The New Westminster District and Labour Council will be endorsing New Westminster candidates in the upcoming municipal election but doesn't want to upstage the candidates' campaigns by revealing their names just yet.
Carolyn Rice, secretarytreasurer of the labour council, said it will be endorsing 72 candidates throughout the council's region, which encompasses 14 municipalities from Burnaby out to Langley and Maple Ridge. But the labour council won't release its endorsed candidates' names until the nomination period closes.
"We have decided that we are going to wait until the nominations close to publish our list," she said. "A lot of our candidates haven't filed yet. They haven't picked up their packages yet."
The nomination period ends on Oct. 14. at 4 p.m. The local election will be held on Saturday, Nov. 19.
In the 2008 munici-pal election, the New Westminster District and Labour Council endorsed Jonathan Cote, Bill Harper, Jaimie McEvoy and Lorrie Williams for city council. All were elected.
The labour council also endorsed Michael Ewen, Vivian Garcia, James Janzen and Lori Watt for school board. The three incumbents - Ewen, Janzen and Watt were re-elected - and Garcia was two votes shy of being elected to school board.
"Every new candidate goes through a full interview," Rice said. "This year we had 32 new candidates. New means they are not currently an incumbent."
If an incumbent is seeking a different position, such as a councillor running for mayor, they would be required to go through an interview.
Rice couldn't comment on the number of candidates being endorsed in New Westminster specifically. But, all totalled, it's endorsing 72 candidates throughout its region.
"Of that 72, 32 are new candidates not currently holding office," Rice said. "The rest of them would be candidates who are incumbents."
Formed in 1966, the New Westminster and District Labour Council started interviewing and endorsing candidates as early as 1967 or 1968.
"The process is now being replicated across the country," Rice noted. "It has become a Canadian Labour Congress program."
In the past, the candidates were asked for their thoughts on issues such as contracting out, public-private partnerships and buy-local programs. Today's issues include climate change efforts.
Rice said the labour council will forward its list of endorsed candidates to the Canadian Labour Council's Pacific region office, which will then distribute the list to various unions.
