Newly elected BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan released a bold and humorous video this week confronting some of the province’s wealthiest residents directly from Vancouver’s Billionaires Row. The video — her first major public statement since winning the leadership — reinforces her campaign’s signature theme: challenging oligarchic power in British Columbia.
“A lot of people ask, ‘Who are the oligarchs?’” Lowan says at the start of the video. “So we’re here on Billionaires Row in Vancouver to ask them ourselves.” With a mix of satire and sharp political critique, Lowan knocks on the doors of luxury homes and asks their owners what they think about a wealth tax.
At one property, a resident appears on the intercom but insists they are “not home.” Lowan, undeterred, politely asks: “What do you think about a wealth tax?” The response: taxes are already too high.
The newly minted Green leader then walks up to the province’s most expensive residential property — Chip Wilson’s $82-million mansion — only to find no one answering the door. “We had no response at Chip’s first house,” Lowan notes, “so we stopped by his other oceanside property.” Once again, there is silence.
Speaking directly to the camera outside Wilson’s home, Lowan references his multi-billion-dollar fortune, his influence in Vancouver politics, and his controversial record. “Come on, Chip,” she says in the video. “You have your own day. You’re best friends with the mayor. You’ll just need to chip in, pay your fair share, and we’re all going to get along a little better.”
While comedic on the surface, the message is unmistakably serious. Lowan’s political rise has been defined by her calls for wealth redistribution, a provincial wealth tax, and a crackdown on corporate influence — issues that have resonated deeply with young people, renters, and working-class British Columbians.
The video concludes with Lowan suggesting that the wealthy may be “hard at work fixing the problems they created,” before offering a more likely explanation: “They’re up in David Eby’s office lobbying for more tax breaks.”
With the BC Greens now under her leadership, Lowan is sending a clear signal about the direction of the party: directly confronting concentrated wealth and political power, reshaping BC politics around class inequality, and challenging the economic elite who have dominated the province’s housing and policy landscape.
“If the billionaires won’t answer our questions,” Lowan says in the final line, “we’ll just have to ask the rest of the province. We’ll see you on tour.”
