Frankly Speaking

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 quest...

One of these three people will serve as B.C.'s next premier. We will likely know which one has won the voters' approval for the job sometime late in the evening on Tuesday, May 9. At top is BC Liberal leader Christy Clark, who has been premier since 2011. In the middle is NDP leader John Horgan. At the bottom is Green Party leader Andrew Weaver. I was privileged to be asked to moderate an all-candidates' meeting for candidates in the two main Langley ridings, sponsored by Langley Seniors Community Action Table. It was organized by Marilyn Fischer and other memers of the round table. They did a superb job. It took place today (April 19) at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Langley City. About 90 seniors, plus two members each of Langley City and Langley Township councils, were on hand. Eight of the nine candidates in the Langley and Langley East ridings were on hand. Inder Johal, the NDP candidate in Langley East, was sick and unable to attend. Unlike m...