Retired RCMP inspector vies for NDP nomination in Surrey riding

Share

A retired RCMP inspector has announced he will seek the federal NDP nomination in the Surrey riding of Fleetwood-Port Kells, a rare case of a serving or former police officer heading for the centre-left as opposed to the centre-right in politics.

After nearly 38 years as a Mountie, Garry Begg retired last November in Surrey. Last month, he took out his NDP party membership as he launches a bid to try to win the riding over veteran Conservative Nina Grewal. Ms. Grewal, who has been an MP since 2004, captured the riding in 2011 with 47.5 per cent of the vote. The NDP candidate came second with 33 per cent.

Mr. Begg, 64, said he has thought about why police officers tend to centre-right parties such as the Conservatives and the Liberals, but reached no concrete conclusions. "I can speak only for myself," he said. "I was a public servant as an RCMP officer for thirty-seven-and-a-half years. It becomes sort of your raison d'être in life. For me, this is just an opportunity to continue my public service but at a different level."

He said he considered various parties but was most impressed by NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. "He's a very engaging, very intelligent, direct guy," Mr. Begg said, recalling a meeting with the NDP Leader at a community function in Surrey some time ago. "Tom Mulcair and the NDP's social philosophy best met my own personal convictions about social responsibility. The NDP tends to be more compassionate, more inclusive than the limitations of the other parties."

In recent years, he said he spent a lot of time dealing with municipal, provincial and federal governments, which spurred his interest in entering politics himself.

Politics has proved alluring to other officers. At the federal level, associate defence minister Julian Fantino, a former Toronto police chief, and federal heritage Minister Shelly Glover, on leave from the Winnipeg police force, are MPs for the Conservative Party. Former Toronto police chief Bill Blair has announced he is seeking the federal Liberal nomination in Scarborough Southwest; the nomination meeting is on Saturday.

In B.C., former West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed was recently a B.C. Liberal solicitor general, and former RCMP inspector Amrik Virk, also posted in Surrey, is now the provincial technology minister.

Departed Vancouver police chief Jim Chu was the subject of speculation that he was headed for politics – a possibility Mr. Chu ruled out. Calgary's former police chief, Rick Hanson, ran – unsuccessfully – for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives in a Calgary riding in the recent provincial election.

Richard Johnston, Canada Research Chair in Public Opinion, Elections and Representation at the University of British Columbia, said he was not aware of any extensive, serious studies on the issue of police officers entering politics.

"My sense is most police officers that go into politics, like most military people that go into politics, tend to go in because they work in authority positions, feel frustrated in the extent to which they can exercise authority and have a generally duty-driven and service-driven, but Conservative, point of view," Prof. Johnston said in an interview.

He said he found it striking that a former police officer would run for the New Democrats. "It is unusual," he said. "It's further away from the centre of gravity of policing as a profession than even the Liberals are."

Mr. Begg's political ambitions are playing out in Surrey, seen as an area where all three major parties have a shot at gaining traction with voters. The NDP has two of four Surrey area seats and the Conservatives two.

If Mr. Begg can win the nomination, Prof. Johnston said he may be touted by New Democrats to argue for the party's credibility of law and order issues.

There is one other candidate seeking the nomination – health-care technician Adesh Kahlon. The electoral district association has yet to set a date for the meeting. The Liberals have yet to nominate a candidate.