New Westminster MP Peter Julian easily clinched a seat in the House of Commons as a red wave of Liberals swept to power.
Julian, who has served as New Westminster’s MP since 2004, was elected as the member of Parliament for the newly created New Westminster-Burnaby riding. While he’s disappointed with the NDP’s results at the national level, he’s not entirely shocked.
“We certainly saw in the last few weeks there was a lot of push around the Liberals,” he said. “Certainly on the doorstep it felt good, things were very strong. But people were making up their minds at the last minute.”
New Westminster MLA Judy Darcy was among supporters at Julian’s election party at the Columbia Theatre Monday night. She said the city will still be well represented by a wonderful member of Parliament.
“People wanted to see Harper gone. They wanted to see Harper gone. Justin Trudeau developed some momentum. Once people decide that that is the best chance of defeating Harper, that’s where they go,” she said. “The Stop Harper (vote) was very, very strong.”
Julian concurs.
“I think Mr. Harper has been such a divisive force in our country that that became priority number one,” he said. “Mr. Trudeau must be congratulated for his victory and then the question is, is he going to continue Mr. Harper’s agenda, which he seemed to want to do in a number of areas, or is going to make a clean break. Only time will tell.”
Julian said New Democrats will be fighting to make sure Canadians get real change the vast majority of people were looking for.
“I am very concerned about the health-care system,” he said. “Mr. Harper has opened up a gaping hole - $36 billion. It starts in about 14-and-a-half months. Mr. Trudeau didn’t seem to want to address that issue. We are talking about a sizable gutting of the health-care budget. I was with my father last week for an emergency – we had to wait five hours before he could get a painkiller. That’s not because the staff aren’t working hard; they are working incredibly hard. It’s because the cutbacks are already having an impact.”
Julian said he’s worried what the pending cuts to the health care budget will mean to Royal Columbian and Burnaby hospitals, so that will be an issue New Democrats will be championing in the House of Commons.
With polls showing the NDP in the lead earlier in the campaign, Monday’s election results were a blow to New Democrats. At press time they were leading in 43 of 338 electoral ridings, which means they would no longer be the Official Opposition.
The NDP reached a high of 103 seats in the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election.
“I think we will probably spend a lot of time analyzing what happened in this campaign, what was done right, what was done wrong,” Darcy said. “I think the overriding factor is that people wanted to get rid of Stephen Harper. People went with who they thought had the best chance of defeating Stephen Harper.”
Those sentiments were echoed by New Westminster Coun. Jaimie McEvoy, who said the “anti-Harper Party” won and consolidated around the Liberals. He said there is still a public perception that the Liberals are the alternative government to the Conservatives.
“The Anti Harper Party won,” he said.
As for Julian, McEvoy said he does tremendous constituency work.
“He is one of the hardest working people I know in politics,” he said. “You’ll never find him sitting around during an election campaign. He knocks on more doors than anybody. Nobody can keep up with him. If I go knocking on doors with Peter Julian, I know I have to be fit and be ready.”
