Peter Julian has cruised to a seventh term as a member of Parliament.
With 186 of 189 polls reporting at 11:30 p.m., Julian had 47.8% of the votes in New Westminster-Burnaby. Liberal Rozina Jaffer was second at 23.9%. Conservative candidate Paige Munro was third at 20.1%., Green candidate David Macdonald was fourth with 4.2% and People’s Party of Canada candidate Kevin Heide was fifth 4%.
Despite a substantial lead over his challengers, the NDP incumbent said he never takes the support of the voters in New Westminster-Burnaby for granted. He pledged to continue working as hard as he can on their behalf.
“I consider them my bosses. I work as hard as I can to keep their trust,” Julian said. “It looks like we (NDP) see an increase in support from the last election; I am gratified by that.”
When he returns to Ottawa, Julian said he’ll be part of an even bigger NDP caucus that will be fighting for Canadians.
“What I was hearing on the doorsteps in New Westminster-Burnaby is that people saw this election as completely unnecessary and even detrimental. The results, I think, kind of show that. The NDP is the only party only to really gain seats while all the other parties seem to be losing seats,” he told the Record. “We will be getting the final results, I guess, in a day or two; there are still a lot of close races.”
Julian said the message he heard from people on the doorsteps and on phone calls was that the NDP was fighting for them in Ottawa.
“Because we were fighting for them, I think it was recognized in the community and also recognized across the country that more NDP MPs would make a difference,” he said. “That’s why we have increased the size of our caucus.”
Julian said it appears the NDP is the only party that made gains in the federal election.
“Basically it’s very similar to the composition of Parliament before Mr. Trudeau called the election,” he said. “It begs the question: why did he call an election in the middle of a pandemic?”
In 2019, the Liberals formed a minority government after winning 157 seats in the House of Commons, topping the Conservatives (121), the Bloc (32), the NDP (24) and the Greens (3).
The composition of seats in the 2021 election is yet to be finalized, but it doesn’t appear it will be vastly different.
While the results raise questions about why Justin Trudeau called an election in the first place, Julian said the results do speak well of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
“He’s galvanized younger people, attracted them to the party in a way that we haven’t seen before,” he said. “Very clearly for those under 35, the NDP was leading in the polls.”
Julian believes people appreciated the work the NDP did in a “pandemic parliament” and its efforts to fight for programs for people, such as the CERB emergency response benefit, paid sick leave, rent subsidy and wage subsidies, and supports for students, seniors and people with disabilities.
“We will continue to fight for people. The dynamic will not change for us,” he said. “We are going to be relentlessly focused on providing supports to people. We now have a bigger contingent of MPs in order to do that.”
ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS (with 186 of 189 polls reporting)
| People's Party - PPC | Kevin Heide | 1,764 | 4.0 % |
| Liberal | Rozina Jaffer | 10,596 | 23.9 % |
| NDP-New Democratic Party | Peter Julian | 21,230 | 47.8 % |
| Green Party | David Macdonald | 1,860 | 4.2 % |
| Conservative | Paige Munro | 8,942 | 20.1 % |
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
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