Federal NDP leader could announce Burnaby bid soon

BURNABY (NEWS 1130) – Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will be in Burnaby on Wednesday, where he is likely to announce he’ll be running in the riding left vacant by Kennedy Stewart.

Stephen Phillips is a political scientist at Langara College. He says there is an obvious reason why he would pick this riding.

“It has been an NDP seat for many years,” But Phillips says Singh can’t take this by-election for granted.

“The margin of victory of the NDP MPs who have represented the riding going back even to the time of Svend Robinson has been quite narrow.”

Phillips says Singh will have to prove to people in Burnaby that he’ll represent their interests, even though he is from Ontario.

One good piece of news for Singh is that the Green Party doesn’t appear to be putting forth a candidate in the race.

“Given the fact that back in 2015, the NDP only defeated the Liberals by a 500 vote margin and the Green Party in that election did win about 1,300 votes.”

This isn’t the first time a federal leader has tried to get a seat outside of their home province. Phillips notes Brian Mulroney and Tommy Douglas as examples of leaders taking the same course and suceeding.

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