While federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh won a by-election Monday in Burnaby, the party’s Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge constituency hasn’t yet selected a candidate for this fall’s election.
The local Conservatives and Liberals have named their candidates, but local New Democrats have still to set a date for choosing their own.
Former NDP candidate and Maple Ridge city councillor Craig Speirs expects a candidate to be chosen within two to three months.
There’s also a possibility he could seek the nomination.
“If nobody else will do it, maybe,” Speirs said Tuesday.
However, “I think my time has come and gone federally. I’ll never say never.”
He added that things can change in a month.
He said Singh‘s byelection win in Burnaby South will allow New Democrats to pressure the Liberal government.
Speirs predicted that the party, nationally, will move back to its traditional left side of the political spectrum.
“He will run a campaign that will reflect our values. I think that’s really important,” Speirs said.
Once the NDP have a candidate, they’ll be campaigning against Marc Dalton, who just won the Conservative nomination, and Liberal incumbent Dan Ruimy, seeking a second term.
“I think they could have done a lot better,” Speirs said of the Liberals.
Speirs also blamed Dalton for the current situation involving tent city, saying that when Dalton was Maple Ridge-Mission Liberal MLA, he opposed two possible sites for a supportive housing complex and shelter. One of those was the Quality Inn on Lougheed Highway.
“There was a camp (on Cliff Avenue) before I got involved,” Dalton said, adding he brought in the intensive case management team and helped get funding for the new affordable housing project that will be run by Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services on 119th Avenue.
“People need to be heard,” Dalton said.
“Basically, it’s a matter of what the community was wanting.”
Former Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Liberal MLA Doug Bing also opposed the two locations.
Instead, the MLAs formed a citizens’ committee which identified several other possible locations.
Dalton added that he listened to the community when considering where a shelter or housing complex could go, adding that a shelter could be operating by now at one of the locations identified by the committee.
“I took very seriously what the community feels. That’s very important,” Dalton said.
He added that Burnaby South has been a NDP riding for years.
Dalton said that he’s noticed, while knocking on doors, that people are upset about the controversy involving the Liberals, SNC Lavalin and the resignation from cabinet of former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.
“On the whole, we’re doing quite well in the polls,” Dalton said.
Singh beat Liberal candidate Richard T. Lee in Burnaby South by about 3,000 votes, widening the gap significantly from the 2015 election when the NDP won by about 550 votes.
Conservative candidate Jay Shin placed third, 800 votes behind the Liberals, while the People’s Party of Canada candidate had about 10 per cent of the overall vote.
