-Riding offices to open in Oliver, Grand Forks and Keremeos-

OSOYOOS TIMES-April 1, 2009-

By Karen KnelsenrnOsoyoos Times

Members of the provincial NDP have selected Lakhvinder Jhaj of Penticton to be their candidate for the new Boundary-Similkameen riding, which includes Osoyoos.
Jhaj, who unsuccessfully ran for the party's nomination in the Penticton-Okanagan Valley riding in 2005, was selected during a meeting in Oliver on March 28 attended by roughly 100 party members.
She beat out former Grand Forks councillor Kathy Hutton for the nomination.
There are about 560 NDP members within the riding and according to the party, 87 people voted at the meeting and 377 mail-in votes were received.
I feel really good, very pleased, Jhaj said after the meeting.
With just over six weeks to go before the provincial elections on May 12, Jhaj said her party is a bit behind on the campaign trail, so she's tackling the task of getting her name out there head on and one person at a time.
We're going to be going right out into the communities and campaigning, she said. We're going to be door-knocking.
It's a winnable riding, I want to win. Our main goal is to meet as many people as possible, one on one.
She's also planning on hosting coffee parties in a number of communities throughout the riding including one at Ambrosia Family Restaurant at 7 p.m. on April 1.
Jhaj also said she's still waiting to get her pamphlets back from the printer, but when she does, they'll be sent out in the mail and handed out as she travels door to door.
Jhaj currently lives outside the boundaries of the riding, but said she's planning on moving to the area.
I want to find (a house) that we can live in for a long time, she said.
Jhaj has four children and has been married for 23 years.
She and her husband Amarjit run a convenience store in downtown Penticton and Jhaj is also a reporter and producer for CHBC News in Kelowna with her own segment called Okanagan Now.rnThis riding was one of 15 electoral districts across B.C. in which the NDP had wanted only women to run under an affirmative action policy.
According to a report in the Oliver Chronicle, Jhaj criticized the party's policy at a candidate forum in Oliver last month, but recanted her statements the following day.
reporter@osoyoostimes.com