Oct 25, 2020: The NDP's Jagrup Brar has won the election in Surrey-Fleetwood....Read More
May 13, 2008:
Jagrup Brar NDP
with 8,543 beat
Jagmohan Singh BC Liberal
Party 6,687 and Chamkaur ......Read
Surrey, May 18, 2005
Jagrup Brar was first elected
as the MLA for Surrey Panorama Ridge on October
28, 2004 and was re-elected on May 17, 2005.
Jagrup serves as Opposition Critic for Employment
and Income Assistance.
VANCOUVER, Oct 29 2004
The NDP's Jagrup Brar has won the byelection
in Surrey-Panorama Ridge with more than 53 per
cent of vote – 20 points ahead of his Liberal
rival Mary Polak. JBrar received 6,662 votes.
Polak was well back with 4,160 votes.
The victorious New Democrat sees it as a sign
of things to come. "We have re-energized
our party, and we are re-energized for the campaign
in 2005 – May 2005," says Brar.
"It's a warning that three-and-a-half
years of Gordon Campbell's mismanagement, scandals,
cuts and broken promises have come home to roost
here in one of Gordon Campbell's strongest ridings."
Brar says he wasn't expecting his party would
do so well. The NDP had been worried that the
Green Party would split anti-Liberal votes.
But Green leader Adriane Carr was a distant
third with 1,052 votes. That's less than nine
per cent of voters, and isn't much of an improvement
over the party's support in the last election
in Surrey-Panorama Ridge.
The win expands the NDP caucus by 50 per cent.
The party now holds three seats in the 79-seat
B.C. legislature.
"This byelection indicates the rebirth
of the NDP," says Joy MacPhail, one of
the two New Democrats elected in 2001.
"People declared us dead two or three
years ago. We are back, fighting and fit."
FROM SEPT. 30, 2004: Byelection race on in
Surrey
Premier Gordon Campbell had campaigned hard
for Polak, and says the defeat is an important
lesson for his government.
"One lesson is they were very well organized,"
he says. "There were a lot of dollars that
came into this riding from big labour and they
worked very hard at it.
"It's important for us to understand that
the election in May is going to be a tough-fought
election. There's no question about it."
The premier also noted that byelections in
B.C. have traditionally gone against the party
in power – with governments losing every
byelection in the past 23 years.
FOR THE RECORD: Liberal candidate Mary Polak
and Premier Gordon Campbell after the loss.
The Liberals had held the seat since the 2001
provincial election, until MLA Gulzar Cheema
stepped down earlier this year to run unsuccessfully
for the federal Liberals.
Cheema had won the seat handily in the 2001
general election, with nearly 60 per cent of
the vote – and the NDP well back at 20
per cent.
