Preliminary Results Burnaby South Party Candidate Votes Percent of Votes Bar graph of percentage of votes Independent Terry Grimwood 240 1.1 % Liberal Richard T. Lee 5,930 26.0 % Conservative Jay Shin 5,133 22.5 % NDP-New Democratic Party Jagmeet Singh 8,884 39.0 % People’s Party Laura-Lynn Thompson 2,420 10.6 % Independent Valentine Wu 169 0.7 % Total number of valid votes: 22,776 Polls Reporting: 196 of 196 (100 %) Voter Turnout: 22,776 of 76,204 registered electors (29.89 %) — does not include electors who registered on election day. Population: 111,973 Number of electors on list: 76,204

FEDERAL NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s victory in the Burnaby South byelection on Monday is a tight slap in the face of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and of rightwing wackos who tried every dirty trick in the book to sabotage Singh.

To begin with, neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives should have run a candidate against Jagmeet Singh as a “leader’s courtesy,” as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pointed out last August.

She noted: “The leader’s courtesy is a long-standing Canadian parliamentary tradition that facilitates a newly elected party leader’s entry to the legislature by allowing him or her to contest a by-election unopposed.”

The Green Party said it believed it was right to step aside to allow the leader of an important part of the political spectrum to serve in parliament.

May herself received the leader’s courtesy in 2008 when then Liberal leader Stéphane Dion chose not to run a candidate against her in Central Nova.

The courtesy was also extended to Conservative leaders Robert Manion (1938), George Drew (1948), Robert Stanfield (1967) and Joe Clark (2000) as well as Liberal Leader Jean Chrétien (1990) and Alliance Leader Stockwell Day (2000).

But BOTH Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer disgraced themselves by running candidates against Singh.

Now both are looking pathetic!

The VOICE also noted back in January: “Trudeau played it dirty with Jagmeet Singh by delaying the Burnaby South byelection as long as he could because he is afraid of facing him in the House of Commons. Trudeau and the Liberals are scared that Jagmeet Singh’s performance in Parliament will give the NDP a boost that will be a threat to them in the election later this year.”

The Conservatives also exposed their bigotry, as this newspaper noted in January: “Shame on the Conservatives and Michelle Rempel, the party’s critic for immigration, refugees and citizenship, for playing the race card in Burnaby where a byelection takes place in the Burnaby South federal riding next month.

“In order to score points against the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, Rempel called for “a review of the security screening process for foreigners entering Canada,” obviously to anger Chinese Canadians in the riding because of the murder of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen in Burnaby’s Central Park in July 2017 in which a Syrian refugee, Ibrahim Ali, 28, is charged with first-degree murder.”

As for the People’s Party of Canada, it did what was expected of it: whip up racism and manage to win around 11 per cent of the votes. And that’s bad news for the Conservatives.

JAGMEET Singh sent an email message to his supporters:

IT’S an incredible feeling to be sending this to you as the MP for Burnaby South!

We knocked on over 30,000 doors, and connected with thousands of people. I’m so grateful to our team of activists, organizers, volunteers, and supporters – and to people in Burnaby South, who opened their homes and shared their stories with me.

I talked to a mom who travels two hours a day because she can’t afford to live near where she works, or where her kids go to school.

I talked to seniors who worked their whole life at a job only to see their retirement threatened by the cost of their mortgage, or the company they worked for walking away with the pension they were counting on.

I talked to a new graduate who’s drowning in student debt and putting off starting a family.

And I talked to a kid who’s more worried about the cost of his diabetes medication to his parents than he is about his diabetes.

I’m so thankful for your trust and your support. And I’m so grateful to people across the country who’ve helped me take these stories – and many more – with me to the House of Commons. I promise to be your champion in Ottawa.

I also want to thank our two amazing candidates – Julia Sánchez and Jessa McLean – who fought hard for people who need action now. We’re incredibly proud of both of you.

When I was a kid, I couldn’t imagine someone like me could ever run to be Prime Minister. Thank you for helping me show a lot of kids across the country that they can. I’m proud to lead the kind of party that makes dreams like that happen – and I’m humbled by the honour, trust, and responsibility that you’ve placed in me.

Canada is an incredible country with amazing people – but too many of us are falling behind.

People have watched the things they count on get stripped away – good health care, a safe, affordable place to live, clean air and water. They’re worried about how they’ll retire, and whether their kids and grandkids will have the chance to succeed.

We didn’t get here by accident – Liberal and Conservative governments made choices that kept stripping away those things we count on. They rigged the system to put power and wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

And Trudeau’s Liberal government is still doing favours for their corporate friends instead of making sure everyday Canadians have what they need to build a good life.

But the good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way. If we make different choices, we can get better results.

We have eight months to show people that there’s a better choice – but I need you to be a part of it. In the coming weeks and months, I’m hoping you’ll recommit to our work. Talk to your friends and neighbours. Share our message wherever you can. Volunteer your time. Donate what you can. Support your local candidates and our team across Canada.

We have eight months to show Canadians they can vote for someone who’s actually on their side.

Today is the day we get started.

Thanks for your support.