Election 2019: Trudeau turns to Surrey to keep red tide alive
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 04:44:59 +0000
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Surrey on Tuesday night, in a riding seized last election as part of the Liberal red wave across what is the second-largest city in B.C.
Trudeau, addressing about 400 supporters outside the Aria Banquet Hall in the Surrey Centre riding, kept to the party line and did not make any fresh announcements.
“Every day this movement grows stronger because you stand up for people around you,” he said. “You work hard for what this Liberal team believes in.”
Trudeau had behind him several Liberal candidates and incumbents, including Randeep Sarai, who won Surrey Centre easily in 2015 with 45 per cent of the vote, ahead of the NDP that captured 30 per cent and the Conservatives with 20 per cent.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Surrey Centre MP Randeep Sarai at an election campaign rally hosted by Sarai in British Columbia, Canada September 24, 2019.
This was a coup because Surrey Centre, that largely replaced Surrey North in 2015, has not been a traditional Liberal stronghold. In 2011, Surrey North was won by the NDP’s Jasbir Sandhu in a close race with the Conservatives’ Dona Cadman. The Liberals captured just 19 per cent of the Surrey North vote that year and had not had an MP in that area for at least five elections.
South Surrey-White Rock is held by Liberal Gordie Hogg, who captured the seat in a 2017 byelection after Conservative Dianne Watts resigned. In 2015, South Surrey-White Rock was a tight fight between the Conservatives and Liberals.
Liberal Ken Hardie captured Fleetwood-Port Kells from the Conservatives in the 2015 election, while Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal has held Surrey Newton since winning comfortably over the NDP candidate in 2015.
Trudeau, who kept his speech short, talked about the Liberal party’s promise to cut taxes for Canadians, increase Old Age Security at 75 and implement a ban on military-style weapons. He said that it remained up to municipalities to uphold his government’s desire to have handguns also banned.
Trudeau attacked Conservative leader Andrew Scheer as someone who would reduce taxes for corporations, and slammed Ontario leader Doug Ford — claiming a lack of teachers in that province was linked to Ford’s relaxation of liquor laws to allow $1 beers to be sold.
“In B.C. you have seen great things can happen,” said Trudeau, crediting his government’s climate change policy and economic stimulation through infrastructure investment. “Surrey, you have a choice to make.”
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is greeted by a wave of cell phones during an election campaign rally in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada September 24, 2019.
This was Trudeau’s first time in Metro Vancouver since the “blackface” controversy emerged last Wednesday, when it was revealed he had coloured his face black or brown at least three times when he was younger. An Insights West poll published on Tuesday stated just over half of B.C. voters thought the blackface controversy was a serious issue (this was based on two sets of polls involving 1,800 participants.
Surrey Centre is comprised of 35 per cent South Asian, 31 per cent European and nine per cent Filipino. That balance was well represented in the long line that took 30 minutes to enter the heavily-secured venue.
Earlier in the day, Trudeau visited a battery factory in the Burnaby South riding, where federal NDP Jagmeet Singh is running, and made a major campaign promise to fight climate change.