NDP's Sundhu says he won't run again after coming up well short on election night

Photo: Sydney Chisholm

NDP candidate Bill Sundhu, who has run twice in the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding, says he will not seek election a third time.

According to Bill Sundhu, "a fence post" could run under the Conservative banner in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo and win the seat.

That's part of the reason the two-time NDP candidate — a former judge and well-known local lawyer, by no means an under-qualified nominee — said he doesn't plan to put his name forward the next time Canadians head to the polls.

Sundhu found himself runner-up on Monday night, his 18,618 votes well short of Conservative Frank Caputo's 27,597.

“‘I’ve had two good runs and it's time to move on to other things in my life,” Sundhu told Castanet Kamloops.

“It's time to work in my garden, read some good books, listen to some good music and get on with life.”

The NDP candidate said his team ran the best campaign it could. He said the outcome was disheartening and not what he had expected.

“Locally, we thought we would be closer. [I’m] a little bit disappointed about the gap between us and the Conservatives,” he said.

“We thought we were in a much better position.”

Sundhu wished Caputo well and congratulated him on the win.

He said he likes Caputo. Both men are criminal lawyers in the city and they have crossed paths many times at the courthouse.

But, in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, Sundhu said it doesn't matter who the Conservatives put forward — and that's frustrating.

“In this riding, the Conservatives are entrenched,” Sundhu said.

“There are ridings in the country where somebody said [the Conservatives] could run a fence post and it would win — and I think that's the thing here.”

This election was Caputo's first as a candidate. He will replace Conservative MP Cathy McLeod, who announced earlier this year that she would not seek another term in Ottawa.

McLeod had represented the riding since 2008.