Craig Keating elected president of the B.C. NDP
Five-term City of North Vancouver city councillor Craig Keating has replaced Moe Sihota as president of the B.C. NDP.
Keating handily defeated former Surrey MLA Jagrup Brar in the first round of voting today.
Earlier this year, Keating told the Straight that if he became party president, he would like to see greater investment in the development of policies.
"At the end of the day, the vast majority of British Columbians share our values—our commitment to equality and fairness in society—and I think what we need to do is begin to do a much better job about giving people a reason to vote for us," Keating said at the time.
However, the biggest challenge facing the B.C. NDP just might be fundraising.
The central office is carrying a sizeable debt from the last election, even though constituency associations are flush with cash.
Rob Shaw of the Victoria Times Colonist reported in August that the B.C. NDP owed $1.9 million to three credit unions.
The constituency associations may not be keen to turn over their surpluses to the provincial party, which needs money to modernize its operations.
At the same time, federal New Democrats are going to be tapping into members' wallets next year to fill up the party's warchest for the 2015 national election.
Comments
6 Comments
No pipelines
Nov 17, 2013 at 1:58pm
I'm not giving the NDP a nickel, losing elections
For 20 years or so goes to show you they have
No policies and British Colombians can see it
And rejected the NDP over and over .
Even as oposition their role is irrelevant
RUK
Nov 17, 2013 at 2:37pm
They can have my money again once they get this ethnic bloc nomination thing fixed, and assuming the policies are interesting. I am very pleased by the notion that the NDP president thinks that voters should be given reasons to vote for them, not taking it for bloody granted!!!
G
Nov 17, 2013 at 5:42pm
What wonderful hubris!
"At the end of the day, the vast majority of British Columbians share our values—our commitment to equality and fairness in society—and I think what we need to do is begin to do a much better job about giving people a reason to vote for us,"
History has shown time and time again that the BC NDP can't win unless they split the right wing vote. The highest percentage of the popular vote the NDP won in any of their 3 electoral successes was 40.7% under Harcourt, Barrett and Clark failed to crack 40%. They rely upon right-wing factionalism to make electoral success possible but uniting the right is simple: they love money. The NDP may be controlled by labour but there are myriad factions within the party each convinced that "their" issue is paramount: hence the catch all "social justice." The NDP don't represent values any more than the Liberals do, they represent interests.
Moe Sihota is the poster child for what is wrong with the NDP. He holds the record for resignations from cabinet and yet he remained a power in the party. He was one of the people who engineered the ouster of Harcourt for labour loyalist Clark and he managed to do it with a scandal run by the party core. Electing Sihota president was bad enough but then his union buddies decided that he deserved a large salary courtesy of their members and voila: the first paid NDP president in history. Is Keating going to continue the Sihota payoff or return the position to that of a volunteer?
Arthur Vandelay
Nov 18, 2013 at 11:47am
I hope one of this guy's key skill sets is herding cats.
Not a conservative (BC Lib) troll
Nov 18, 2013 at 4:04pm
Charlie. So many great articles and so many deceivingly biased comments. Not going to play this game anymore. When will the Straight moderate their comments to filter out paid political trollers?
Bye for now!
cuz
Nov 18, 2013 at 4:49pm
@Not a Conservative, Just because someone doesn't agree with your opinions doesn't mean they are "paid political trollers". Maybe your opinion isn't the majority opinion.