The People’s Party of Canada candidate in Vancouver Granville is challenging her high-profile former boss for a seat in Parliament in the fall’s federal election.

Naomi Chocyk worked in the office of Jody Wilson-Raybould for several months between 2016 to 2017.

Chocyk, a political science student, said she first got involved with Wilson-Raybould’s office when she reached out to her then-Liberal federal representative asking for her help to resolve an issue with her national student loan. She called it a “non-partisan” visit, which led her to volunteering with Wilson-Raybould’s office, before she eventually became employed as a constituency assistant.

Chocyk said she’s always been a “Conservative ideological supporter,” even prior to being involved with Wilson-Raybould’s office in her riding. She left Wilson-Raybould’s office on good terms, she said, although she “never really agreed” with the former attorney general and justice minister’s policies.

“I had hope and I had positive feelings about Jody and what she might mean for the new government, but over time I was more disappointed,” Chocyk said.

Chocyk’s contract with Wilson-Raybould’s office came to an end before the now-Independent MP became one of the most well-known members of the Trudeau government, as the central figure in the SNC-Lavalin affair. After her contract with Wilson-Raybould’s Vancouver Granville office came to an end, and before Maxime Bernier split with the Conservatives to start the People’s Party last year, Chocyk said she got a membership with the Conservative Party.

She said she was attracted to Bernier’s vision for reforming equalization payments, which is the federal government’s system of transferring money to the provinces to ensure Canadians in all provinces have access to equal services.

Bernier has pledged to reform the equalization payment system, which since it was created in 1957 has frequently been seen as favouring Quebec. Last year, Quebec received $11.7 billion of a total $19 billion paid out in equalization payments nationwide.

However, on a per-capita basis last year, Quebec received the least in equalization payments of the provinces receiving the funds, which also included P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba. British Columbia hasn’t received payments through the federal government’s equalization system this decade.

Specifically, the People’s Party wants to reduce the total amount paid to provinces, making sure that only those that are most desperate receive them. It also wants to look into creating a new formula for the system.

Chocyk tried to become the People’s Party nominee in the nearby riding of Burnaby North-Seymour, but the party chose Rocky Dong as its candidate in that riding instead.

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Chocyk was acclaimed as the People’s Party candidate in Vancouver Granville on June 25. She said if elected, she would like to bring constituency-focused representation to the riding, something she said her former boss fell short on.

“For example, seniors that were having trouble getting their OAS (Old Age Security) and GIS (Guaranteed Income Supplement) payments … Not that they disappeared, but that was something that I was given other priorities to work on that I didn’t feel were as important,” Chocyk said.

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