’s choice to self-identify needs to be protected and supported,” adding it’s important to stand up to those “who want to intimidate.”
Spurling said she was taken aback by the support.
“I think it’s absolutely incredible.”
Unable to make any headway with the police officers in his pitch for protection, “Billboard Chris” — accompanied by a videographer — moved out to one of the traffic islands, shadowed every step by a handful of Spurling’s supporters, who waved flags and signs to distract from his message. They were soon joined by the rest of the throng that had grown to about 30 people. Several motorists in passing vehicles honked their horns.
The delicate dance for attention continued to the intersection’s other three islands, pausing only when someone pointed out a faint rainbow had appeared against the dark storm clouds gathering in the sky to the north and east.
