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<\/a>Sharma\u2014who is the project manager for the Builders Code, a construction workforce equity project spearheaded by the BC Construction Association, and says he is the only South Asian candidate on Vancouver Island\u2014says that issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion are of utmost importance.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see a lot of altercations between different under-represented communities, a lot of stress and anxiety because of COVID,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to remove bullying, hazing, and harassment from the construction industry; well, we should be doing that across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
The safety of citizens is also important to Sharma, especially considering the South Asian population on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there wasn\u2019t enough time to get them recruited and involved, because [Horgan] called a snap election. Those are the types of things we should be thinking about,\u201d he says. \u201cPost-secondary institutions should have that lens, governments should have that lens.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as budgetary concerns leading into the elections go, anyone concerned with government overspending is right to be, says Sharma, considering the provincial deficit is now forecast at $12.8 billion (before the COVID-19 crisis hit, the province was at a $200-million surplus).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just come out from the NDP, there\u2019s another $9 billion [for infrastructure projects] to add onto the $13 billion [deficit],\u201d says Sharma. \u201cThere should be anxiety about all the spending. Even centre-right governments will tell you, it\u2019s not time for austerity.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday nights at 7 pm, Sharma broadcasts live on Facebook in what he calls Cooking With the Candidate<\/em>; during the broadcast, Sharma and his mom make food and talk, and viewers can ask questions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing what is necessary to try and get to young voters\u2014the rallies, the excitement,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you look at some of the pictures, or the candidates, or the announcements, where\u2019s everyone behind them? Where\u2019s the feeling of excitement, where\u2019s the hope? It\u2019s really hard to generate that. We\u2019re trying to online, but it\u2019s much different in person.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharma says campaigning has been really difficult because of COVID-19; he spoke with the district electoral officer when he dropped off his nomination papers and says there is confusion regarding timing and what can and can\u2019t be done with campaigning.<\/p>\n \u201cHow the mail-in ballets will be counted\u2026 What are you doing with seniors\u2019 facilities? How are they going to mail them out? In Saanich South, there\u2019s a lot of those seniors,\u201d he says. \u201cHow are we going to get that information out to students so they know how they are supposed to vote?\u201d<\/p>\n Sharma says he\u2019s having a hard time doing the job he wants to do because the rules for campaigning are changing so often.<\/p>\n \u201cI ran before, twice, and I was at doorsteps everyday talking to folks,” he says. \u201cI don\u2019t feel right, really, knocking on all those doors. I can\u2019t walk into a seniors\u2019 home, where we could before, and have a debate. We\u2019re not allowed to do that. There\u2019s no debate called. How do I debate other candidates, properly?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last few weeks have been more than a little hectic for Saanich South BC Liberal candidate and Camosun alumnus Rishi Sharma. Sharma, who graduated from Camosun\u2019s Major Appliance and Vending Machine Repair Technician program in 1998, says he was completely surprised by the decision to have a snap election, and he doesn\u2019t think it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20069"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20085,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20069\/revisions\/20085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}