The race is on.
Climate activist and former federal NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai will be running to be the next leader of the BC NDP.
The winner of the Dec. 3 leadership race will become the next premier of British Columbia.
So far, only Attorney General David Eby is in the race to replace Premier John Horgan. Horgan announced in June his plan to step down as leader after a new leader is chosen, and not run again in the next provincial election.
“I have answered the call from a growing movement in this province to run for NDP leadership as a way to challenge the party status quo and to lay out a vision for what our province could be like,” Appadurai said in an interview with Global News.
“I have agreed to be the candidate and the spokesperson for the movement, but it is much bigger than me.”
Appadurai is the director of campaigns for an organization called the Climate Emergency Unit.
She ran for the federal NDP in 2021 and finished second in Vancouver-Granville in one of the closest races in the country.
Appadurai says the current priorities of the BC NDP are ‘upside down’ and against the planet and people of this province.
Her focus will be addressing the ‘climate emergency’, a rapid increase in overdose deaths and affordability for young people in B.C.
“We are seeing people’s lives crumble faster than this government can offer solutions. We are seeing the province burn. We are seeing unprecedented climate impacts. We are seeing a whole generation of young people who don’t feel they have hope in this government and electoral politics in general,” Appadurai said.
Housing and health care will be central parts of her leadership campaign.
Appadurai is also against both the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the LNG Canada project.
Sept. 4 is the deadline to sign up BC NDP members to vote in the leadership race. The entry deadline for potential candidates will be Oct. 4 and Oct. 19 is the deadline to meet all entry requirements.
Voting for a new leader starts on Nov. 13.
Eby currently has the support of 48 caucus colleagues and if no one ran against him could have been premier by the end of October.
A challenger in the race means the winner of the leadership will have to wait until mid to late December.
“There is definite discomfort with the idea this race would be a coronation. David Eby is a great person. A great politician. Ten years ago he was the insurgent. The activist,” Appadurai said.
“But what David Eby represents right now is the party establishment. It is the party status quo; there is disillusionment.”