The NDP has nominated a well-known businessman and community  leader to run in Surrey North in the next federal election.

Jasbir Sandhu, owner of My Village Restaurant, was acclaimed yesterday at the Surrey Conference Centre.

In the past, the Straight has covered Sandhu's efforts to try to gain a federal apology in Parliament for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident.

The vessel with 376 Indians arrived in Vancouver's harbour on May 23, 1914. Two months later, federal immigration officials forced the ship to leave, carrying most of its passengers back to India.

In 2008, Sandhu warned Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an e-mail that there would be a backlash if he issued an apology outside of Parliament.

Harper ignored the warning, issuing the apology at Bear Creek Park in Surrey  on August 3, 2008.

Indo-Canadian community members immediately condemned him for not doing this in Parliament, as he did with his apologies for the Chinese head tax and for the federal government's role in the creation of the residential-school system.

Sandhu, 43,  is also a program manager and coordinator at the Justice Institute of B.C,

The incumbent is Conservative MP Dona Cadman, who took the seat in 2008 after her predecessor, New Democrat Penny Priddy, retired from federal politics.

Surrey North is one of Metro Vancouver's youngest, poorest, and most multicultural ridings. According to the 2006 census, 59,800 residents described themselves as belonging to visible minorities out of a population of 111,965.

The riding also has 33,655 people of South Asian descent, according to census information. The median age was 36.2 years, and the median family income was $50,051.