Crystal Warner is a community organizer, labour leader, and lifelong advocate for strong public services. She is running for Maple Ridge School Board Trustee because every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive in a safe, inclusive, and well-supported public school system.

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Crystal’s commitment to public service is deeply personal. The daughter and sister of Chilean exiles who settled in Maple Ridge, she learned early the importance of democracy, human rights, community, and the transformative power of education.

Crystal studied law and human rights at Carleton University and completed postgraduate studies at the University of Chile. She has also pursued studies in industrial relations at Queen’s University. Her career has included work on Parliament Hill, in the federal public service, and throughout the labour movement.

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Crystal began working at the Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver in 2006. It was there she became deeply involved in community organizing, working with organizations like the Metro Vancouver Alliance. She has held elected union leadership positions locally, provincially, and nationally. Crystal was also selected to participate in the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.

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Throughout her career, Crystal has remained committed to a simple principle: the people most affected by decisions deserve a meaningful voice in making them.

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As trustee, Crystal will bring extensive experience in governance, advocacy, and public policy to the Board. She will listen to students, families, educators, support workers, unions, First Nations leadership, and the broader community while advocating for student success, inclusion, accountability, and a well-supported public education system.

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Crystal lives in Maple Ridge with her husband, Darryl, and their two cats. She works for the Hospital Employees’ Union and enjoys reading, travelling, gaming, and gardening.

 

Supporting youth in Maple Ridge:

 

- I will advocate for publicly funded, accessible and affordable before and after school childcare in our schools, and work relentlessly to ensure that there is appropriate funding, staffing and infrastructure to make reliable, high-quality care available to working families. This supports youth by having less transitions, actually being affordable, and allowing young parents to have their children in on site care.

 

- The people who understand our schools best are the people who are in them every day: students, parents, teachers, educational assistants, custodians, bus drivers, clerical workers, administrators and other support staff. I will build meaningful relationships with the people who make our schools work. That means listening directly to students and families, working with DPAC and PACs, and treating CUPE Local 703 and the Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association as essential partners in building a healthy school system.

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Good governance means listening, being accessible, being transparent about decisions and holding senior management accountable for delivering on the Board’s priorities. I will ensure to engage youth in discussions about how board decisions will impact them – and ensure that I do so directly, and not through board staff.

 

- When our students need something, I will tirelessly advocate for it. And when decisions are made elsewhere that put our youth at risk, I will not be afraid to push back. Our schools need stronger, more flexible base operating funding so that local decision-makers can put resources where they are needed most. But school districts should not have to compete with one another for a limited share of an already inadequate pool of funding.

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As trustee, I will work with students, education partners, unions, families, community organizations and elected representatives to make the case for the resources Maple Ridge schools need.

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And when governments download responsibilities onto our schools without providing the resources to meet them, I will turn to the community, including student and youth groups, to organize and get better for SD42.

 

- My role as a trustee would not be to find a middle ground with intolerance. I will oppose attempts to restrict or eliminate SOGI resources, and advocate for continued professional development and cultural-safety training. Reconciliation must be part of governance. SD42 is situated on the traditional territories of the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations. Truth and reconciliation is a deep, systemic responsibility. As trustee, I will work to strengthen relationships with local First Nations and Indigenous communities and ensure that Indigenous perspectives are meaningfully reflected in strategic planning, budgets, policies and educational initiatives. That means supporting Indigenous student success, protecting Indigenous education resources and positions, supporting professional development for educators, respecting local protocols and knowledge systems, and advancing the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

 

I will be a strong, relentless and unapologetic advocate for Maple Ridge students, working families and the educators and support workers who make public education possible. I hope to count on your support.