Time to Stand Up for “Older White Males,” Says B.C. NDP Candidate

MLA Harry Lali said that white men have been disenfranchised by the NDP’s equity mandate.

B.C. politics is often described as the most bizarre in Canada, and took another step towards clinching that designation Thursday when Harry Lali announced he is seeking the leadership of the provincial NDP. Lali, a veteran MLA who was born in India, said that party mandates setting quotas for minority candidates have left older white men feeling excluded and called for white males to “join my campaign team and take back this great party and movement that you helped to build in the first place.” The NDP’s “equity mandate” in the 2009 election included quotas to nominate female candidates in 30 per cent of non-NDP ridings, and Lali said this policy likely cost the party seven or eight seats.