Canada

The Canadian Election has been announced to take place on 20th September 2021, this is a quick review of who is running in my own local area.

During A Pandemic?

There has been a great deal of talk about why the election is being held now, according to some Mr Trudeau promised there wouldn’t be held now and is only holding it since he is sure to win. Not sure whether that is true or not. Either way, it does appear this was unexpected and prospective candidates do appear to be slightly unprepared for this eventuality, so I do feel for them in a way. They are doing the best they can under the circumstances.

Our Area

We live in the Surrey-Newton area of British Columbia. It is a diverse district but has many issues from crime to empty stores. At the time the election was announced there were no candidates in the area listed aside from the incumbent from the Liberal Party. As a Brit, I find this a little odd that each party didn’t have representation here already.

Liberal Party

My neighbours talk about Sukh Dhaliwal as being heavily supported by the local community but wasn’t sure what he’s achieved for the area.

Looking through his Twitter account:

• He has only mentioned climate change 3 times in 2021.
• The last time he mentioned wildfires was back in 2016.
• He mentioned homeless once in 2021.
• He has mentioned health many times in 2021.
• He has mentioned COVID 9 times, the pandemic sixteen times, and the vaccine seventeen times, in 2021 (Note: some crossover where all phrases intermingled in one tweet)
• He has only mentioned LGBTQ once in 2021 and throughout his time on Twitter.

A good percentage of his tweets or retweets are from the federal rather than local perspective. Now and again, I am given a little insight into what he is doing locally but not a great deal. This is the case in the US too.

Let’s have a look at his entry on the Liberal Party website:

Well, that’s not good! No platform for the local area but you can see a very brief resume about him.

On the web: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Liberal Party Website

Conservative Party

The Conservative Party candidate for this area is Syed Mohsin. So, let’s see what we can find out about him.

First, I went to the Conservative Party website and saw their list of candidates [looks like this link is now broken but replaced with some kind of childish graphic [as of 31 Jan 2023]. In the little container they have for him there are no links to any social media accounts. Not a good start. However, when I click on the “Learn More” link [as of 29 Jan 2023 the link is broken and goes nowhere] the site just times out, also, there is no security certificate on the domain either.

There is a Conservative Party website for our area, but it doesn’t list the candidate’s name.

So, I have nothing to go on to assess what this part will do for this area.

NDP

This one is looking more hopeful.  The NDP candidate is Avneet Johal.

Avneet has two sub-domains at the NDP website, so https://surreynewton.ndp.ca just redirects to https://avneetjohal.ndp.ca.

His resume looks good, and hits some of the keywords I like such as “mental health”, “diversity”, “climate” & “jobs” etc.

When I go to the websites News section, it’s a little disappointing as the entries are from a federal rather than local perspective. There is nothing there which outlines his platform/manifesto for this area.  The Events page is empty at the time I visited it. The Volunteer page has a picture of Jagmeet Singh, which is lovely, but it would be better to have Avneet’s picture there. He needs to fast track his campaign to beat the Liberal Party candidate.

Avneet doesn’t have a Twitter account, I can’t find one and none is listed on his NDP website. He appears more active on Facebook and Instagram but not everyone has those platforms, and he needs to be everywhere given that this might be a more social media/digital election.

On the web: Facebook | Instagram | NDP Website

Green Party

I cannot find a candidate listed for this area. Again, I have no idea what the party would do for Surrey-Newton.

People’s Party of Canada

Pamela Singh is this party’s candidate.

Pamela has an entry on the PPC website with a short bio, but right now that’s about it. So, I can’t comment on this candidate right now.

On the web: PPC Website

Independent

Parveer Hundal is an Independent candidate running in this area.

Parveer is very articulate and sounds like she would be a great representative for Newton. She appears to be focused on crime, which is high in the Surrey, British Columbia, area.  Looking through some keywords/subject specialities on her resume/outline I see “crime”. “youth”, “housing”, “mental health”, “overdose”, “health care reform”, “affordable education”, and “diversity”. I don’t see mention of climate change or LGBTQ issues.

On her website she needs to link to any social media account she has and keep pushing the message out. She also needs to write a platform/manifesto and keep plugging away with more blog/news items.

On the web: Instagram | Elect Parveer Hundal Website (the website for Parveer Hundal is no longer available – updated 31st January 2023)

Summary

Likability

While nothing to do with their policies the two most approachable candidates for me are Parveer Hundal and Avneet Johal. We need some young forward-thinking candidates who are great for the community and represent the youth who will be most affected by issues like climate change.

Policies

I would like to compare all the parties but there is little or no presence from the Conservatives, Green Party and PPC. I just don’t know what the Liberal Party candidate has achieved here or what his manifesto is. The candidate who has outlined their policies/vision the most is Parveer Hundal.

When I speak to neighbours they say the Liberal candidate will surely get back in, no one knows what he has done but since he has the support of the community, he’s bound to get the most votes. The Labour Party in the UK was overconfident, and they were slaughtered at the last election, this could be the case here. Trudeau is extremely unpopular here in my community, I suspect they’ll be looking for someone else. Either way, I wish all the candidates my best.

