SURREY - A retired senior Surrey Mountie will be looking to put veteran Conservative MP Nina Grewal out to pasture this October.
Inspector Garry Begg, who retired from the force last November, plans to run for the New Democrat nomination in Fleetwood-Port Kells. A date for the nomination meeting has not yet been announced. The federal election is set for Oct. 19.
Begg was a Mountie for 37 years, and spent the last eight in Surrey.
Begg said that after he retired from the RCMP he was approached by "several of the major parties" to run for office.
"The New Democrats came closest to my sense of social conviction," he said.
Begg said running for the NDP is an "opportunity for me to be a part of helping to defeat" Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"I don't think the Conservative Party is reflective at all of Canadian values," said Begg, 64. "I think they've drifted pretty far from where we as Canadians should be."
Adesh Kahlon, 57, is also seeking the NDP candidacy in Fleetwood-Port Kells. She is a long-time Fleetwood resident and diagnostic ultrasound technologist.
"We need to change the government to make it more family friendly," she said.
tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com