The New Westminster and District Labour Council expects to start announcing some of the candidates it will endorse in this fall’s civic election by April.
Last week, the Vancouver and District Labour Council announced the names of several incumbent Vancouver city politicians it’s endorsing in the Oct. 15, 2022 municipal election.
“We are not there yet,” said Janet Andrews, secretary-treasurer of the New Westminster and District Labour Council. “It is set up a bit differently. We are still having a look. We have 14 cities to their five or six. Our region functions a little bit differently when it comes to endorsements.”
Andrews said the NWDLC anticipates it will start making announcements about incumbents in late March or April. Announcements about new candidates would follow, likely in May or June.
Andrews said the New Westminster and District Labour Council’s endorsement process will likely get started in mid-to-late February.
“New candidates, we want to get to know them. It’s more about identifying where our shared values are,” she said. “With incumbents, it’s more about their record in office. And obviously, you can see what they have done.”
Last week, the Vancouver and District Labour Council announced it’s endorsing five incumbent councillors and one incumbent park board commissioner. It will consider additional endorsements over the next few months, including those for Vancouver school board, incumbents who have not yet determined their intentions and new candidates.
Track record
The New Westminster and District Labour Council endorsed candidates for mayor, council and school board in New Westminster in the 2018 civic election. All were elected.
“We expect to look at all of the positions, but we are not in the process of who that is yet,” Andrews said. “We would expect potentially to endorse at all levels.”
In 2018, the labour council endorsed Jonathan Cote for mayor; Chinu Das, Patrick Johnstone, Jaimie McEvoy, Nadine Nakagawa, Chuck Puchmayr and Mary Trentadue for council; and Anita Ansari, Dee Beattie, Gurveen Dhaliwal, Mark Gifford and Maya Russell for school board. In addition to receiving an endorsement from the labour council, all 12 were part of the Team Cote slate of candidates.
In December 2021, the Together New West New West Elector’s Society held its inaugural annual general meeting and announced the new municipal party had been created to support and help elect progressive candidates for mayor, city council and school board. After a conflict over the group’s name, it updated its name to Forward New West.
In December, Dhaliwal said the party’s small team of organizers includes some elected representatives, including herself and Cote, as well as some community members of the community. She said the New Westminster and District Labour Council had been a “stakeholder in the development of this party” but it would be working on its own independent endorsement process.
“Our process is standalone and separate,” Andrews told the Record.
