Third in a series of profiles of Surrey's first-time MLAs, the following is a Q&A with Jessie Sunner, MLA-elect in Surrey-Newton. Voters in the riding once again elected an NDP MLA, with Sunner following in the footsteps of former MLA and labour minister Harry Bains, 72, who held the seat since 2005, before retiring from politics in July. Sunner, a trade unionist and human rights lawyer for the Hospital Employees’ Union, won with 7,924 votes, 1,266 more than her nearest rival, Conservative candidate Tegjot Bal. Sunner and the other government caucus MLAs will be sworn in on Wednesday, Nov. 13, followed by a new cabinet Nov. 18.
This must be an exciting time for you because you're new to this world of politics. How did the election campaign go for you, in your opinion?
"It was an exciting campaign and it's a new world, for sure, but a lot of the things that I had been doing before, whether it was my work with the HEU or the labour side or in the community with Surrey Women's Centre, I'd already been involved in a lot of groups that had things that needed to be brought to the front line. So I knew coming into it that I had things that I wanted to work on. My team was wonderful, and I got really good community feedback, but we also knew that when we were in the community, there's a lot of work to be done, we saw that. So I think it's important that now we are getting into that work and making sure that we're delivering for the community."
When did you decide to run for office? Has it been a lifelong ambition to get involved in politics?
"I didn't really think about doing provincial politics, and if I did think about it, I thought of it as something that I would do later in my life, later in my career. It just kind of came to a point where I was in my day job seeing things that, OK, how much we could advocate and fight for workers, fight for members, to a level where the legislation and the politics of it really mattered? And we could only do so much. Same with the work I was doing in the community. Also, growing up in Surrey for a long time, we saw, you know, prior to the BC NDP coming in, in 2017, that for a long time under the Liberal government in B.C., Surrey was ignored, we didn't get a lot of things that we needed and we were growing at a very large rate without the infrastructure to support it. The BC NDP came in and started doing that work, and there's still a lot more work to do. I saw those challenges, I saw the things we need to do, and rather than just hope someone else did it, I was willing to put my name forward and be willing to advocate for the community in that way. Why not now? We need diversity in these spaces, we need different voices represented, we need people from different ages, different backgrounds, sitting at those important decision-making tables, because the decisions we make affect everyone. For me, it's something that came up in the last four or five months, really.
The previous MLA in Newton, Harry Bains, retired from politics and opened the door for someone new in the riding. There was a rumour on social media that you are related, but that's not true, correct?
"That's not true at all. I think that rumour started because in our community, anyone that's older than us we call uncle-ji or auntie-ji, right? I think someone probably heard that and ran with it that we are related, but it was just a lack of understand our community."
How long have you been a lawyer and where did you get your schooling for that?
"I went to law school in Calgary and I've been a lawyer since 2018."
Is that something you grew up dreaming about, to become a lawyer?
"That was, actually, yes. I remember when I was younger, I always questioned everything, how things were done and why they were done. I remember getting into a discussion with my parents at, like, 10 years old and they said, 'You just love to argue, you should be a lawyer.' And I said, 'You know what, I will.' But you know, that's just a little story. Really, it was always wanting to fight for things in the community that I knew could be changed. I knew that the law, being a lawyer, could lead to change in the community. I wanted to help people, I wanted to help workers, and that's why I was really excited to work with the Hospital Employees' Union because growing up, I knew people that were fired, when over 8,500 HEU workers were fired. I had family members, friends, their parents, who were fired. I know that wasn't something right at the time. So, being able to work for that same labour union and bring so many workers back into public health care, it's really been an honour of a lifetime to do that."
Tell me a little bit about your your time in Surrey. What high school did you go to?
"I grew up here since I was very little, and I went to Queen Elizabeth Secondary for high school, then to SFU Surrey for underground, most of my classes were there. And then I went off to law school in Calgary, but came back to Surrey. My first articling job was here in Surrey as well. I did a bit of family law first and then went into labour law."
You were also on the Surrey Police Board for a period of time.
"Yes, I was there for three years before Mike Serr came in as administrator. That was something that was really important to me because having grown up here in Surrey, I saw a lot of the issues front and centre, whether it was going to school and seeing people that I knew who were getting pulled in the direction of gang life, or seeing people in our communities that experienced issues related to domestic violence and there being a lack of cultural sensitivity or common practice sometimes, when it came to dealing with these issues. It was important for people of the community to be there (on the police board), from all different backgrounds, while the new police service was created. We didn't maybe get to do as much as we wanted, it was a different stage. But the important piece was having people sitting at those tables that represented the community."
Do you come from a political family at all?
"My dad has been involved since I was a young age, so the politics is something I definitely get from my father. I have two brothers, one younger and one older, and my mom. We grew up right here in Surrey, all went to school here, and everyone continues to live in Surrey today. And everyone kind of grew up with this influence of politics, knowing that politics affects everything in our life. I'm married for three years now, the daughter of Punjabi immigrants. My mom immigrated here in the '70s and my dad came here in the '80s. We've seen a lot of how politics can affect your life, good and bad, how every single decision in your life, how rules and regulations are in the workplace or just driving down the street. It's important to be part of all that and make sure voices are represented."
