Gabriel Yiu says he’s not interested in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant NDP nomination

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      If Vancouver East is one of the safest NDP bailiwicks federally, the same may be said provincially for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.

      Held by B.C. NDP premier Mike Harcourt before it passed to Jenny Kwan, starting in 1996, this is where New Democrats win big.

      It may be worth recalling as well that Vancouver-Mount Pleasant was one of two seats that the NDP managed to hold onto when it got massacred by B.C. Liberals in the 2001 election.

      “It’s safer than Van East federally,” New Democrat Gabriel Yiu noted in a phone interview.

      Yiu served as campaign manager for Kwan in her successful nomination campaign to represent the federal NDP in Vancouver East. Long-time MP Libby Davies will not seek another term in this year’s national election.

      Kwan has said that she would step down if chosen as the NDP nominee.

      This means a provincial by-election for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, which brings us to why the Straight was calling Yiu in the first place.

      Will Yiu seek the B.C. NDP nomination to run for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant?

      “I don’t have such interest right now,” Yiu said in the phone interview.

      Yiu’s response was quite surprising considering that chatter in the grapevine is that he’ll go for it.

      “I’ve been asked many, many times, well, especially people from the Chinese media and the Chinese community and people in the NDP,” he said.

      Yiu also related that some people who have expressed interest have told him that they’ll wait for him to make up his mind, and that they won’t run if he does.

      “I appreciate that,” Yiu said.

      However, Yiu also noted that his “interest to run for public office is not as strong as before”.

      Yiu ran thrice without success, first in Burnaby-Willingdon, and then in Vancouver-Fraserview.

      “I ran before and to me, it seems every time there is something [that] comes up,” he said.

      Most never say never in politics, and although Yiu is one of them, he sounded like the fire in his belly no longer burns as intensely as in the past.

      As Yiu said: “I’m not as keen as before.”

      Comments

      2 Comments

      mount pheasant

      Apr 2, 2015 at 9:26pm

      Who cares if he's interested, he's not permitted to run as there's a fantastic equity mandate in place that only allows a woman to run in place of an incumbent woman. In fact, he would certainly be interested if he were able to run.

      Also, I don't think anyone would want Gabriel Yiu to represent the constituency.

      0 0Rating: 0

      der

      Apr 2, 2015 at 9:32pm

      Um, this article is quite pointless given the equity mandate in place. I'm surprised that Gabriel Yu would engage in this Q&A, he should know better.

      0 0Rating: 0