VANCOUVER—Dozens of labour leaders clad in turquoise scarves marched in near unison behind their chosen leader toward a microphone on the floor of the B.C. labour movement’s biennial parliament this November, with more than 1,000 rank-and-file union members looking on.
At the helm were Laird Cronk, the down-to-earth electrician set to be coronated as the head of the province’s most powerful movement, and Stephanie Smith, the woman in charge of B.C.’s second-largest union, who did the honours of nominating him.