Mental health advocate and Esquimalt council member Darlene Rotchford was nominated as a last-minute candidate to represent the New Democratic Party for the Esquimalt-Colwood riding ahead of the B.C. Provincial election on Oct. 19.

Darlene Rotchford, a longtime Greater Victoria resident and NDP supporter, has been working in the mental health and substance-use field for 18 years. In 2022, she was elected to the Esquimalt council.

"I got to do some door-knocking, even though its been a short time since I got the nomination. [The election] is going to be a wild ride and I'm super excited for it because I get to meet new people in my community and [be active] in a bigger part of my community," she told Black Press.

While speaking with fellow community members, she's identified three issues that are concerning the residents of the riding - housing, healthcare, and child care.

"We have a lot of families, or people in general, who are struggling to find childcare, myself included," she said. 

Rotchford said the current NDP has supported families through childcare subsidies and have aided in building new childcare centres, but "there's still a lot of work to be done".

As someone who has worked in the mental health field for nearly two decades, she hopes to open new facilities and start new programs to support those with mental health and substance-use complications.

"I think we need to remind the public and ourselves that it doesn't look one way. Everyone struggles with mental health, not everyone who struggles with mental health has an addiction," she said. "People with addiction come from all walks of life and different backgrounds, and making sure everyone gets the care they need, when they need it, is really important to me."

She hopes the government will continue to support the healthcare system, though she does say it has progressively been getting better for B.C. residents.

"We still have a lot of work to do. When I'm talking to people who don't have a doctor, but we're saying 'at a rapid rate we're looking at solutions,' I can appreciate where they're struggling," she said. "So, we're looking at that and working with different models to make sure we're bettering our health care system as a whole."

She has been the NDP supporter before her nomination, working in the riding associations of former Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Maurine Karagianis and Mitzi Dean.

Despite being nominated at the "last-minute", Rotchford will soon take leave from her council position; she has been door-knocking and meeting with potential constituants, and she's been learning the NDP's policy's before the election, which is just weeks away.

"I'm a person of consensus and I want to make sure our community, if elected MLA, the people know they have someone who is there for their community and that, to me, is more important than anything."