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Political scientist to Liberals: Don't run a replacement candidate in Burnaby South

Karen Wang stepped down after singling out NDP rival Jagmeet Singh’s ethnicity in an online post.

The Liberals may be wise not to replace their candidate in next month’s Burnaby South byelection after she was forced to step aside after singling out NDP rival Jagmeet Singh’s ethnicity in an online post, says a local political scientist.

Karen Wang apologized Wednesday for her comments, saying that the diverse character of the riding is in fact a source of strength.

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“In trying to speak about my own story and the importance of people of all different backgrounds getting involved in this important byelection, I made comments online that also referenced Jagmeet Singh’s cultural background,” she said in a statement.

“My choice of words wasn’t well-considered and didn’t reflect my intent, and for that, I sincerely apologize to Mr. Singh. I have deep respect for him as the leader of his party and for his public service — and I would never want to diminish that in any way.”

StarMetro Vancouver reported that Wang wrote on the Chinese social media platform WeChat that she was the “only” Chinese candidate in the riding, and identified Singh as “of Indian descent.”

“If we can increase the voting rate, as the only Chinese candidate in this riding, if I can garner 16,000 votes, I will easily win the byelection, control the election race and make history! My opponent in this byelection is the NDP candidate Singh of Indian descent!” she said, according to the newspaper’s translation.

She said in her statement Wednesday that she had decided to step aside after speaking with her supporters.

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“I believe in the progress that (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau and the Liberal team are making for British Columbians and all Canadians, and I do not wish for any of my comments to be a distraction in that work,” she said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh jogs up to a home while door knocking for his byelection campaign, in Burnaby, B.C., on Saturday January 12, 2019.Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Burnaby South riding was created in 2013 from Burnaby-Douglas and Burnaby-New Westminster, both of which have elected NDP MPs since they were formed in 1997 and 2004, respectively.

The riding was first contested in 2015, when Kennedy Stewart, now Vancouver’s mayor, won 35.07 per cent of the vote for the NDP, narrowly defeating Liberal candidate Adam Pankratz, who won 33.88 per cent of the vote. (The Conservative candidate won 27.11 per cent, a Green Party candidate won 2.85 per cent, and the Libertarian candidate won 1.09 per cent.)

The Liberals have until Feb. 4 to nominate another candidate to replace Wang, but it is unclear whether they plan to do so.

Pankratz, who lost by just 547 votes in 2015, said Wednesday that he has no intention of running again after previously announcing he wouldn’t do so because of other commitments in his life.

“The situation now doesn’t change that,” he added.

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Cyrus Eduljee, a biotechnology scientist who lost to Wang at a Liberal nomination meeting in December, did not return a request for comment.

University of B.C. political scientist Richard Johnston said he would advise the Liberals not to run anyone in Wang’s place.

“Tactically, I think it is the option with the least downside risk,” he said. “Make something up about the difficulty of organizing a nomination.”

But if the Liberals are not going to run another candidate, Johnston also urged the party to not now say that they are extending Singh what is known as “leader’s courtesy,” in which parties don’t field a candidate in a riding being contested by a party leader, which the Greens have done in Burnaby South.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh opens his campaign office following the announcement of the upcoming Burnaby South by-election on February 25th, in Burnaby, BC., January 13, 2019.Photo by Nick Procaylo /PNG

“I think it would be too brazen to resurrect the norm of deference to party leaders,” Johnston said. “That would be too obvious, because if they wanted to do that, they should have done it months ago.”

According to a Mainstream Poll released Tuesday before Wang ended her campaign, Singh had 38.8 per cent support among decided and leaning voters, while Wang had 26.3 per cent support. Conservative candidate Jay Shin had 22 per cent, and People’s Party candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson had 8.7 per cent.

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In a statement before Wang dropped out, Singh said he intends to represent everyone in the riding regardless of their background.

“We believe everyone brings something to the table and as a community we are better for it,” he said. “While there are real differences in people’s experiences, I have dedicated much of my work over the years to find the common threads that unite us all. My mother taught me we are all connected and every day I try to live by her words.”

The federal Liberal party said Wang’s online comments were “not aligned with the party’s values” and it has accepted her resignation. Trudeau and the party have always stood for the full and equal participation of all Canadians in democracy, it said.

“The Liberal Party has a clear commitment to positive politics and support for Canadian diversity, and the same is always expected of our candidates,” it said in a statement.

The 2016 census of the riding shows about 43,000 people identified as ethnically Chinese, while 9,300 people said they were South Asian, and 455 of those identified as Punjabi, out of a total population of 111,000 people.

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Singh is Sikh and speaks Punjabi, English and French. While campaigning in the riding recently, he also greeted people in Croatian and Spanish. He said he had learned to say, “Hello, how are you?” in about 40 different languages.

Wang is the owner of a daycare business and ran unsuccessfully in the 2017 provincial election for the B.C. Liberals.

Before her resignation, political observers had noted she had deep ties to the riding, unlike Singh who was previously a member of Ontario’s provincial legislature.

On Tuesday night, Wang was working door to door in the riding, speaking to many constituents in Mandarin. She also chatted with two people of South Asian heritage who promised her their support.

She said she wanted to run in order to give back to her community.

“When I came 20 years ago with my husband … from China, we came with nothing, zero,” she said. “I’m very proud of being a Canadian and I want to do more.”

Sanjay Jeram, a senior political science lecturer at Simon Fraser University, said race is a reality of politics, especially in diverse areas, but Wang’s comments went too far.

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“Ultimately, I think the candidates have a responsibility to try to rise above and demonstrate that politics is about representing all the citizens that live in the riding, rather than a particular group, and not trying to play groups against each other.”

He said there have been many examples of parties strategizing to capture voters of a particular ethnicity, including the Conservatives under former prime minister Stephen Harper.

“The fact that she said it out loud — and brought to light something that perhaps most people are wilfully ignorant of — is the issue,” said Jeram. “Maybe, in some ways, it might be a good thing. It might blow the lid off the fact that this has been happening for some time now.”

— with file from Canadian Press
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