“I want to congratulate Jackie Tegart on doing a great job and winning re-election,” says Harry Lali, the NDP candidate in Fraser-Nicola, at the beginning of speaking with The Journal following last week’s provincial election. “All the more power to her. I’ve always had a good rapport with Jackie, and that will continue. I have a lot of respect for her, and wish her the best of luck.”
Analysts predicted that Fraser-Nicola would be a tight race, and so it proved, with Tegart, the incumbent, defeating Lali by 706 votes, a slightly larger margin than in 2013. (The number could change slightly when absentee ballots are tallied later in the month).
“It was a little bit of déjà vu from 2013,” says Lali of the 2017 race in the riding. “Did I think, in the back of my mind, that this might happen? Yes. But I did think we could win.”
Lali attributes the NDP loss in the riding to two factors. The first is the Green Party, which Lali says took more votes from the NDP than the Liberals in Fraser-Nicola.
“The proof of that is in Hope, which was very strong for the NDP,” says Lali. “It split three ways. The Liberals and NDP got about the same number of votes there in 2009, 2013, and 2017, but the Green vote increased. The NDP lost support [province-wide] to the Greens, and I’m pretty sure that’s what happened here.”
Lali adds that there is a correlation between the number of votes by which he lost in 2013 and 2017 (614 and 706 respectively) and the increase in the Green vote in both elections (the party was up by 423 votes in 2013, and 1,022 votes in 2017).
“There were several battleground ridings in the province, like Fraser-Nicola, Cariboo North, Kamloops North, and Boundary-Similkameen, and the NDP lost them all,” says Lali. “I had the highest percentage of the popular vote [38 per cent to Tegart’s 42 per cent] of the losers in all these ridings, and was closer than last time. I came close to winning here, and we got as close as we did because of my hard work.”
When asked why the Green Party made the gains it did in the riding, Lali says “Napoleon was a great warrior, but he couldn’t fight a war on two fronts. For me, this was a war on two fronts. The nomination sucked a lot of time and energy. I announced I was seeking the nomination in May 2016, and then spent eight or nine months fighting for the nomination instead of organizing, getting volunteers, and door-knocking. It was demoralizing for the team.”
Lali is referring to the fact that rather than endorse him as the nominee, NDP headquarters in Burnaby spent much of 2016 trying to find another person to seek the NDP nomination in Fraser-Nicola. In early December 2016, Chief Aaron Sam of the Lower Nicola Band announced he would seek the nomination, and in January 2017 NDP leader John Horgan said publicly that Lali was not the preferred candidate of the NDP in Fraser-Nicola, and had been asked by Horgan to step aside in favour of Sam.
Lali was the victor at the nomination meeting on March 18, but the victory came at a cost. “I had less than three weeks [until the writ dropped on April 11] to get offices, get organized, and raise funds. The Greens and Liberals had a lot of time.
“Arthur Green [the Green Party candidate] did not stop working, raising money and awareness, which is to his credit, while we were fighting an internal war and waiting for the ever-elusive date for the nomination. People waited to give money because if they don’t know you’re the nominee, they don’t want to donate.
“The nomination fight was totally unnecessary, and was a self-inflicted wound from headquarters in Burnaby.”
Talk turns to the current situation, which sees the Liberals one seat shy of a majority. “Courtenay-Comox [which the NDP holds by nine votes, and which is subject to an official recount] is one to watch,” says Lali. “If we retain that seat we can form a government with the Greens.”
In the event of another election before 2021, Lali does not rule himself out from running again, but does not definitely say he will. “Never say never. I live and breathe politics. You’re not going to see me go away. When I lose I don’t go into hiding, and I keep an even keel. I’m a gracious winner and a magnanimous loser.
“It’s too early to say right now. I have to take a breather.”