Coastal BC has been a stronghold of the socialist NDP in both federal and provincial politics, and the leftist wave did not “spread up the west coast into Canada” as I read here, it was here probably before it became so prevalent in the western states. Leftist politics have a very long history in Canada, there were some communist MPs elected in the late 1940s, and although the formal communist and Marxist-Leninist parties never gained traction, the hard-left NDP has always received 10 to 20 per cent of the vote, from those who find the Liberals not far enough left for their liking. And in British Columbia the New Democrats have been in power more frequently than the center-right alternative parties which keep changing names and alignments from one cycle to another. (Social Credit to Liberal to Conservative in past few decades — the B.C. Liberal Party was not really liberal but conservative and morphed into the B.C. Conservative Party around 2020, Social Credit was nothing to do with Chinese ideology but was a party name at federal and provincial levels, big in B.C., Alberta and rural Quebec back around the 1960s and 1970s).
Homeless druggies in BC towns and cities — not only a coastal phenomenon but largely so because it’s too cold in winter for the homeless to survive inland, even though a few try to do so, same in Alberta. It’s not a native thing either, first nations communities in the Prince Rupert region are actually quite prosperous and well governed by their own people. A lot of the down and outers on B.C. city streets have migrated west from Ontario and the prairies where they would live that way except for the harsh winter climate; also, drugs are easier to find in B.C. — solutions are no brainers but the lefties are not all that bright)
Good info from one who knows the story. Thanks!