Jenny Kwan nominated as NDP candidate in Vancouver East
Jenny Kwan has moved one step closer to succeeding Libby Davies as the NDP MP in Vancouver East.
The veteran NDP MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant beat three other candidates in a nomination battle today at Vancouver Technical secondary school. More than 1,400 ballots were cast, but the party did not reveal Kwan's margin of victory.
Like Davies, Kwan has spent much of her political career advocating for better housing programs, equality for First Nations people, and an evidence-based approach for tackling drug and alcohol addiction.
Davies, who's not seeking reelection, and Kwan both launched their political careers after working for the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association.
Kwan's chief opponent was Vancouver-Kensington MLA Mable Elmore, a long-time peace activist with grave concerns about the temporary foreign-worker program.
Elmore, a former transit operator, appeared to have signed up far more members than the two other losing candidates, Scott McLean and Gwen Giesbrecht.
The Vancouver-Kensington MLA was the first candidate to declare on December 21. When Kwan finally entered the race on January 25, she had more than 50 endorsements. Her supporters included the president of the transit operators union, Nathan Woods, and the director for District 3 of the United Steelworkers, Steve Hunt.
Kwan also won the backing of key aboriginal leaders, including Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, as well as from relatives of missing and murdered aboriginal women.
In the final week of the campaign, NDP icon Stephen Lewis endorsed Kwan whereas Elmore was backed by former Vancouver East NDP MP and women's-rights pioneer Margaret Mitchell.
If Kwan ends up resigning as an NDP MLA, it will leave her B.C. caucus without anyone of Chinese descent. Kwan's Vancouver-Mount Pleasant constituency is perhaps the safest NDP seat in the province.
Elmore is the only MLA of Philippine descent ever elected in B.C.. She's also her party's deputy finance critic, which means she works closely with Carole James, the party's finance critic.
Kwan played a pivotal role in forcing the resignation of James as party leader in 2010.
More recently, Kwan repaid $35,000 after an audit found that her former husband had charged family vacations to the Portland Hotel Society, where he was a senior executive.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said in a news release that Kwan is "an excellent addition to our team and will be an invaluable part of an NDP government".
"Jenny has built a reputation as a passionate and effective representative for families in B.C. and is committed to building on Libby's work," Mulcair said.
Comments
12 Comments
DJM
Mar 22, 2015 at 7:20pm
Way to go Jenny!
Mulcair
Mar 22, 2015 at 8:47pm
bettr watch his back.
What a Relief
Mar 23, 2015 at 7:49am
I bet Horgan is happy to have that train wreck out of his hair. Now that she's national she can expect better free trips and gifts than she could ever hope for in a provincial role.
greg w.
Mar 23, 2015 at 9:47am
The good news here is now the provincial riding has an opportunity to elect a much better MLA. For example, one who lives in the riding. On the federal level, Kwan will have to be prepared to do a lot of constituency work if she expects to replace Davies. One can only hope that Kwan does not get elected as an MP. It would be a shame to go from having Libby Davies as an MP to having Jenny Kwan.
ursa minor
Mar 23, 2015 at 9:58am
I voted yesterday, and it was amazing to see the turnout. Although the voting numbers weren't released, it looked relatively even between self-identified Kwan and Elmore supporters. The lineup to vote spread across the Van Tech schoolyard and out into the street.
I was disappointed that Elmore joined in on the media's piling-on about Jenny's family issues during her Vancouver Sun interview (I simply do not get the vitrolic blame and over-the-top derision directed at someone for believing her husband was telling her the truth), but at the same time she showed that she wasn't afraid to do whatever it takes to win. That's a message she needs to take to John Horgan for 2017.
In the same interview, Elmore also labelled herself as a 'team player', an allusion to Kwan's estrangement from a number of New Democrats when she called Carole James on her "collegial" approach to leadership in the wake of 2009's electoral disappointment. Kwan was Pyrrhicly vindicated when Adrian Dix took the exact same approach as James, and was met with electoral disaster four years later. Tom Mulcair 'plays the game' at the Federal level with a much more aggressive style which the combative Kwan will fit into much better than she does in the current NDP caucus in Victoria.
400 ppm
Mar 23, 2015 at 12:26pm
conservative: disposed to preserve existing conditions....and to limit change.
What do you call a conservative who hides being family values: Republican.
What do you call a conservative who hides behind ethnicity: NDP.
What do you call a conservative who can't admit there's only one party: Progressive.
steve y
Mar 23, 2015 at 7:27pm
The more cunning and evil candidate won!
Guilin fish
Mar 23, 2015 at 10:02pm
Congratulations Jenny!
I was amazed at your determination and courage when you stayed up for days to fight against unfair bills as a lone NPD Representative at the Victoria parliament. You have shown you really care about people and you are a hard worker.
Mitch
Mar 24, 2015 at 11:15am
How does anyone vote for such a blatant opportunist?
She's not
Mar 24, 2015 at 2:46pm
the only one. Harry Rankin used to get quite agitato in his description of the NDP, locally, provincially, federally and generally. "Amoral opportunists, devoid of principal" was his view.
Mind you Harry was an old-fashioned Communist of the easy-going variety (Smash the State someday but keep billing clients meantime). Still he had principles.
The political class today practices what they call "situational ethics", i.e. right, wrong, it depends. They have principles too, and if you don't like them they have others.
All signs point to Ms. Kwan being at least as totally ineffective as her predecessor and, living as she does as a wealthy socialist in a wealthy neighbourhood on the West side, will bring a sorely-needed fresh(ish) perspective to the problems of the DTES. She'll be living next door to the people who have built and maintained the policies which perpetuate (and keep at a respectful distance) the welfare ghetto. Her children will attend the same private schools as theirs. As an MP she'll be making $163,700 as a base, plus $16,300 as Deputy House Leader. There are committee chair bonuses and car allowances and a day-care and a subsidized restaurant and you can expense the business-class travel to and from Ottawa and keep the airmiles.
Damn right she did whatever it took. Nobody in the private sector would pay her $180K/yr. No relevant experience, her only skill, like Ms. Davies before her, is to sing from the same old NDP hymn-book to the same old parishioners (with the emphasis on OLD).
After six years she'll have a gold-plated, indexed pension that puts yours to shame and BMW in her Kits driveway. Meanwhile nothing will change in the DTES.
Venceremos, hermana!