McCallum fails to file; Tories pick Eidsvik
Former Surrey mayor fails to follow up on seeking Newton-North Delta nomination
Defeated Surrey mayor Doug McCallum’s bid to become a Conservative MP is already over after the party said he failed to meet a deadline for submitting his nomination papers.
McCallum — who lost the mayor’s job to Dianne Watts by a 10,000- vote margin — only announced that he would seek the Conservative nomination in Newton-North Delta on Thursday.
Calls to McCallum were not returned by deadline Sunday.
Phil Eidsvik, executive director of the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, a group that opposes aboriginal-only commercial fisheries, was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate in the riding on Sunday.
In an interview, Eidsvik said he got a call from the constituency association late Thursday telling him he had to have his nomination papers — including a criminal background check and signatures of support — in by noon Friday.
The nomination opened up after controversial incumbent Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal announced Tuesday he was taking a break from federal politics while the federal ethics commissioner investigates his conduct for taping phone calls between himself and federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh.
Newton-North Delta was one of the tightest races in 2004, with Grewal garnering 32.8 per cent of the vote, Liberal candidate Sukh Dhaliwal getting 31.6 per cent and NDP candidate Nancy Clegg winning 29.2 per cent.
Both Dhaliwal and Clegg are running again this time.
More than one-third of the riding’s residents are Indo-Canadian.
While McCallum’s run for federal office is over, another defeated mayor — Coquitlam’s Jon Kingsbury — is running for the Liberals in Port Moody- WestwoodCoquitlam.
Kingsbury lost the mayor’s job by 52 votes to his opponent Maxine Wilson last month.
This is not the first time Kingsbury has sought federal office.
In 1997, he ran for and lost the nomination of the Reform Party, one of the parties that has now become the Conservatives. “The Reform Party obviously didn’t want me, so I didn’t stay with them,” Kingsbury said Sunday.
Kingsbury said he now supports the Liberals because he’s been impressed with Prime Minister Paul Martin’s commitment to urban issues, including returning some gas tax revenue to cities.
The incumbent Conservative MP in the riding, James Moore, said he was surprised at Kingsbury’s decision to run for the Liberals since he attended a $50-aplate fundraiser for Moore on Oct. 27.
Kingsbury confirmed attending the dinner but said he did so as the mayor of Coquitlam and not as a party supporter.
“He was the sitting MP and I was the mayor,” said Kingsbury. “ When you’re the mayor, you have to deal with whoever’s there.”
In the 2004 election, Moore beat his Liberal opponent, Kwangyul Peck, by a 6,219-vote margin — garnering 40.9 per cent of the vote to Peck’s 27.3 per cent. The NDP candidate in the riding, Charley King, received 26.4 per cent of the vote.
cskelton@png.canwest.com