Leader profile: Sonia Furstenau on pinball and her personal motivation in politics

She loves to swear, likes pinball and was a track star in high school. She’s also the only British Columbia party leader who’s been through an election in that role before.

Meet the BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau.

“This is my life,” says Furstenau while playing pinball at an arcade in downtown Victoria with the start of the election campaign still 10 days away. “How many balls do I have to juggle at the same time?"

Furstenau gets a kick out of pinball. She says it’s a lot like politics.

“You never know what’s going to happen next in politics, as we saw a couple weeks ago when an entire political party was folded in a backroom,” says Furstenau, referring the shocking collapse of BC United.

The arcade game brings back memories of her teenage years in Edmonton. But it’s running that was her real passion in high school. She was an Edmonton city champ, ranked second in Alberta, and a record-holder for under-16 girls in the 800-metre race. It’s a distance known to be mentally grueling and tricky to time, a lot like a political campaign.

“Let them set the pace,” she says animatedly, describing her strategy as she chased the leaders in a race. “I would literally just put my pace exactly behind them, and then I would save enough for the last 200 metres to go.”

The 54-year-old mother of three children and two stepchildren is about to welcome a new member to her family. Her eldest child is having his own child.

“I am going to be a grandmother in November, and I'm really excited,” she says with a big smile.

The pending granny does love knitting to relax. “Two sticks and a ball of yarn and you can make yourself a sweater,” she says matter-of-factly.

But she also likes to curse, a lot. “I've actually seen some research that swearing can lower your blood pressure and be a stress releaser,” she says.

And she swears she has a chance of winning in her new riding, the NDP stronghold of Victoria-Beacon Hill. “In B.C., we’ve had a two-party system for so long that we think that ridings belong to one party or another. They do not.”

She rejects the idea that she’s running in the capital because boundary changes to the Cowichan riding – where she won twice – made a three-peat there a longshot.

Furstenau instead emphasizes her deep roots in Victoria, where she has multiple degrees from UVic, where she lived prior to the Cowichan Valley, and where her grandparents were the first of four generations to go to college.

“It made sense for us to come back to Victoria, come back to our home,” she says.

'Hardest year of my life'

The former bookkeeper and high school teacher never saw herself as a politician, let alone leading a major political party, but life’s unpredictable bounces led her to it.

She emerged on the political landscape after spearheading a successful grassroots campaign to end the dumping of contaminated waste near Shawnigan Lake.

“I had no plan, no intention of ever being in politics. I’m a mom, I’m a teacher, I have a busy life,” she says.

Political motivation continues to be personal for her. On health care for example, she’s driven by the events of 2001, when her dad and stepmom both died of cancer without a timely diagnosis or treatment.

“That was definitely the hardest year of my life,” she recalled. “They both died of cancer and they both died within a very short time of being diagnosed.”

The Green Party leader knows her party – and her candidacy – are in for a challenge, but says she’s been underestimated before.

“I really want to be your MLA,” she says confidently to a couple she’s just met on Fisgard Street in Victoria’s Chinatown. “I promise you one thing: I’m going to work really, really hard,” she tells them.

She also says she can finish a race strong and react to the unexpected bounces that are B.C. politics.