It has always been my belief that our government should reflect the diversity of the province that it represents. Our full slate of 87 BC NDP candidates has now been nominated, and I’m proud to say that we have an incredibly diverse group of talented people who are ready to work for you.
Over a quarter of BC NDP candidates identify as members of a visible minority and our candidates speak Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and more. Of our 87 candidates, 51 per cent are women.
Our team of candidates also includes 14 South Asian candidates from across the province. Harwinder Sandhu, our candidate for Kelowna-Mission, is is a trained nurse and an outspoken advocate for health and seniors’ care. Our candidate for Penticton, Tarik Sayeed, is a technology innovator and business owner and has served as a Penticton city councillor. Rachna Singh, our candidate for Surrey-Green Timbers, has worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor, a support worker for women facing domestic violence, and a community activist.
We believe that this campaign is about building a province that works for real people. Christy Clark’s choices have made life harder for people. For too long, she has put the wealthy and well-connected first while you pay the price. Costs are going up, while health care and schools are being cut. People are working harder, but wages aren’t keeping up with rising costs. That’s not fair.
My priority is to make life easier, and a lot better for you. It’s time you had a government that reflected the diversity of our province and put you first, and that’s exactly what we intend to do.
BC New Democrats have a plan to make life more affordable, create good, sustainable jobs and provide the services people count on. As part of that plan, we’ve committed to take immediate action to make life more affordable by freezing hydro rates and eliminating tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges that punish commuters who live in Surrey.
We’ll improve the services you and your family count on, especially health care and education, so young people have every opportunity to succeed in life and seniors can age with dignity. We’ll build a sustainable economy, creating thousands of good jobs with better wages in every corner of BC. We’ll build hospitals, roads and transit while tackling climate change. These are just a few of the commitments we have made to you.
As this election campaign kicks into high gear, I’m looking forward to meeting you and sharing our vision for building a better BC. By coming together and celebrating our diversity, we will make our province more inclusive and better for everyone, not just the wealthy few at the top.
