Federal NDP candidates Niki Ashton and Guy Caron attend Vancouver Pride parade

    1 of 2 2 of 2

      There are no B.C. candidates in the federal NDP leadership race since New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian dropped out.

      But two of the four left in the contest still made their way to Vancouver for the city's annual Pride parade.

      Niki Ashton, MP for the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, has long been a champion of the LGBT community.

      So it probably won't surprise folks in Vancouver that the fiery progressive politician was in Vancouver yesterday.

      On August 4, Ashton walked in the annual trans march.

      Also in town for the Vancouver Pride parade was Guy Caron, who represents the Quebec riding of Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques.

      One of Caron's key planks is a basic income guarantee for all Canadians.

      The two other New Democrats seeking their party's leadership, Ontario provincial politician Jagmeet Singh and Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus, took a pass on the Vancouver Pride parade.

      Singh tweeted that some of his key B.C. supporters walked the route together.

      In 2015, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was supposed to attend the Vancouver Pride parade.

      But when Stephen Harper called an election, Mulcair cancelled his trip to Vancouver. The NDP leader decided instead to attend the funeral for former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Flora MacDonald.

      The Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, didn't change his plans and attended the Vancouver celebration.

      He electrified some in the crowd and the headline on this website was: "Justin Trudeau wins Day 1 of election campaign in fight with Tom Mulcair".

      Of course, Trudeau's Liberals ended up winning the general election.

      Last year, Trudeau became the first prime minister to attend the Vancouver Pride parade.

      This weekend, he was on holidays with his family and missed the celebration.

      Justin Trudeau attended the Vancouver Pride parade in 2014, 2015, and 2016, but this year he spent the B.C. Day long weekend vacationing with his family.
      Charlie Smith

      The first premier to walk in a Pride parade in Canada was Ujjal Dosanjh.

      He became B.C.'s NDP premier in 2000 and appointed then Vancouver-Burrard MLA Tim Stevenson as employment and investment minister.

      This made Stevenson, now a Vancouver councillor, the first openly gay politician in Canadian history to be appointed to a federal or provincial cabinet.

      This year, Premier John Horgan joined some NDP colleagues in the Vancouver Pride parade. It came a couple of days after he announced that his government would re-establish the B.C. Human Rights Commission.

      Comments