Fatima Siddiqui has spent the past few years eradicating blood-sucking parasites, so she can appreciate how some might say its ironic shes running for political office.
Siddiqui, the director of communications and customer relations for a Vancouver-based company that makes a biopesticide that kills bed bugs, announced her candidacy as the Liberal party candidate for the Vancouver-Hastings riding on writ day last week, 10 days before the cutoff for new candidates.
I am a fresh new perspective and of course I am optimistic and want to say that I am running on more than being a blood-sucking parasite, she told the Courier with a laugh last week. I am young and energetic and not to say that Shane Simpson is old and lazy, in my opinion but I am enthused and I really want to get in on the ground floor and really talk to my constituents and really get them energized.
She points out that, although the riding has been an NDP stronghold since its creation in 1991, only half of eligible voters bothered to turn out at the polls in the last election, which Simpson handily won with 23 per cent more votes than Liberal runner-up Haida Lane.
Ive gotten so many calls from people within the constituency who are unsure and the fact that so many people within the constituency actually dont even vote, I can see that there is a clear problem and I think there is a chance people want to hear a new vision, said Siddiqui, an Ontario native who moved to Vancouver four years ago after more than a decade living in the U.S. New people and younger people who are moving into that demographic who share my point of view, Im trying to give them an outlet.
Her candidacy is one of several of the ruling Liberal partys rookie candidates including Scott Harrison in Vancouver-West End and Celyna Sia Sherst in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant who declared their intentions late in the game while most NDP and Green candidates have been finalized for weeks or months. Siddiqui, 32, says she decided to run after consulting with her boss, former Port Coquitlam-Burke Mountain Liberal MLA Karn Manhas, who started Terramera Biosciences after losing his seat to the NDPs Mike Farnsworth in 2005.
First-time candidates who run in ridings where they are considered long shots are often later rewarded with nominations in ridings with better odds, and Siddiqui said she wouldnt rule out trying elsewhere if the results arent close in Vancouver-Hastings.
This is something I really want to pursue so even if this time it doesnt work out, I am not out of the race in the future, but it is not something that was promised to me by any means, said Siddiqui, whose previous political experience includes campaigning for Barack Obama in 2008 while living in Louisiana and volunteering for the NPA in the last municipal election. Both parties have their scandals and issues right now but we are just trying to get our message out for people that want to hear it.
Along with Simpson, the NDP caucus chair and labour critic, she also faces Green Party candidate Brennan Wauters, who ran as a federal Green candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky riding in 2011. Libertarian Party candidate Phil Webb and Carrol Woolsey of Social Credit are also running in Vancouver-Hastings. The date and location for an all-candidates debate for the riding has not yet been announced.
afleming@vancourier.com
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