Leah Main, the NDP candidate for the Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding (photo courtesy of the NDP)

By Liam Verster

Election 2025

U.S. tariff and annexation threats ‘make my blood boil’: NDP candidate

Apr 7, 2025 | 1:00 PM

One of the local candidates running in the 2025 Federal Election believes the U.S. threats of trade war and annexation to be the main issues facing Canadians.

Leah Main is the New Democrat Party candidate in the Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding.

Speaking with Vernon Matters, Main said she believed the strained relationship between Canada and the U.S. is the key issue in the coming election, as the United States continues to threaten a trade war with tariffs and annexation with comments about Canada becoming the 51st state.

“It makes my blood boil,” Main said when speaking about the rhetoric coming out of the U.S.

“I don’t know how to express the depth of my anger and of my resolution that I will fight for Canada in this trade war, and I know that I speak for millions of Canadians when I say this. It doesn’t matter what party, what leanings you have, Canada is Canada, and will always remain a sovereign country.”

Slope Stability Concerns

Highway 1 closed near Sicamous due to rockslide risk

Apr 12, 2025

Carryovers from 2024

Vernon has over $40M in carryover projects

Apr 11, 2025

Birth Rate Decreases

North, Central Okanagan birth rates decline

Apr 11, 2025

In further discussions of the trade war, Main said the NDP want to address the concerns by expanding trade with other partners outside the U.S.

“We will fight the tariff war, we will win the tariff war, and part of the way we will win that war is by diversifying our economy, protecting jobs, working with other nations on other continents to establish trade routes that are not solely dependent on one other country,” Main explained.

The NDP have never formed government in Canada, but Main said she believed in her party’s ability to play a key role after this election, noting she wants it to be a minority government so the parties have to work together.

“What I really would like to see is a Liberal minority government that still needs the support of the Bloc [Quebecois], of the NDP, to push to bring the programs that people need,” Main told Vernon Matters.

“Parliament functions best when it is a minority government and when parties have to work together.”

She noted that was the case under the last government, as the NDP was successful in getting through key initiatives like $10/day child care, dental care, and pharmacare during the last several years’ working with the Liberals. She added the NDP would be willing to work with any party that forms government as long as their priorities are also addressed.

Main was born in New York but immigrated to Canada in 1967. In 1971 she moved to the Slocan Valley, where she still lives.

She served as councillor in the Village of Silverton from 2009 to 2024, and represented the village in the Regional District of Central Kootenay from 2011 to 2024. Main also was a member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities from 2015 to 2024 where she worked with the Federal Government to develop and deliver programs benefiting municipalities across the country.

Main said she had been a long-time NDP supporter to due the party’s progressive social and economic policies.

She believed she would be a good representative for the Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding due to her background and experience working with local, regional and federal government, saying she believes she could “bring our combined voice to Parliament.”

Main told Vernon Matters that, aside from the faltering relationship with the U.S., there were two other key issues to address in the local riding: the cost of living and health care.

The NDP candidate noted health care is a shared responsibility of both the federal and provincial governments, but she would commit to doing her part as an MP if elected to bolster health care funding in this riding and across Canada. To address the cost of living issue, Main said she would advocate for workers rights and wages, and the NDP would fight to ensure big corporations do not leave Canada.

General voting day for the 2025 Federal Election will go on April 28.