Jagrup Brar: Why I am running for B.C. NDP president
Jagrup Brar, the former NDP MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood, issued the following statement on Halloween (October 31):
The loss of May’s provincial election was a huge disappointment and a shock to NDP supporters and I am one of them. As a result, our Party lost the trust of many New Democrats. I don’t blame them for losing trust; they were, and remain, angry and upset. Since the loss in May, many of those people have approached me and asked me to run for President of the BC NDP. I have been approached by Party members and activists, as well as by people in business, labour and in our Caucus. I continue to receive phone calls, visits and emails from supporters from across the province. Their faith in me and my abilities to help rebuild and steer our Party onto a path of victory has been overwhelming.
As the former BC New Democrat MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood, I am announcing today my candidacy to become the next President of the BC NDP.
I have a passion for the BC NDP and I want to work to make our Province a place where we all have quality of life. As President, I believe I will be able to put in place the building blocks that will bring back confidence and create excitement in the Party. I am also committed to working with the next Leader to lead the Party to victory in the 2017.
I believe the BC NDP is the best hope for a strong and vibrant British Columbia. Although the BC NDP was unsuccessful in winning the recent provincial election, I believe the Party best represents the hopes and aspirations of most British Columbians.
As President my goal would be to put in place an organization that would support the Leader and Caucus as they work to form government, along with making the Party more inclusive, expanding the BC NDP tent, building stronger relationships with small business and viewing party policies through the Party’s Sustainable BC lens.
Labour has played an important role as our partner in the Party and I will continue to build on that relationship. It is also paramount that the Party continue to advance the interests of women, youth, the disabled, Aboriginal people, and ethnic communities.
In order to achieve these goals, it is necessary that the Party itself be strong and has the confidence of all members. To ensure this, it is critical that we upgrade the Party’s technology and refocus its efforts on four main challenges:
1) Restoring Democracy and Trust by Valuing Party Members
2) Ensuring a Fair and Transparent Leadership Selection Process
3) Strengthen and Expand our Party's base
4) Organizing for Victory in 2017
a. Rebuilding our Finances
b. Upgrading technology
c. Organizing with Constituencies for election readiness
d. Improve efficiencies in Provincial Office operations
Since 2004, when I was one of three members in the Legislature, I have dedicated myself, and worked diligently, to rebuild our Party from the loss in 2001. I am deeply committed to restoring democracy and building trust by handing back the decision making power to the membership and Provincial Council. As Party President, I believe I can make a strong contribution to help us form government in 2017 and make BC a better place to live for everyone in all regions of our province.
Comments
8 Comments
G
Oct 31, 2013 at 5:03pm
Will the next NDP leader will be given a salary from the pockets of working people via their union dues?
Andy hunt
Oct 31, 2013 at 9:21pm
I support Craig keating for party president and BC Forward group.
John Twigg
Oct 31, 2013 at 10:48pm
He makes no mention of policy reforms, espy he ignores the blatant lack of a broad and deep job creation strategy in the election platform, and there's little evidence that Brar ever challenged the party bosses and power cliques so why should anyone believe he'd do so now? He's a Carole James acolyte with no vision for econ reforms, merely pandering to special blocs of voters and cynically trying to jump to a "safer" seat. If the same old cabal of minority single-issue special-interest insiders retains control of #BCNDP it will be doomed in 2017. Jagrup is a nice guy who has worked hard but he is not the solution to the party's problems.
Vancouver777
Nov 1, 2013 at 11:21am
After the NDPs disgraceful election campaign where they refused to discuss ANYTHING of substance and wouldn't attack the Liberals for their many infractions (in order to be 'Positive', what a joke!), I decided that I will NEVER again vote NDP. I wondered at first why they didn't run a real campaign, especially since they had so many Liberal scandals they could pick from, then I realized that the NDP actually didn't want to be in power! So we're stuck again with the Liberals. I am truly thankful that the blinders are off on the NDP's corruption. The only NDPer I have ever really been able to admire was Joy McPhail, and it's now obvious that this party didn't deserve her!
greensea
Nov 1, 2013 at 10:36pm
@Vancouver777 How is life at the Public Affairs Bureau? Does Christy Clark pay you well to troll?
blah
Nov 2, 2013 at 1:09pm
"As a result, out party lost the trust of many new democrats." What you should really worry about is the loss of trust of the majority of voters who want jobs and a party that isn't owned by the unions.
Terry Lawrence
Nov 6, 2013 at 1:51am
The NDP has a major problem with internal corruption in the selection of candidates and leaders, where (literal) vote buying is allowed as thousands of fake "members" are "signed up" at $5 each with the money coming from some "supporter" of the candidate (read: the person[s] buying that candidate) and the $5 bills literally being stapled to the fake "membership applications" at party or constituency headquarters, sometimes after the deadline!
After being an NDP member for 54 years (since it was the CCF), I have pulled the plug in disgust and joined the Green Party.
If the NDP leadership actually wants to root out corruption (and I don't for a moment believe they do), the answer, which I have proposed many times, is simple: require anyone voting at a nominating meeting or leadership contest to have been a member for at least the past two consecutive years.
That would be the end of the literal busloads of ethnic "instant members" that none of the real members in a constituency have ever seen before and will never see again showing up to outvote the real members two to one at nominating meetings. Until that happens, and I doubt it ever will, the NDP remains hopelessly corrupt with many of the candidates including the current leader running in "safe" seats being bought and paid for by moneyed, ethnic, or religious interests, and being personally corrupt enough to go along with it.
The voters of BC apparently decided that the NDP was at least as corrupt as the BC Liberals. As a long time NDP stalwart, it pains me to have to agree with them.
B. King
Nov 12, 2013 at 10:30am
The NDP just don't understand that the people of this province are shy about voting in their party regardless of who the leaders is! First of all the Unions in this province are way too strong as it is. The Teacher's Union , The Nurses Union, and the Government Workers union, are always demanding increases, every 3 years or so. It is not sustainable. The people of this province cannot afford this. All we need is for this group to have a strong hold in the seat of government . Every time a group gets an increase, everything else has to go up accordingly. The Government has to try and budget for all this and so taxes have to go up to pay the bills. I might say that these are also the people that didn't want the HST, so we had to pay $3 billion back to the federal gov't. Not only do we have to pay more for goods and services to cover the increases that the unions get , we have to pay more taxes to cover the increases that the Government has to pay for increases to the Nurses and Teachers. The NDP don't want mining or pipelines or Hydro Dams etc etc. All we have in this province is our natural resources as income. Where do you suggest we go from here?
Every time an issue arises, the NDP do nothing but complain. The people get sick and tired of their whining and doing nothing constructive. I might also add that I do not belong to any party and that I grew up in Sask. under Tommy Douglas gov't.