Langley East candidates explain positions at candidates' meetings

One night after the B.C. party leaders’ debate, the four candidates in the new Langley East riding gathered Thursday to give their positions on a large number of issues, at an all-candidates’ meeting sponsored by Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce and the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.

The candidates are Rich Coleman of the BC Liberals, who has represented Fort Langley-Aldergrove in the B.C. legislature since 1996; Inder Johal of the NDP; Bill Masse of the Green Party and Alex Joehl of the Libertarians. The former Fort Langley-Aldergrove riding was renamed because it no longer includes Aldergrove – that portion of Langley is now in the Abbotsford South riding.

Inder Johal is the daughter of Amrik Mahil, who ran for the NDP in the Surrey-Panorama riding in 2013, placing second to Marvin Hunt of the BC Liberals. He told me his daughter was determined to represent the NDP as a candidate in this election.

Moderator Scott Johnston, president of the chamber, asked all the questions, many of which were provided by members of the audience. There were about 80 to 100 people present at Langley Events Centre. Most of them were supporters of one or another of the candidates, with many wearing buttons indicating whom they backed. There was also a representation of concerned residents who live near the proposed 216 Street interchange at Highway 1.

Many of the questions revolved around local issues, including funding for the construction of new schools in Willoughby; the 216 Street overpass; bridge tolling; future plans for Langley Memorial Hospital; the inability to get a family doctor in Langley and the high cost of housing.

A large number of provincial issues came up as well, including fundraising by parties; the new duties imposed by the U.S. on softwood lumber; the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal; B.C.’s credit rating; independent school funding; post-secondary funding; future energy projects; the minimum wage; child care; the carbon tax; the possibility of a new value added tax to replace the provincial sales tax; and the pending sale of marijuana as a legal product.

The emphasis at the meeting was on what the various parties’ positions were on each of the issues, with little in the way of attacks on another party’s platform. Those in attendance got a very good feel for candidates’ positions on the issues. With some of the more complex questions, it would have been good for candidates to have had more than 30 seconds to reply. A suggestion for the future might be to give the moderator the flexibility to allow candidates a minute to reply to suck questions.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no more candidates’ meetings planned in either of the two Langley ridings. Advance voting begins on Saturday, and the election is set for Tuesday, May 9 – 12 days from now.

Both The Langley Times and Langley Advance covered the meeting, and I will put a link to their stories when they appear on their websites.