Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Sydney Chisholm

BC Votes

Despite losing both Kamloops ridings, NDP candidates look for the positives

Oct 19, 2024 | 11:45 PM

KAMLOOPS — Despite losing the race in both Kamloops ridings, the NDP candidates and their supporters chose to celebrate.

“I’m feeling — I’m still feeling the win,” Kamloops Centre candidate Kamal Grewal told CFJC Today. “Regardless, we may not have won the seat. But the way I look at it, 9,600 people placed their trust in me. That’s a win for me. And I would like to say this — I’ve already created history in this town, so I’m proud of myself.”

NDP supporters called Red Beard Cafe home for their election night festivities and watched the results as they came in.

“At the end of the day… Kamloops has been a little bit, you know, reluctant to change for a while, so we’re hoping that we sort of started that already,” added Grewal. “And I think given the fact that we did still receive 40 per cent of the share speaks volumes that we’re moving towards the direction that, you know, people hopefully will progress.”

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Grewal received 40.77 per cent of the preliminary votes, while Maddi Genn received 32.67 per cent in Kamloops-North Thompson.

“At the end of the day, I’m super, super proud of the work that we did,” said Genn. “I think, you know, win or lose, the effort was the same for us. The campaign team and I, we really busted out every move that we had. We talked to hundreds of hundreds of voters throughout the election.”

Campaign supporters say overall they are proud of their efforts and this year just wasn’t their year in Kamloops.

“But essentially what it has come down to here in Kamloops, in my view, is that the consolidation of the conservative vote by BC United folding, that made the difference. Had there been a split, the NDP would have won this riding.” said longtime NDP volunteer Bill Sundhu.

“The results we got were amazing. Just the growth in the share of the vote,” added campaign volunteer Jesse Ritcey. “We outperformed what the [338 Canada] projections that we would get in the writing by several points. We ran, I think, an objectively strong campaign. It wasn’t the result that we wanted. But I think we’ve really set ourselves up for the future.”

The Kamloops NDP supporters are looking forward to the next campaign, and Grewal is already planning to be on the ticket.

“I hope to just build upon this and I’m going to find more ways to get more engaged with the community and get to know people so that next time, they will know what I stand for and what my work is like and hopefully give me a chance,” she said.

“We ran a political novice and Ms. Grewal, a very smart, engaging person, and she worked very hard against a very, very established incumbent,” noted Sundhu. “And we got 40 per cent of the vote. And if 1,000 votes had swung the other way from Mr. Milobar to us, we’d be neck and neck. Next time, it’ll be different.”