Community First is hoping to fill most of the seats on city council and school board in the 2022 civic election campaign.
More than 60 people attended the city’s newest political party's nomination meeting on Wednesday night at Centennial Lodge, where a slate of candidates put forward by the party’s nomination committee was acclaimed.
Incumbent councillor Patrick Johnstone will run as the party’s mayoral candidate. Incumbent councillors Chinu Das, Jaimie McEvoy and Nadine Nakagawa got the party’s nod for council, as did new candidates Ruby Campbell, Tasha Henderson and Bereket Kebede.
On the school board front, Community First will support incumbents Dee Beattie, Gurveen Dhaliwal and Maya Russell, as well as new candidates Marc Andres, Elliott Slinn and Cheryl Sluis.
“I’m really excited by the team that’s come together,” Johnstone said in a news release. “We bring diverse perspectives and experiences, but we’re all united by one thing: we love New Westminster and want to make sure it continues to be a livable, welcoming place for everyone.”
Community First is supported by local NDP politicians, including New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian, current MLA Jennifer Whiteside, former MLA Judy Darcy and former MP and MLA Dawn Black, as well as the New Westminster and District Labour Council.
“We have a labour representative position on our executive committee but the NWDLC has its own endorsement process,” Community First chair Cheryl Greenhalgh said in an email to the Record. “We think our candidates have values that align with the labour council, and are likely to be endorsed.”
Greenhalgh told the Record that Community First expects its candidates to be members of the NDP.
“There was a huge amount of interest from the community, and we had many passionate, dedicated people come forward to stand with Community First,” Greenhalgh said in a news release. “We’re thrilled to bring together a strong, diverse team with a deep understanding of our community.”
When voters go to the poll on Oct. 15, they’ll be able to vote for one mayor, six councillors and seven school trustees. Community First is running enough candidates to fill 13 positions as it's only running six candidates for school board.
Several of the party’s candidates ran under the Team Cote slate in the 2018 election, including Das, Johnstone, McEvoy and Nakagawa for council and Beattie, Dhaliwal and Russell for school board. During the last election, the labour-endorsed slate ran a mayoral candidate, six councillor candidates and five trustee candidates.
Mayor Jonathan Cote announced on Jan. 1 that he would not be seeking re-election in this fall’s civic election. Other members of Team Cote who won’t be on the ballot this fall include Coun. Mary Trentadue and trustees Anita Ansari and Mark Gifford, who decided not to seek re-election.
Longtime councillor and labour-endorsed council candidate Chuck Puchmayr issued a statement to the Record Wednesday night saying he has not made a final decision about whether he will be seeing an eighth term on council.
In December, Johnstone and Dhaliwal were among the community members who helped found the Together New West civic party, which soon renamed Forward New West after its initial name conflicted with a branding campaign previously launched by the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Association. It has since de-registered with Elections BC.
The left-leaning Community First electoral organization held its founding annual general meeting on April 28.
Who else is running?
In other election news, the New West Progressives have also named several candidates who will be running in October’s election, including mayoral candidate Ken Armstrong. New West residents Rick Folka, Daniel Fontaine, Jiayi Li-McCarthy and Paul Minhas have been named as the NWP council candidates.
Incumbent school trustee Danielle Connelly – the lone NWP candidate elected in the 2018 civic election – has announced she will be running with the New West Progressives and seeking a second term on school board.
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