Race is on for Boundary-Similkameen NDP candidacy
By Mona Mattei
Mayor Brian Taylor threw his hat into the provincial political arena this week with hopes of becoming the next MLA for the Boundary-Similkameen when the next government is formed.
Taylor, who formally announced his candidacy to represent the New Democratic Party (NDP) tonight at Grand Forks city council’s regular meeting, has run this race before, but he’s more confident in his chances on this round.
“I think that my grounding in municipal politics leaves me in a really good position to address what the NDP has promised to address in their policy and position (paper) which is the needs of small towns and rural areas of B.C.,” said Taylor.
“This is a great riding because we’re a collection of small towns! It’s really typical of a lot of small town B.C. At this point in time I think the issues that I grapple with as a mayor, as a regional director, as a hospital board member – all of those are things that run into road blocks at the provincial level now with the Liberal government. I’m hoping that us, as a new NDP government, would really begin to look at the needs of municipalities and how we can give them some stability.”
There will be more than one candidate for the nomination after Marji Basso, who campaigned for the last 15 months across the riding, stepped down citing personal reasons.
“This has been so traumatic for Marji and her family – she actually put four years of work into this, so I have sympathy for her,” said Taylor.
At this late stage in the process the NDP is at a disadvantage with Basso’s sudden resignation, said Taylor, as the Liberal candidate, Linda Larson who was asked to take over when the party benched current MLA John Slater, is already campaigning.
“Every day we waste we have the competition out there… Linda’s already campaigning in the Osoyoos area, for a non-elected candidate to go out there it’s impossible,” Taylor said.
The NDP may hold a nomination convention and mail in process for the members of the riding, which Taylor says could be as late as early March. The call for election has to go out by March 20, and that, said Taylor, doesn’t leave a lot of time for knocking on doors.
“I don’t think we can assume that Marji’s work can transfer over to a new candidate and anyone thinking that is making a grave error. I think you need to go out and make your own reputation, not rely on Marji’s work,” added Taylor.
Meanwhile Taylor won’t be stepping back from his work as mayor until he has the nomination nod so locals can expect business as usual.
