Members of the Fraser-Nicola NDP Constituency Association are crying foul over what they’re calling the “undemocratic” and “dictatorial” behaviour of the NDP Provincial Office in its appointment of Aaron Sumexheltza as the candidate for the 2021 election.
All 13 members have tendered their resignation from the Executive in protest of Sumexheltza being named the candidate for the riding.
Dennis Adamson, the now resigned Vice President of the Fraser-Nicola NDP Constituency Association, says that the friction between the riding and Provincial Office has been ongoing for several years.
“Ever since 2013, when Craig Keating and Raj Sihota took over the top positions in the BC NDP provincial office, they have done nothing but practice overwhelming interference in the routine operations of our duly elected Fraser-Nicola NDP Constituency Association and in other constituencies as well,” reads the resignation letter from the Executive.
“They have interfered in, obstructed, bullied and dictated how things are to be run without any input from our elected Executive, to the point of anointing or appointing which candidate can or cannot run for the NDP nomination in our elections.”
Adamson notes that for several months, the Executive has been requesting membership, donor and fundraising lists from the NDP Head Office, with the intention of getting members involved in preparation for a possible Fraser-Nicola nomination and election readiness.
“They flatly refused to send any Membership Lists to us following repeated requests by us,” said Adamson.
“We needed those Membership Lists in order to send out notices for the nomination as per the Party’s own constitutional requirements.”
According to NDP party regulations and requirements:
“Complete applications shall be submitted no later than 5:00 PM Pacific on the 28th day before the approved date of the nomination meeting.
- Where the 28th day before a nomination meeting falls on a weekend of holiday, the deadline shall be the business day immediately before.
In the event that a constituency association declines or is unable to conduct a nomination meeting according to Article 9 of the BC NDP Constitution, these Regulations or any other duly enacted party requirements of the Provincial Executive, the Provincial Executive may direct the Party hold the nomination instead, or may exercise its authority under Article 9.1 or the BC NDP Constitution.”
Under Article 9 of the BC NDP Constitution, Adamson explained that it is very clearly laid out that it is up to the Electoral District Association to nominate a candidate.
“9.1 Each Provincial Electoral District Association shall be responsible for the nomination of candidates for election to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in its electoral district. Should it fail to nominate, the Provincial Executive may name a candidate or candidates.”
“Executing nomination meetings is the responsibility of the constituency association,” said Adamson.
“Head Office undermined us and bypassed the constituency association completely, and did everything unbeknownst to us behind our backs. We had zero input into the process. They never consulted us at all.”
Adamson explained that there was no opportunity for the Association to put forth a candidate, as they did not receive early enough notice, only being informed of the nomination meeting 22 days before it took place, when party regulation states that candidate applications must be submitted no later than 28 days prior to the meeting.
“In late August-early September, our Constituency President received an email from Nominations Coordinator, Lise Fenton,” continues the Executive resignation letter.
“Stating that,
- a) the Fraser-Nicola NDP nomination date had been set for September 24th;
- b) Aaron Sumexheltza had been approved to run for the nomination and was the only person who had been vetted by Provincial Office; and
- c) if anyone was interested in running for the nomination, they had to give 28 days’ notice to the Party. Basically, this disqualified anyone else from running as it was only 22 days’ notice starting from the day the notice was sent by Ms. Fenton for the nomination date.”
Adamson called this “unreal”, and stated that it was not an oversight, but “definitely intentional.”
“They have not been working with us since last election, they’ve actually been working against us,” said Adamson.
“Craig doesn’t like Harry and Raj Sihota doesn’t like Harry, so they make everything in our riding uncomfortable because of their dislike for Harry. It’s not constitutional, it’s not fair, but they just kind of bully us around and say, ‘you’re NDP, you should vote for whoever we put there’. We don’t believe that, we believe that, according to the constitution, it’s our job to find them (the candidate), our job to help them get elected, and the nomination party is part of that. And they just took that upon themselves because I guess they think they know our riding better than we do, and their dislike for Harry.”
Harry Lali was the Executive’s chosen candidate during the last election. At that time, Adamson stated that Premier Horgan, Keating and Sihota were already pushing for Sumexheltza.
“These guys decided it’s going to be Aaron last time and since then they’ve been trying to raise his profile by putting him on committees,” said Adamson.
“When you go to a big meeting he’ll be sitting on the stage. They’ve been building him up, they want him for whatever reason, and we wanted Harry. They wanted Harry to step aside, that was Craig Keating, it’s personal between them and Harry. The members, we wanted Harry, and they kept stretching out the nomination time to give Aaron time to sign up more members and he still got defeated last time.”
Although Lali had chosen not to run in the upcoming election, Adamson said three or four other potential candidates had expressed interest in running, none of which were Sumexheltza.
“We don’t know Aaron, he’s not an NDP,” said Adamson.
“He only shows up around election time, doesn’t show up in between. Last election after he didn’t get the nomination he didn’t fundraise, he didn’t do anything he just walked away, and then he came back for the next election.”
Adamson also claims that there were meetings between Premier Horgan, NDP cabinet Ministers and Sumexheltza which the Fraser-Nicola Executive were not made aware of. While this is not in violation of any party rules, Adamson considers it inappropriate.
“If someone is coming into the area, the President and the Executive should at least know.”
Because the entire office of the Fraser-Nicola riding has now resigned, Sumexheltza will have to run his campaign singlehandedly, or enlist volunteers on his own.
“I don’t think that the NDP in our riding are going to have an appetite to actually volunteer their time, because I’ve got lifetime members saying they aren’t even going to vote this time, because of the behaviour of the NDP,” said Adamson.
“I’ve been told by several lifetime members of the NDP that they’re not going to vote to support somebody who was not our choice, that’s been forced upon us, they’re just not going to vote period. And these are people that have voted all their lives and worked for the organization for years and years and years and they’re disgusted with it,” Adamson continued.
“It’s right in the title, we’re supposed to be democratic, and this was not democratic. The party needs to make some changes with their provincial executives. Craig Keating and Raj Sihota are bullies, they just do as they want, it’s as simple as that.”
Conversely, Premier Horgan said he was “very pleased” to welcome Sumexheltza to the team.
“I know how passionate he is about making life better for people in Fraser-Nicola and building back a better BC…Aaron understands that people are the economy and so our economic recovery must be built around everyday people, ensuring everyone has a good job and a secure future.”
