Skip to content

NDP kick off re-election campaign in North Vancouver

For the second time in a row, the BC NDP have kicked off their provincial election campaign in North Vancouver.
john horgan

For the second time in a row, the BC NDP have kicked off their provincial election campaign in North Vancouver.

NDP leader John Horgan, joined by North Vancouver-Losndale NDP candidate Bowinn Ma, was at Waterfront Park Tuesday morning to make the first campaign promise of 2020: 10 more urgent primary care centres, similar to the one in Lower Lonsdale, to be built elsewhere in B.C.

Horgan faced repeated questions from reporters about the need for an early election during the second wave of a pandemic, but he stressed the need for voters to decide who will lead the province through the pandemic and recovery after.

“We have a big task together as a province – not political parties – but as a province, and we need to be sure that the public is with us and the best way forward is a stable government,” he said.

At the time of the election call, three of the four North Shore incumbent MLAs were planning to run again, including Ma, West Vancouver-Sea to Sky Liberal MLA Jordan Sturdy and North Vancouver-Seymour Liberal Jane Thornthwaite. West Vancouver-Capilano Liberal MLA Ralph Sultan is retiring and the party selected Karin Kirkpatrick to run for the seat, which is typically one of the safest Liberal ridings in B.C. On Tuesday the Liberals announced that ‘Lyn Anglin would be running in North Vancouver-Lonsdale.

Like other BC Liberals, Sturdy condemned the election call.

“We’re now going to be five weeks without a government essentially [in] what I believe is to be a pretty critical time in the evolution of the disease that’s dominating our society right now. So really pure political opportunism is what it is,” he told the Squamish Chief.

In 2017, Horgan’s first stop on the campaign trail was at Lonsdale Quay.