NDP Choose Candidate

By Corey Fischer

Feb 4, 2019 | 11:42 AM

Local New Democrats have chosen their candidate for this fall’s federal election.

Harwinder Sandhu was acclaimed at a nomination meeting by the party’s North Okanagan Shuswap Riding Association Saturday in Vernon.

Sandhu is a wife, mother and registered nurse who currently works at Vernon Jubilee Hospital as a patient care coordinator.

“Harwinder moved to Vernon in early 2012 from Terrace, BC with her two children at the time after loosing her first husband to cancer at a very young age. Since moving
to Vernon Harwinder is happily married to her second husband Baljit Sandhu who also works in Health Care at Vernon Jubilee Hospital and now has her third child,” says a release from Constituency President Erik Olesen.

She also ran for the NDP in the 2017 provincial election in the riding of Kelowna Mission.

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“Harwinder has been very involved with the NDP for a long time and volunteered at provincial and federal levels,” says Olesen. “Harwinder recently was elected as a Provincial NDP Executive Rep for the Southern Interior Regional Council which represents the voices of 11 Constituency’s in the Interior and Northern Regions. Harwinder has been very active at many levels when it comes to social justice, health care, education and issues like affordability. Currently Harwinder is a Provincial Chair with the Nurses Union (BCNU) for one of their Human Rights and Equity Caucus’s.”

The association says Sandhu has been an advocate for many issues related to health care, safety of health care workers and patient safety.

“Those concerns she has addressed in person with current MP Mel Arnold in the summer of 2018 addressing the violence in health care and recently attended an open house on firearms legislation that MP Mel Arnold and MP Michelle Rempel hosted in Vernon on Jan. 19th to address those concerns again and around legal gun owners potential change in mental health status for the safety of patients, their families and health care workers.”

The party says Sandhu is excited to get to work on the campaign trail to represent the needs and voices of the residents, businesses, farmers, families, millennials, seniors and everyone that incorporates the North Okanagan Shuswap as a great place to live, work and play.

“I would like to leave you with a quote that Harwinder uses every day in life and in politics; “Everyone has a history. What you do with it is up to you. Some people repeat it; some learn from it. The really special ones use it to help others,” says Olesen.

The federal election is scheduled for Oct. 21, 2019.

The Conservatives have nominated current one term M-P Mel Arnold while the Liberals have chosen Cindy Derkaz as their candidate for the second straight election.

by Corey Fischer