Vancouver MP Davies stepping down in 2015

Activist politician spent four decades in public service

VANCOUVER — Libby Davies, the Vancouver activist who found herself catapulted into Ottawa as a federal member of Parliament, is calling it quits after 40 years of public service.

The outspoken NDP MP announced Friday at her campaign office that she will not seek reelection in the upcoming federal election, saying she doesn’t have the energy to run again.

“I just feel like it’s time to call it a day,” she said. “There can be a new voice for East Vancouver.”

The decision is bittersweet for Davies, 61, who said she loves her job and is grateful to the people in her riding of Vancouver East for helping her tackle tough issues in the Downtown Eastside such as housing, safe injection sites and the plight of missing women.

“What I’ve become known for is taking on issues that are controversial and sometimes very tough, but they’ve been really important for people in my community,” said Davies, who is deputy minister to NDP leader Tom Mulcair and has been a federal MP for 18 years. “I feel the people of East Vancouver stood by me when things got tough.”

Davies was 19 in 1972 when she dropped out of university to pursue social justice in the Downtown Eastside — at the time called Skid Road. She ran a low-cost food stall and, with friends, started a newspaper before running successfully for city council.

Those years at City Hall grounded Davies in what was important: helping people.

When she was chosen for the federal NDP nomination, winning by 26 votes, and then elected in 1997, Davies didn’t know what to expect. Having been responsible, as a city councillor, for all of Vancouver, she said it was a huge switch to have East Vancouver as her sole focus.

But it wasn’t long before Davies realized just how slow the wheels turned in Ottawa. Although she was dealing with same issues, she found it tough to get the ear of those making decisions at the federal level. She tried unsuccessfully to raise the issue of drug overdoses with Liberal Health Minister Allan Rock until she decided to revert to her activist roots. “I sat in his office and said ‘I refuse to leave until I get an appointment.’ ”