Former NDP president joins nomination race

By Dan Hilborn
Published Feb. 4, 2004


Former federal NDP president Dave MacKinnon has formally entered the race for his party's nomination in the new Burnaby-New Westminster riding.

MacKinnon, a former industrial relations officer who now owns a consulting business, said his primary issue is based on the old-fashioned notion of thinking globally and acting locally.

"I cannot resolve all the complexities of the global economic system but I sure as heck can be front and centre to represent the interests of the small and family-owned businesses in Burnaby-New Westminster who have been abandoned by Paul Martin and the Conservatives," he said in a press release announcing his intentions.

MacKinnon said NDP leader Jack Layton is offering a clear distinction between his vision for Canada and that of the Liberals and Conservatives.

His press release said the other parties are "offering two similar visions of a corporate Canada huddled in the shadow of an increasingly militarized world dominated economically, politically and culturally by the Americans."

MacKinnon has lived in Burnaby for the past 17 years and served as an executive officer to the Dorsey Commission, which modernized the collective bargaining system in the B.C. health sector.

The riding is expected to hold its nominating meeting at the end of February, and the only other person to put his name forward is Peter Julian, a former executive director for the Council of Canadians.