-NDP to pick candidate this weekend-

OSOYOOS TIMES-March 25, 2009-

By Karen KnelsenrnOsoyoos Times

Joe Cardoso announced a big switch in his political affiliations late last week.
He is the new B.C. Conservative Party candidate for the Boundary-Similkameen riding, which includes Osoyoos.
A press conference was held at the Campo Marina restaurant on March 19 where Cardoso was introduced as the party's new candidate by party leader Wilf Hanni and by Misha Popoff, who until recently was the likely Conservative candidate for the provincial election on May 12.
A group of about 30 constituents showed up for the announcement.
In November, Cardoso, an Oliver resident, was nominated to run as the Liberal Party's candidate for the riding.
But the party withdrew its endorsement of his candidacy because Cardoso failed to disclose in his nomination application that he had written a letter to the editor criticizing the party and Premier Gordon Campbell that appeared in the Osoyoos Times and the Oliver Chronicle in 2005.
Cardoso told the gathering at the press conference that he'd considered running as an independent or for other parties besides the Conservatives.
He said the main reasons he chose the Conservatives were their free-vote and democratic policies.
The party's free-vote policy means that if Cardoso was elected to the Legislature, he would not be bound to vote based on the party line.
This (party) seemed to be the one I felt most comfortable with, Cardoso said. I feel good about it.
He also said many Liberal who supported him will continue to stand behind him.
We're going to have a very good campaign.
Cardoso and the Conservatives are still waiting for Elections BC to officially accept him into the race, but the party has already given Cardoso its full endorsement.
Popoff said he approached Cardoso to run for the Conservatives and added that, like Cardoso, his original intent was to run for candidacy with the Liberals, but he changed his mind.
What happened to Joe was probably what would have happened to me, he said.
There's no room for dissent (in the Liberal Party).
Popoff lost out to Oliver's Rob Zandee in the quest to become the local candidate for the federal Conservative Party last year.
The Liberals selected former Osoyoos mayor John Slater to replace Cardoso as their local candidate earlier this month.
Members of the NDP will pick their candidate at a selection meeting at Oliver's Catholic Church on March 28.
Lakhvinder Jhaj, a small business owner who lives in Penticton, and Kathy Hutton, a former Grand Forks city councillor, are competing to become the NDP candidate.
Hutton is a national CUPE representative.
Jhaj, who unsuccessfully ran for the party's candidacy to represent the Penticton-Okanagan Valley riding in 2005, is reported as criticizing the NDP's affirmative action policy, where only women can run in 15 of B.C.'s 85 ridings.
According to the Oliver Chronicle, Jhaj, at a candidate forum in Oliver on March 11, said the policy was a form of racism.
However, Jhaj recanted her comments the next day, said an NDP spokesman, adding that Jhaj made the decision to withdraw her comments with no prodding from the party.
The provincial Green Party has not yet chosen a candidate to represent them in this riding.
reporter@osoyoostimes.com