Frankly Speaking

Dianne Watts is running for the BC Liberal Party leadership. Dianne Watts is in, as a contender for the BC Liberal party leadership. The South Surrey-White Rock Conservative MP announced on Sunday that she will run in what will be an fairly short leadership campaign. The new BC Liberal party leader will be named, after a vote by party members, on Feb. 3. Watts is also resigning as an MP, effective immediately. Watts was widely suggested as a possible candidate for the leadership in 2011, when Christy Clark won. At that time, of course, the BC Liberals were in power and winning the leadership came with the added bonus of becoming premier. Clark ran an excellent campaign in 2013 and boosted the party’s seat count in an election that almost everyone thought would go to the NDP. Back in 2011, Watts was in the process of finishing her first six years as Surrey mayor and was extremely popular in Surrey and throughout the region. She won the 2011 election a few months later wit...

Three years after the shocking murder of high school student Serena Vermeersch by a lifetime criminal, he has finally pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Raymond Lee Caissie, 46, entered the plea in court on Sept. 14. His guilty plea may be the only decent thing he has done in the past 25 years, Caissie was let out of jail in June, 2013 after serving a 22-year sentence for raping a woman in Abbotsford at knifepoint in 1991. It was a particularly brutal case. He confronted her while she was working at a museum in Abbotsford, abducted her, sexually assaulted her and left her tied to a tree, but not before making her withdraw money from her account at a bank machine. He also stole her car. Two days later, he robbed a woman pushing a two-year-old child in a stroller. That incident took place in a park. Caissie had been in trouble before that. He was in and out of jail from the time he was 15. He was released from prison a short time before the Abbotsford case, after being c...

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has given no indication that controversial tax proposals will be withdrawn. Small business operators who spoke at a consultation meeting were almost universally opposed to the federal Liberals’ plan for tax fairness. The meeting took place Tuesday (Sept. 12) in Langley City, and was hosted by Cloverdale-Langley City MP John Aldag. The Liberal MP said his office has had more correspondence on this topic than any other since he was first elected two years ago. In response to a question from Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce director Jenny Hinch, he said responses to the letters he has received will start going out tomorrow. He had been waiting for a Liberal caucus meeting, which took place last week in Kelowna, before responding, as he knew the issue would be an important one of the agenda there. He also urges anyone wanting to speak about the proposals to send responses to fin.consultation.fin@canada.ca . He asked that people sending responses...

Darryl Plecas Update: Darryl Plecas spoke to The Abbotsford News' Tyler Olsen about his decision to become Speaker, shedding new light on how it all happened and on his conversation with BC Liberal interim leader Rich Coleman the night before the Legislature resumed sitting. The whole story can be read here . Darryl Plecas, MLA for Abbotsford South, surprised just about everyone today by running for and being elected Speaker of the B.C. Legislature. He represents Aldergrove in the legislature, as well as a large portion of Abbotsford. I think he will do a good job as Speaker. He has not joined the NDP or Greens - he is the Speaker, which is a non-partisan position and involves managing how the legislature operates. I have run into Darryl many times over the years, going back to our days at Douglas College in the 1970s. His family has a long history in the Fleetwood area of Surrey. He has had a great career as a criminology professor at the University of the Fr...

Fallen timber (in this 2015 photo, from a recent windstorm) and dead pine trees (from the pine beetle infestation) are causing the Elephant Hill wildfire to keep growing, two months after it first broke out in Ashcroft.    Update: On Sept. 12, the Thompson-Nicola Regional District said the fire had completely destroyed 215 buildings. The Elephant Hill wildfire continues to rage over parts of the South Cariboo, but for many people, the damage it has already done is irreparable. The Thompson-Nicola Regional District, which for some reason has jurisdiction over much of the Cariboo south of 100 Mile House, held an information meeting tonight in Kamloops. It was broadcast live on Facebook and people were able to ask questions. Unfortunately, many of the questions involved the role of the Office of the Fire Commissioner, which is responsible for the structural protection units (SPUs) which are supposed to do their best to save structures from burning. With this w...