Paul Manly

As MP, Paul worked across party lines to deliver real results. He successfully amended Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) legislation to better protect people with disabilities. He improved the Broadcasting Act to formally recognize community media for the first time. He also secured unanimous support for a motion protecting the pensions of British pensioners living in Canada.

Paul introduced motions to tackle the issues that matter most to people in Nanaimo-Ladysmith and across Canada. These included calls for stronger housing market regulation, a national ban on gas fracking, national standards for long-term care, and protections for endangered old-growth forests. He was a consistent champion for a Guaranteed Livable Income and bold action on the housing and climate crises.

After the 2021 federal election, Paul served as Executive Director of the Nanaimo Unitarian Shelter, where he led a successful capital fundraising campaign and oversaw a major renovation of the facility. In 2022, he was elected to Nanaimo City Council and appointed to both the Regional District Board and the Nanaimo Regional Hospital Board. In these roles, Paul has continued to press for urgent investments in housing and homelessness solutions, expanded protections for greenspaces through parkland acquisition, and a long-overdue new patient tower, cancer ward, and catheterization lab at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

Before entering politics, Paul was a documentary filmmaker and small business owner. His award-winning work brought national attention to issues like watershed protection, food security, Indigenous rights, and health care—often influencing public opinion and government policy. He also led employment skills training programs for youth at risk and people with diverse abilities, helping build more inclusive, resilient communities.

Paul has a diploma in Broadcasting from Algonquin College in Ottawa and a degree in Media Studies and Global Studies from Vancouver Island University. He has a keen interest in international relations and international trade and how trade agreements affect democratic decision making at all levels of governance. He served as the critic for International Trade and Investment for the Green Party of Canada.

Paul was born in Port Alice on Vancouver Island, B.C. He has travelled widely and lived in other parts of Canada, but Nanaimo and Ladysmith have always been his home base. His grandfather had a farm just outside of Nanaimo and Paul spent his formative years growing up in Ladysmith. He has been living in Nanaimo since 2002.