The former NDP MP for Vancouver East (1997-2015) Libby Davies discusses her new book Outside In: A Political Memoir (Between the Lines, 2019), with Joseph Planta.

Outside In: A Political Memoir by Libby Davies (Between the Lines, 2019). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Outside In

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Libby Davies joins me again. She has just published a new book: Outside In: A Political Memoir. It’s a great read because it chronicles her early years in politics beginning in the 1970s as a community organiser in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, known as Skid Row back then. She discusses her partnership with Bruce Eriksen, one that yields a son, as well as the political activism that propels both of them to Vancouver’s city council, where she served from 1982 to 1993. She ran for mayor in 1993, losing, and soon after lost Eriksen, who died in 1997, the same year she was first elected to the House of Commons. The book talks about her advocacies, the causes she championed be it homelessness, workers’s rights, and ending drug prohibition, among others. The book is useful in how it chronicles a lot of history that would have otherwise gone unwritten about. It is also fascinating in how it gives the reader a unique perspective in how politics works, either here in Vancouver, or in Ottawa. Libby Davies was the MP for Vancouver East until 2015 when she retired. She was also deputy leader of the New Democratic Party. Named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2016, Ms. Davies is Canada’s first openly lesbian MP. The Twitter handle is @LibbyDavies. This new book is published by Between the Lines. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Libby Davies; Ms. Davies, good morning.

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