Anjali Appadurai officially threw her hat in the ring for the BC NDP leadership race against previously unchallenged contestant and MLA David Eby [“Eby visits qathet region for campaign stop,” August 10]. The party will be electing a new leader in December following premier John Horgan’s resignation.
Appadurai ran in the federal election last year in Vancouver-Granville but narrowly lost in one of the closest races in the country. She also works for the Climate Emergency Unit, a project of the David Suzuki Institute. She is a dedicated climate activist and has exactly the type of energy we need from someone who will lead this province for the next two years or more.
Many people see BC as an environmental leader, but in fact BC’s emissions have risen every year since 2015, for which data is available. Experts say the province’s continued support for fracking and LNG is undermining its climate goals. The provincial government has also been slow in protecting our last remaining old-growth forests as well.
As BC goes through yet another summer of heat waves and wildfires, the time for climate action is now. To get the province back on the right track, we need a leader who will address the climate crisis like the emergency it is; Appadurai is the right person to do that.
Calvin Beauchesne,
Penrose Bay