When I become a citizen I look forward to voting in the next election.

On 3rd August there was a major fire in the apartment block right opposite to our community here in Surrey, British Columbia.

We were having dinner at around 17:45 in the evening and started to hear a lot of commotion outside. Our apartment doesn’t face the street so we couldn’t tell exactly what was happening and kind of just went about our business as usual. Living surrounded by seniors it wasn’t unusual to hear emergency services coming and going anyhow.

It wasn’t until slightly later we realised the gravity of the situation. A major fire had started in the apartments across the street. The facade of the apartment affected looked just as it usually does. However, we did see water being sprayed on the back of it by a fire engine, the one of many emergency services that had arrived in the area. If there is anything going on I tend to stay away as I don’t want to be in the emergency services way and I felt incredibly sick for most of the day.

Later in the evening, the wind must have changed direction and blew the smoke over our community. It was a sweltering day but had to close all the windows because of the overwhelming smell. So, not only did I feel sick, but also hot and overwhelmed by the smell of the smoke. All these were minor issues compared with how events unfolded for the victims of the fire.

Although pending an investigation by the authorities the fire was reportedly started by an unattended BBQ. The structure of the building, especially the roof, made it difficult for the fire brigade to put out, who were on-site for two whole days. They left by Thursday morning when the area has been gated off and a 24/7 security guard posted to ensure looters, and such don’t attempt to enter the now abandoned property.

The local paper, The Surrey Now-Leader, has a good summary of what happened. On day 2 of the fire a YouTuber flew over our area with a drone to record what was happening at that point:

On the event of the fire the evacuees were led into our community by a team of volunteers including the Emergency Preparedness team. They were able to provide them with water, shade, toilets, comforting them and so on. One person was in distress after losing a pet in the fire. The media and other observers were also able to set up using our facilities. It’s great that all these people came together.

It’s very unfortunate that many of those will be unable to return to their home for some time to come. With the extent of the damage, it will take an exceptionally long time to fix what has been destroyed, I’m not even sure if the building must be torn down and rebuilt. I guess the coming weeks will have answers for those affected.

It’s tough to plan for such events but with potential flooding, wildfires, earthquakes, and other effects of climate change one must do what one can to ensure you can get back on your feet quickly after a disaster.

We’ve had hot spells in British Columbia before but nothing like this and it has been totally miserable for many people.

Breaking Records

The small community in Lytton, British Columbia, is now on the international map for breaking the Canadian record for heat. On Monday 28 June 2021 the temperature went up to 47.5c, that is 117.5f. Even in our neighbourhood, we had a “feel like” temperature of 117f. [Source: Global BC]

It was reported that 25 people have died in a 24 hour period in the City of Burnaby due to the heat. [Source: CBC]

Emergency services have been affected as they can’t keep up with the demand of people falling sick due to the heat.

Schools and other services closed down, as a result, I am very pleased because it’s not right to put children or staff under such torture.

Moderate British Columbia

We are not used to the heat here in BC, we have a moderate climate and many complain when the temperature reaches 23c. It’s very difficult to manage temperatures into the 40s.

The majority of larger stores are set up with air conditioning. This is good otherwise their products will spoil and they won’t have any customers. Customers have to be comfortable while shopping. Smaller outlets are not equipped to handle the heat and even if restaurants have air conditioning it still creates an impossible kitchen environment for staff.

Very few homes are equipped with air conditioning so they survive on fans.

How Have We Coped?

It’s been an extremely tough couple of days. Every room in our place is about 30c and no air, it’s been impossible to deal with, I’ve felt very sick. The coolest parts of our place are our bathrooms, I actually tried to sleep on the toilet floor I was that desperate.

We can go down to the garage which is quite cool and have sat in the car to cool off. However, it is dark with no wifi/cell signal so there is little you can do to be productive. However, it is a moment of respite from the sickening heat.

Some neighbours have experienced hotter temperatures in their homes, I don’t know how they have coped, it’s very difficult to escape it. I’ve heard of acquaintances toothpaste and butter turn to liquid due to the heat.

We could go out to shopping malls but that means going out in the heat, having to wear masks that are uncomfortable during the heat, leaving the car to blister outside and difficult to return to.

Yesterday I couldn’t even turn my computer on, I was fearful that it would die in the heat. It’s a large desktop so there is nowhere I can move it to.

When Will It Get Better?

Today, Tuesday 29 June, the high is 34c, still very uncomfortably hot. There is no wind or air coming throughout the home to cool it down.

Tomorrow, Wednesday 30 June, the high is supposed to be slightly cooler at 28c. Not much lower but hopefully we can do things in the early morning/late evening. Hopefully, the days to come will mean lower temperatures so we can start to function as normal human beings.

Is this a one-off or can we expect more of the same during the year? Is this the shape of things to come for the future? I’ve heard different commentary from different resources, that it’s partly or wholly related to climate change. Clearly, this is a lesson learned and we can’t go through this discomfort again, everyone should review what they need to do to make life more comfortable for them in the future. We cannot have people die due to the heat. It’s too expensive for many people to have air conditioning installed so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a requirement when people are buying properties in the future.