Bruce Reid will carry NDP colours for Delta South in the May 9 provincial election.
Reid, a Tsawwassen resident, Delta school board trustee and a teacher and counsellor in the Richmond School District, won the nomination over fellow Delta school board trustee Rhiannon Bennett during a nomination meeting attended by approximately 50 local party members at the Sundance Pub Sunday afternoon.
“I got into this and I’m running because of a commitment I made when I ran for school board trustee,” Reid said during his opening remarks. “This province is broken. The Liberals philosophy is to give to those who already have — to give to the wealthy and give to big business — and not look after the people they should be looking after.”
Reid said independent MLA Vicki Huntington did a good job in the riding, but because she was a lone wolf in the Legislature and did not have the backing of a party behind her, it limited her ability to accomplish things.
“I will give MLA Vicki Huntington credit in that her office was open and accessible and she helped people. That is the first role of any good MLA, or MP — being open to helping people and meeting the needs of your constituents and I’m committed to that,” Reid said. “We need to get behind the provincial party. The NDP is a credible alternative. We need someone from our riding who stands and represents us and has the power of a party behind them.”
Reid paid credit to Bennett for standing up and running for the nomination.
“There are a lot of hoops to go through to run for this position so I thank Rhiannon for stepping up,” said Reid when he was announced as the chosen candidate. “And don’t go away Rhiannon. We need you to continue to fight along with us.”
Bennett was gracious in defeat thanking her supporters.
“I appreciate you taking a stand. I’m really excited that our membership had this opportunity to hear from both of us,” she said. “We need to win. We need to win this election like we have never had to win an election before because our province needs a change of government. We need John Horgan as our Premier.”
Reid told the Optimist that his first priority is getting his team together to get their message out.
“I think there are many people in South Delta if they understood our message they would vote for us,” Reid said. “The message is we need to have a government that cares about people. People matter. People are important and we have to put the resources and money we have to support our people as opposed to just throwing it away at big business and the people who are wealthy. We have schools, we have families, hospitals — we have so many things that are not properly funded.”
Reid said he admits that he is starting to campaign a bit later than some of the other candidates, but is confident he can reach out to the voters in Delta South.
“Campaigns swing back and forth and things can change at the drop of a hat. If we can get our message out there are a lot of caring and compassionate people in Delta who would vote for the NDP because they know that is the party that will start looking after people,” Reid said.
Liberal Ian Paton, independent Nicholas Wong and Green Larry Colero make up the other candidates in the riding. Voters head to the polls May 9.
