And just like that, another snoozer of a provincial election race took a mighty interesting turn.
Jonina Campbell, well-known in the city as the chair of the New Westminster school board, has just announced her intention to seek the Green party nomination for the May 2017 provincial election.
Nominations close Oct. 19, but we can only assume that Campbell will in fact be chosen, since it’s hard to imagine a higher-profile and better-qualified candidate stepping forward before then.
Assuming that she does, in fact, carry the Green colours into the election campaign, the picture suddenly looks very different for the New Westminster riding.
As local residents know, this has been an NDP riding since pretty much forever – it’s been held by the New Democrats and their predecessors, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, since 1952.
The only exception was that one very oddball provincial election in 2001 (following on the heels of a couple of scandals that Glen Clark’s NDP couldn’t shake) when the provincial New Democrats found themselves all but obliterated and Joyce Murray captured the riding for the B.C. Liberals.
Since then, New Democrat candidates in this riding have cruised to all-but-assured victory in election campaigns that have often lacked excitement. (Last time out, for instance, MLA Judy Darcy topped her Liberal rival, Hector Bremner, by more than 4,000 votes despite the NDP’s provincial loss.)
That all stands to change in the spring if a Campbell-versus-Darcy matchup does indeed come to pass.
Putting a credible, well-known candidate up against the existing NDP establishment stands to put voters’ loyalties to the test.
Let’s not forget that Campbell herself got elected with the help of the New Westminster and District Labour Council endorsement – in other words, thanks to a whole lot of the very people she’ll now be positioning herself against.
Early social media buzz has so far been positive for Campbell, but once the first flush of excitement wears off, will she hold voters’ interest? And, more importantly, will she get any diehard New Democrats to change their vote?
Even more interestingly, does her candidacy open up the possibility of a Liberal win up the middle if she splits votes with Darcy?
Only time will tell.
But we can guarantee one thing already: Whatever happens, this provincial election race most definitely won’t be a yawner.
