First-time Liberal candidate fixing for a fight against B.C. NDP leader

VANCOUVER – Few political candidates ever admit — or even believe — they might actually lose. Gurjit Dhillon is no exception.

Dhillon, 34, is running as a Liberal in the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway against an opponent with the highest of profiles: NDP Leader Adrian Dix, whose party has emerged as a favourite to win the provincial election and who has won his own district by considerable margins in the past two votes.

But Dhillon, whose day job is recruiting police officers for the RCMP, brushes aside questions about her long game. Will she use her candidacy, in a long-shot riding, to manoeuvre into a more competitive race next time? What exactly are her plans after the May 14 vote?

She’ll be working in the legislature, of course.

“On May 15, I hope to wake up as an MLA,” Dhillon said in a recent interview, with a confidence that belies the challenges she must overcome to make that a reality.

Dhillon is staring ahead at what will surely be a difficult few weeks, in which she’ll be forced to be a quick study in the art of campaigning and will likely face off against Dix himself in local all-candidates’ debates. Unlike Premier Christy Clark, Dix has said he will attend an undetermined number of local debates in his own riding.

This election marks Dhillon’s first foray into politics.

Dhillon was born in the northern B.C. community of Terrace, one of three children raised by a stay-at-home mom and a father who worked at a local pulp mill.

After finishing high school, she moved to Vancouver to study health sciences at Vancouver Community College before working at the city’s general hospital and eventually taking a job at the RCMP. She also volunteers with SUCCESS, an organization that offers assistance to new immigrants, and a children’s arts group.

Today, she lives just outside the boundaries of the Vancouver-Kingsway riding, in the neighbouring district of Vancouver-Kensington, with her husband of 14 years and two children, aged 11 and 7.

Though she does not live in the riding, Dhillon said it was her idea to run against Dix.

“Why not?” she said. “I’ve always been up for challenges, and what better way to do it than this? I love a good fight and I think that’s exactly what this will be.”

And a fight appears to be exactly what Dhillon is looking for. When asked how she’ll convince voters to support her, she wastes no time attacking Dix.

“I truly believe I’m the exact opposite of the leader,” she said.

“I’m young, in a working family with children. … I grew up in a one-income family, not privileged at all, and I think all those things are in contrast to how he grew up.”

Dix has a reputation for being fiercely private, preferring to talk about politics than his own personal story, but he has opened up about his childhood in the past.

The NDP leader told The Vancouver Sun newspaper last year about growing up in Vancouver as the son of immigrant parents — one from Ireland, the other from Britain— who ran a storefront insurance business.

Dix told the newspaper that his parents “struggled and they gave us everything,” referring to himself and his two siblings.

When asked about Dhillon’s claim that he doesn’t represent the average Vancouver-Kingsway voter, Dix declined to debate his credentials as a regular person.

“It’s good that Ms. Dhillon is running, it’s good for her, and I’m not going to engage in that,” Dix said in an interview aboard the NDP campaign bus.

“They can make their case and I’ll make mine. The Liberal campaign is mostly about putting us down, and I understand that, but if I would suggest anything it is that we should bring a more positive approach to how we treat the community.”

Dix’s campaign said he will be participating in local debates in his riding, meaning Dhillon will have a chance to compare herself with the New Democrat leader.

That’s in contrast to Liberal Leader Christy Clark, who made headlines earlier this month when she skipped a candidates’ debate staged at the University of British Columbia and who has said she won’t be participating in any local debates during the campaign.

— With files from Dirk Meissner