By Joe Johnson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 1, 2012
With the dust settling, Gwen O’Mahony has come out on top to be nominated as the BC NDP’s candidate for the Chilliwack-Hope riding. However, she should enjoy this moment while she can as there will be very little turnaround time to enjoy this victory.
Having beaten out two other potential NDP nominees, Dennis Adamson and Kathleen Stephany, at this past weekend’s NDP nomination meeting, she will now jump back into campaign mode. O’Mahony will be trying to win the riding’s upcoming by-election, set off by resigning Liberal Barry Penner.
But for the moment, O’Mahony—after taking the NDP’s nomination on the first ballot—simply had this to say on winning, “Amazing, absolutely amazing.”
With a background in science and health, O’Mahony has previously worked as a health advocate for multiple organizations, as well as having worked in the private sector. She has also in the past been a president of the Roteract in Abbotsford, an academic division of the Rotary, and she’s very involved in community and environmental issues.
This also isn’t her first foray into politics. Having run in the 2009 provincial election, she lost to Penner by over a 20 per cent margin. And in this past national election, she was the federal NDP candidate for Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon. Although, she failed in her attempt to derail the strongly supported Conservative candidate, Mark Strahl.
To address these recent losses at the meeting she said, “Where would our country be if Jack Layton had given up? The first time he ran he came fourth. Second time, he didn’t win. Third time [he was] lucky. So I think there’s something to say about perseverance.” On getting the nomination this time around O’Mahony stated, “When you go into an election, already having won a nomination, you’re starting with that sense ‘I can win.’ So, it increases your optimism. Not only that, it’s an opportunity for members to really get behind you because then they actively have to choose who they want to represent the area. That speaks volumes, and it’s really important.”
Adrian Dix, leader of the BC NDP and who was in attendance, also touched on the subject of her previous attempts, “She’s a great candidate. She did very well in the last election. [She] raised our vote, got a great historically strong margin and I think she’s going to do very well as our candidate.”
The meeting itself proved to be very busy as the hall was packed with a rough head count of 200 people, some of which were left standing in the back. Notably, that number consisted of 36 voting NDP members of the potential 84 in the riding. On stage each of the nominees were given 10 minutes to make a final appeal. O’Mahony spoke first and gave a rundown of her background, followed by Stephany who talked about how she could get the youth and small business vote and last was Adamson who was most notable for not having a prepared speech but who ended with stating that he could continue with what O’Mahony has done and that it was “time for her to pass the torch.”
Of course, during the meeting there was the typical but impressive fundraising pitch by Sue Hammell, MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers, who raised $10,000 for O’Mahony to begin with. Dix also took his turn on stage to give an empowering speech to the party members and supporters before O’Mahony was announced the winner.
Following the event was question time. With UFV having three campuses within Hope and Chilliwack, it was asked for O’Mahony to speak to university students. She said, “don’t waste time reading about this in the newspapers, or studying it, but actually get an opportunity to get your feet wet. I highly encourage them to step forward and join this campaign. There is a place for students in my campaign team.”
But while things were all celebratory on the day, O’Mahony faces challenges from the growing BC Conservatives and the Liberals. John Martin, a professor at UFV has been nominated by the Conservatives, while the Liberals are currently still fielding names to come forward.
Speaking to that competition, O’Mahony noted, “Whatever steps I took to assure myself of a win in this nomination are the same steps that will be taken on a broader scale to assure a win for Chilliwack-Hope.”
Finally, Dix made the point that “There are always challenges, but what we’ve got is a great candidate, we’ve got a great message, we’ve got a committed team, [and] we’ve got the biggest crowd we’ve had here in a long time.”
