Vancouver, B.C.
Naden Abenes is fifth to run for parliament
Teodoro Alcuitas
Editor, PhilippineCanadianNews.Com (PCN.Com)ouve
After failing to get nominated in Vancouver Centre, Naden Abenes has been acclaimed as the NDP’s candidate for Vancouver Quadra, the fifth Filipino-Canadian to run for federal office.
A single mom who worked as a hotel room attendant for over a decade, she is an active union organizer for Unite Here Local 40.
“I’m running because I want to represent the working class in this riding who like me, has been suffering especially during this pandemic,” she told philippinecanadiannews.com (PCN.Com) in an interview.
“I want to use my organizing skills to fight for the working class,” she adds.
The parties have until August 30 to field their candidates for the federal election on September 20, 2021.
Liberal Joyce Murray, who has held this riding since 2008, won Vancouver Quadra in 2019 with 43 per cent of the vote. Here are the other candidates;
- Conservatives: Brad Armstrong
- Green: Devyani Singh
- Liberal: Joyce Murray
- NDP: Naden Abenes
- PPC: Renate Siekmann
Abenes joins four other Filipino-Canadians running in this election- the largest crop of candidates in any federal election in the country. No Filipino has been elected to Parliament since Winnipeg’s Liberal Dr. Rey Pagtakhan got elected in 1988, serving until 2004.
Here are the five candidates:
Phil De Luna – Greens, Toronto-St. Paul’s
Elizabeth Quinto – Liberal, Oxford, Ontario
Virginia Bremer – Liberal,Vancouver Kingsway
Naden Abenes – NDP, Vancouver Quadra
Rechie Valdez -Liberal, Mississauga-Streetsville