Claim: Prior to entering politics in 2018, Steve Milani worked as a Red Seal accredited goldsmith.
Verdict: Unclear how that would be possible. Red Seal accreditation is not available for goldsmithery or related crafts.
While most of this blog’s focus will be on what candidates are saying about the issues, they also talk a lot about themselves. Pitching an appealing personal narrative to voters can go a long way in civic politics when there’s no party label to vote for.
In highlighting his career prior to getting elected in 2018, Steve Milani has taken to calling himself a “Red Seal accredited goldsmith”. One problem: to our knowledge there is no Red Seal certification available for goldsmithery, nor jewelry craft more broadly.
“Red Seal” of course refers to a certification earned by a tradesperson upon passing an exam certifying their knowledge meets the interprovincial standard of their trade. Via the BC Industry Training Authority, Red Seal certifications are available for 49 trades. None of them are plausibly close enough to goldmithery or jewelry crafting.
This isn’t some typo from an over-zealous volunteer – Milani repeats the Red Seal claim twice on his LinkedIn page:
Searching through LinkedIn and Google, we can’t find anybody else who claims to have received a Red Seal in goldsmithery or jewelry arts. Just Milani.
If a politician is asking for the votes of professionals who sacrificed years of their life to earn credentials the right way, they should probably have some respect and refrain from inventing certifications which only exist in their biography. One wonders if the BC ITA takes kindly to the Red Seal program reputation being used this way.
Port Moody Fact Check 