A visit to Vimy Ridge ranks among the reasons that inspired Chris Maxwell to run for the B.C. Greens in Victoria Swan-Lake.
“My emotional decision to run was a confluence of events and this was one of them,” said Maxwell in an interview after his party had nominated him.
Vimy Ridge was the site of a First World War battle, during which an Allied corps consisting largely of Canadian forces seized a domineering escarpment held by German forces occupying northern France in April 1917.
The battle claimed close to 4,000 lives on the Allied site and historians have considered it a coming-of-age moment in Canadian history.
For Maxwell, the visit to the battlefield with its famed monument designed by Walter Seymour Allward, was a special occasion.
Maxwell’s son Leo bears the name of Chris’ grandfather Leonard, who was named after his uncle, who died at Vimy Ridge.
Maxwell said the experience of visiting Vimy Ridge was eye-opening.
Generations today are born into a democratic system, a system that had to be defended at great costs a century ago, Maxwell said.
“Being at Vimy Ridge crystallized what our great-grandparents did for us,” said Maxwell.
Other factors that inspired Maxwell to run included the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, the state of political ethics in British Columbia and threats to evidence-based policy making.
This said, Maxwell’s visit to Vimy Ridge points to the role that family plays in Maxwell’s political ambitions.
Maxwell visited Vimy Ridge as part of a European family vacation that also took him to Scotland’s Caerlaverock Castle, the historic seat of the Maxwell Clan.
And if these familiar roots are more distant, Maxwell’s local ties run deep.
“I was born and raised in Victoria just down the road from what is now Uptown Mall,” he said.
Maxwell attended Colquitz and Spectrum before completing a degree in biochemistry at UVic, according to biographical information from the B.C. Green Party.
His brother also serves as a vice-principal in Victoria, his sister-in-law is a teacher and his sister has represented Victoria as a Special Olympian in speed-skating. Maxwell’s grandfather and grandmother lived in Victoria-Swan Lake, while his uncle and aunt still do.
But Maxwell himself currently does not. He currently lives in Vancouver, where he works at B.C. Children’s Hospital.
While provincial election laws do not require candidates to live in the ridings where they run, voters may be skeptical of perceived outsiders.
Maxwell rejects the suggestion that voters could see him that way in light of his familiar ties. “I don’t think me being an outsider will come up,” he said.
While Maxwell and his family have previously lived in the United States and Spain’s Catalonia region, he considers Victoria home and his familiar connections speak to this point.
Should Maxwell win, he and his family plan to move to Victoria.
Overall, Maxwell plans to raise four major issues during the campaign: the economy and the related issue of affordability, evidence-based policy making, ethics, and education.
He said the B.C. Greens – unlike the B.C. Liberals and the New Democrats – are not a “political machine” beholden to various donors, be it from the corporate sector or unions.
“Both machines are greased – the B.C. Green Party is not,” he said.
Maxwell does not see elections as “confrontational.” He said his run is not a personal competition between him and NDP incumbent Rob Fleming or the B.C. Liberal candidate.
“I believe in the Green Party of B.C,” he said. “I believe in their platform.”
This said, Maxwell stressed that he is not just running to fill a slot on the ballot.
“I’m there to win.”