This election is about who we can trust to fix Ottawa and make everyday life more affordable.

In late 2009, our Liberal MP, Sukh Dhaliwal, railed against Stephen Harper’s backroom deal with Gordon Campbell to impose the HST. He courted voters’ support with a newsletter calling it the “Harper Sales Tax” and attacking its introduction during a recession.

Yet, a few weeks later, Sukh Dhaliwal joined with the Harper Conservatives and voted yes to imposing the HST on British Columbians. He called Michael Ignatieff’s decision to support it “responsible” and “visionary.”

Only New Democrats stood up for British Columbia and voted against the largest tax increase in B.C. history.

This election is your opportunity to choose a positive alternative to the Harper Conservatives and Ignatieff Liberals—an alternative that will stand up for B.C. families day-in and day-out in Ottawa.

That alternative is Jack Layton’s B.C. team of New Democrats.

Our plan calls for five practical first steps aimed squarely at making your day-to-day life easier and more affordable.

New Democrats will hire more doctors and nurses, strengthen your pension, kick-start job creation, help out your family budget, and make Ottawa work for you.

These are the issues I’ve been hearing about everyday while knocking on doors on talking on the phone. Our focus on generating jobs, improving health care, and making life more affordable is resonating strongly.

At a local level, I was proud to join Jack Layton in Surrey earlier this campaign to announce our plan for community safety. Surrey and surrounding communities have been wracked by gang violence, and New Democrats have made it a priority to cut gang activity off at the source.

Our community safety plan will invest in a balanced and effective approach based on prevention, policing, and prosecution. We will increase support for crime prevention initiatives, put 2,500 new community police officers on the streets, make gang recruiting illegal, and establish a strategy to prevent gang recruitment in prisons, and we will ensure that appropriate care, treatment, and interventions are available for offenders with mental illness.

Our plan has been praised by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Canadian Police Association, and prominent members of our local community.

I am also proud of our plan to cut small business taxes by two percentage points and provide incentives to job creators. Small businesses in Newton–North Delta have been hurting under the Conservative/Liberal HST, and it’s time they were given a break.

Our plan for small businesses underscores that New Democrats are committed to making Ottawa work to support the backbone of our local community—small business, regular families, community organizations, and community infrastructure.

Newton–North Delta is a close three-way race between the Harper Conservatives, the Ignatieff Liberals, and myself and Jack Layton’s New Democrats. Across the rest of B.C., it’s New Democrats that can defeat the Harper Conservatives.

New Democrats will provide real leadership on the issues that matter to British Columbians. You can trust Jack Layton and his B.C. team to put your family first.

Jinny Sims is the NDP candidate for Newton-North Delta.