Climate activist gives BC NDP members a choice in leadership race
Anjali Appadurai says she’s not a single-issue candidate
The race for the leadership of the British Columbia New Democratic Party has taken an interesting turn. It was looking like a coronation for lone candidate David Eby as Premier John Horgan’s successor. Now there is a challenger on the scene: Anjali Appadurai.
John Horgan announced his resignation in June. There are currently two candidates in the race: Dave Eby (who recently stepped down from his roles as Attorney General and housing minister), and climate activist Anjali Appadurai.
Many PeaceQuest readers will be familiar with the Vancouver-based Climate Emergency Unit (CEU), founded by our friend Seth Klein. Anjali is on leave as a campaigner for the group, where, “The overarching goal of the Climate Emergency Unit is to press for the implementation of wartime-scale policies in Canada to confront the climate crisis,” according to the CEU website.
In an email to PeaceQuest and others, the CEU team wrote, “Anjali’s bid for leadership in British Columbia is an important moment for all of us who work on the progressive side of climate action, politics, labour, ecology, and everything in between.”
CEU says they have heard from many friends, allies, and colleagues who feel disillusioned by government inaction and priorities. This disillusionment has led to many people leaving the BC NDP.
Journalist Steve Burgess, writing in The Tyee, notes, “As the sole challenger to Eby, Appadurai could potentially become a focal point for Eby opponents of different stripes. But Appadurai seems to have little interest in being a lightning rod for various party factions. ‘It’s not about taking different people’s interests and trying to reflect them in a policy platform,’ she says. ‘It’s about telling a cohesive story that says there’s a better way of doing things. It’s not just climate, and then all of the other issues. It has implications for housing, for health care, for the overdose crisis. These are all symptoms of intersecting crises.’”
Here is her campaign launch video:
https://twitter.com/AnjaliApp/status/1557502259331678208
(Cover via https://www.anjaliforbc.ca/)