Competing for NDP spot

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

The BC NDP has at least two potential candidates in the Penticton riding to vie for a seat in Victoria.

Hilma Labelle announced her candidacy last week, while Toni Boot announced her candidacy this week.

The riding has been freed up for NDP representation after its former candidate Richard Cannings went on to win election as the South Okanagan-West Kootenay representative for the federal NDP.

Boot, a Summerland councillor, said she can bring her experience in politics on the local level to the provincial arena.

Labelle, on the other hand, said she has 35 years of experience with community service work, including the Penticton and Area Women’s Centre and the South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services.

Both Labelle and Boot said they chose NDP because the party is most closely aligned with their own values.

However, those most important values are where two applicants diverged.

While Boot said she is interested in agricultural sustainability, working more closely with local First Nations and increasing public funding for schools, Labelle said the things she is most concerned with are the gap between rich and poor and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

While Labelle said it would be a “healthy competition” between the two, she added that she is happy to see another woman entering provincial politics.

Still, both said they feel they have a solid chance to win the candidacy.

“I accept the challenge. I’m a fairly competitive person,” Boot said. “I’m not in it to fail. I’m in it to win the nomination and then to move forward with the campaign.”

Both said they hold credentials necessary for working in provincial politics, however from different perspectives.

Boot, as a Summerland councillor, said she could bring what she has heard and learned in her time in council, and could use her experience as a councillor to engage better with the province’s cities, also noting her strengths coming from her business and teaching experience.

“I have experience in the business sector, two different businesses, I have taught for several years,” Boot said.

Meanwhile, Labelle said her 35 years of work in NGOs have given her an upper hand in terms of working with policy and politics, noting that applying for projects or grants with an NGO, she has always had to go through politics.

She added that she has sat on provincial boards as well.

Both said they considered provincial politics to be the next step.

“When the opportunity presented itself, it was an exciting opportunity, an exciting next step,” Labelle said.

Candidacy will be finalized in late November.