{"id":45162,"date":"2024-10-11T01:50:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T08:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=45162"},"modified":"2024-10-09T13:44:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T20:44:46","slug":"issues-close-to-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2024\/10\/11\/issues-close-to-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Issues close to heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Policy priorities of Claire Rattee, the BC Conservative Party candidate in the riding of Skeena, include mental health and addictions, low-income housing, emergency weather shelters, economic development, and antisemitism. <\/i>(photo from conservativebc.ca<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

There is not much of a Jewish community in Kitimat, but Claire Rattee hopes that, if she is elected to the legislature in the northwest riding of Skeena this month, she will be able to raise the visibility.<\/p>\n

Rattee originates from the Lower Mainland and moved to Kitimat 13 years ago. She served a term on Kitimat city council, ran twice for the federal Conservatives and is now seeking to be elected as the Conservative MLA for the sprawling riding, which encompasses Terrace, as well as Kitimat, and smaller communities along the Alaska border and in the interior of the region. The constituency has a history of swinging between parties. It has been won in the past two elections by Ellis Ross, who was elected as a BC Liberal and is leaving provincial politics to run federally as a Conservative. The Liberal party became BC United and subsequently folded its campaign. Rattee said the decision to unite the right-of-centre campaign was felt palpably in her door-to-door campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were already looking very good here in this riding at that point,\u201d she said. \u201cBut that definitely changed things significantly.\u2026 Now, it\u2019s essentially just going to be a two-way race between myself and the NDP candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rattee is running against Terrace city councilor Sarah Zimmerman, who was nominated as the BC NDP candidate in June.<\/p>\n

Close to Rattee\u2019s heart are policies around support for people experiencing addictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my later years of high school, I basically had some problems with drugs \u2026 where I was in active addiction and my family was obviously trying to help me to get out of that and, eventually, I decided that I was ready,\u201d she told the Independent<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Rattee turned 19 in treatment and then thought a change of environment would be helpful. After moving to Kitimat, she became an entrepreneur and sought to get involved in the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, with my background, I\u2019ve got a lot of passion for addressing the issues of mental health and addictions,\u201d she said. \u201cThe lack of treatment facilities in this region is extremely frustrating for me, just based on the experiences that I went through.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Low-income housing and emergency weather shelters for people experiencing homelessness are also priorities. Economic development in the region is an issue she championed on council, she said, and she wants the area recognized as the economic driver it is in the province.<\/p>\n

Rattee\u2019s parents converted to Judaism around the time she was born, she said, but sent the kids to Christian schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not Orthodox,\u201d she said. \u201cMy father ran a sort of church service and we had about 50 people that were a part of that organization and my father still runs Bible study every Saturday and I try to partake in that via Zoom when I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to clarify if she considers herself Christian or Jewish, Rattee said that she and her three siblings consider themselves Jewish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit confusing,\u201d she said. \u201cNot to get into the weeds on it too much, but I would essentially consider ourselves converts. My father was raised Catholic but he converted to Judaism when I was born and so we follow Torah, we respect the Talmud, but we\u2019re not Orthodox.\u201d Her mother also converted, she said, but returned to Christianity after the parents separated.<\/p>\n

Rattee said she is proud that her party has released a \u201ccomprehensive antisemitism strategy.\u201d The proposal, unveiled Sept. 20, calls for the adoption of the International Holocaust\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Remembrance Alliance\u2019s definition of antisemitism; linking funding for universities to accountability on student safety, including that of Jewish students; launching an investigation into Samidoun, a Vancouver-based group with ties to extremism; increased provincial funding for JWest, the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver; and an inquiry into the BC Teachers\u2019 Federation on issues of Israel and Palestine, among other commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly right now in this political climate, we\u2019re seeing a significant rise in antisemitism,\u201d said Rattee. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very clear from the outset, our party leader has been clear from the outset, that we stand with the Jewish people, we stand with Israel.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policy priorities of Claire Rattee, the BC Conservative Party candidate in the riding of Skeena, include mental health and addictions, low-income housing, emergency weather shelters, economic development, and antisemitism. (photo from conservativebc.ca) There is not much of a Jewish community in Kitimat, but Claire Rattee hopes that, if she is elected to the legislature in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23057,23432,23550,3249,3597],"class_list":["post-45162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-bc-conservatives","tag-bc-election","tag-claire-rattee","tag-elections","tag-politics"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}