NDP candidate in Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna, Harpreet Badohal/ NDP

By Glenn Hicks

time to give back

Local NDP candidate Harpreet Badohal offers ‘selfless service’ for ‘everyday Canadians’

Apr 9, 2025 | 10:42 AM

With 17 years of experience helping to protect people in the workplace, Harpreet Badohal, the New Democratic Party’s election candidate in the Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna riding, figures it’s time to take his public service to a wider level.

As an occupational hygienist, Badohal has worked with government, employers and other stakeholders on formulating safety policies, and has conducted thousands of inspections aimed at ensuring people return safely from their work each day. Now he’s making his first foray into politics.

” I want to expand the circle of my service, which we call in our [Sikh] community, Sewa – selfless service – and I want to help the bigger community,” Badohal told Vernon Matters.

He sees part of that job as trying to convince voters the NDP has a continued role to play in a future Parliament, even as much of the political dialogue has shifted heavily towards the Liberals and Conservatives, given the focus on how to manage the Trump tariff crisis from the United States.

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“The future of politics is moving [to the centre]; that’s about collaboration,” he explained. “We don’t want our Parliament to turn extreme ‘red’ and ‘blue’ as it is in the United States. The role for New Democrats is a role for everyday Canadians,” he said, noting the successful efforts the party has played in bringing in policies and legislation as part of the partnership deal with the minority Trudeau government. Those included dental care, national pharmacare, national childcare, and school lunches for those who can’t afford them.

“Given what’s happening south of the border [the tariffs], I think both the Liberals and Conservatives will be focused more on corporations and billionaires and there should be somebody who should be focusing on everyday Canadians,” Badohal said.

He figures in the current political climate it’s the NDP which occupies the centre ground and pro-Canadian policies, and as he sees it, the Liberal Party “… has already veered into the policies of the Conservatives and we don’t know where the Conservatives are.”

Badohal said as he door knocks in Summerland, Peachland, West Kelowna and South Kelowna, people are indeed deeply concerned by the US tariffs, even fearing the economic impacts could be as harsh as the COVID pandemic. But he said he’s reminding voters there is only one party that focuses on services for people and opposes corporate greed.

“Our motto is ‘People Before Profit’, Canadians before profit. Services should not be cut; our public health services need to expand,” he said.