Riding profile: FleetwoodPort Kells
WHY IT MATTERS:
This suburban riding, in highgrowth and very ethnic Surrey, B.C., would be a slam-dunk for the Conservatives if all was going smoothly for Stephen Harper. The Tories took 48 per cent of the vote in 2011, compared to the NDP’s 33 per cent. And Harper is running a longtime incumbent in Nina Grewal, who in 2004 became Canada’s first South Asian female MP. But there’s a reason why recent rumours have been circulating that Grewal might step down, making way for a “star” Tory recruit. Harper’s polling numbers have tumbled in B.C., and the Conservatives haven’t done the Grewal brand any favours by first telling Nina’s husband, controversial exMP Gurmant, that he couldn’t seek a nomination in a nearby riding for undisclosed reasons. Then the party disqualified their son Liv, allegedly due to membership signup irregularities, in the riding of Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon. And the NDP is running a strong candidate in retired RCMP inspector Garry Begg, taking advantage of local concern over crime. Putting the Conservatives on the defensive on law-and-order matters would be quite a feat.
KEY DEMOGRAPHIC:
Of the 104,440 population in 2011, 75,370 were visible minorities and an overwhelming 61,635 are classified as South Asian — the vast majority of whom are Sikhs from India’s Punjab state. Any successful candidate has to court that vote 24/7.
CLAIM TO FAME:
The claim is actually to infamy, as Surrey has been hit with a wave of gang-related shootings that have put Conservatives on the hot seat. Of a more historic note, the riding is named in part after Lance Corporal Arthur Thomas Fleetwood, who died in France during the First World War. Port Kells was founded in the late 1800s by two Irish immigrants who were both named Henry Kells, but were related only by marriage.
THE DARKEST HORSE:
The Liberals, running former TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie, came a distant third with less than 16 per cent of the vote. If he has any hope it will be resting on the popularity of the Trudeau name among Indo-Canadians, many of whom remember his father Pierre fondly due to Liberal immigration policies in the 1970s. One PunjabiCanadian woman said last summer that the younger Trudeau is often referred to by older women in the community as “our Justin” — suggesting he is almost a family member.
TIM HORTONS OR STARBUCKS:
When you’re new to Canada it’s not as easy to come up with the extra change for a fancy coffee. Tims by a landslide.