Surrey’s NDP MP candidates bowed out of an in-person all-candidates meeting held Wednesday night by the Surrey Board of Trade because of rising Covid-19 case numbers.
The event, billed as a “Federal Election Candidates Surrey Business Dialogue,” was held at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel. Anita Huberman, CEO of the board, said 90 people registered for the event “and half showed up.”
She said 10 candidates from other parties participated.
“That’s still good,” she said. “It was really good across the board in terms of issues related to Surrey, but from a federal context.”
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Manveer Singh Sihota, regional organizer for the federal NDP, sent Huberman an email saying the NDP is “encouraging to the best of our ability to make this campaign as virtual as possible to keep our communities safe in this pandemic.
“Given the rising case numbers, and the unavailability of a Zoom option, we will unfortunately not be able to confirm any of our NDP candidates,” Sihota told Huberman. “We are taking precautions to ensure all candidates, organizers, and communities are safe as we enter these last crucial days of the campaign. We would, however, be open to an option where the event can be reworked into a digital one with a representative from each party participating over Zoom.”
Huberman said the event followed “all current guidelines” issued by the provincial health officer, under the provincial NDP government, “which allows for event of this nature as long as all health guidelines are followed.”
On Wednesday, recorded 814 new cases on Wednesday, with 241 of those in Fraser Health.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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