Sandra Filosof-Schipper faces formidable odds as candidate in the Vancouver-Quilchena by-election on April 30.

The deputy leader of the B.C. Libertarian Party is running in one of the strongholds of the B.C. Liberal Party.

In this exercise, B.C. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon is widely anticipated to take the seat.

As for the B.C. NDP, the ruling party of Premier John Horgan has fielded Jeanette Ashe, an educator and also wife of Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

Filosof-Schipper lives in the Point Grey, a neighbourhood adjacent to Vancouver-Quilchena.

For work, the mother of three children runs a family business that distributes industrial products. And for fun, she’s into martial arts and scuba diving.

In the last provincial election in 2020, Filosof-Schipper ran unsuccessfuly for the B.C. Libertarian Party in Vancouver-Fairview.

“I don’t have designs on being a lifelong professional politician,” Filosof-Schipper told the Straight in a phone interview.

“I just run out of a sense of obligation,” she continued.

That obligation is to bring the message of personal freedom, which is the bedrock of libertarianism.

“Freedom is the most important thing, and I like to talk to people about it and Canadians expect freedom,” Filosof-Schipper said.

“A lot of Canadians take it for granted, and it’s being chipped away,” she added.

Filosof-Schipper also said that her party is “firmly rooted in the principles of voluntary economic transactions and civil liberties”.

Filosof-Schipper believes that everyone by nature is a libertarian at heart.

“Every election serves as a learning experience, and an opportunity to talk about libertarian principles, which most people hold, but don't have a name for,” she noted.

“If we don’t win,” she said, “but we get people to demand more libertarian policies from the party that does win, then I consider that a win.”

Filosof-Schipper related that when she talks to voters in Vancouver-Quilchena, many of them talk about high taxes.

Without them realizing it, she said that the matter about excessive taxation is a key issue among libertarians.

One of their major goals is to limit the size and power of government, while ensuring effective delivery of public services.

To illustrate using the case of health care costs in B.C., Filosof-Schipper said: “Compared to Germany, they spend 11 times less on administrative costs, and yet they have three times as many doctors per capita and twice as many nurses per capita and twice as much diagnostic equipment.”

As for voluntary transactions, Filosof-Schipper said: “You have something you want to sell. I want to buy it. We arrive at a price. That’s it.”

When it comes to a person’s self, she said: “I want dominion over my body. This COVID really brought it out that we don’t have that right.”

Filosof-Schipper was referring to the mandatory vaccination policies that were imposed by the federal and provincial governments in Canada in response to the pandemic.

Online, Filosof-Schipper has a past video relating that she is dealing with COVID-19 even though she is fully vaccinated.

In the video, the deputy leader of the B.C. Libertarian Party questioned at the time why governments continue to push for vaccination when these doses have been shown to be ineffective in preventing infections.

As Filosof-Schipper said on camera, “Question everything.”