Frankly Speaking

Affordable housing and preservation of the existing rental stock have been important issues in the Langley City election. The City has some of the most affordable rental units in the Lower Mainland. It also has a much larger stock of social housing (per capita) than many other cities. The race for mayor in Langley City will likely be a close one – which should give voters in that community even more incentive than usual to get out to the polls on Saturday. Former mayor Peter Fassbender is seeking his old job back. Fassbender served as mayor from 2005 until he resigned in January, 2014 (in order to prevent a byelection). He had been elected as a BC Liberal MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood in May, 2013, and served in several cabinet positions during the 2013-17 term of the Christy Clark government. He lost his seat in the 2017 election. Ted Schaffer took over as acting mayor after Fassbender resigned, and ran and won election as mayor in 2014. He is not running again. Fassbe...

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...

Finance Minister Mike de Jong is also the BC Liberals' government house leader. Mike de Jong, Abbotsford West MLA (who also represents northeast Langley) was the latest provincial politician to hold a news conference. His took place today, in Vancouver. De Jong is the government house leader and also minister of finance. He (quite rightly) said it is not up to the BC Liberals to strengthen the hand of an NDP minority government which will likely take office when the BC Liberals lose the confidence of the B.C. legislature. He does not expect a BC Liberal to stay on as Speaker once the government falls. A Liberal will likely to become Speaker on June 22, when the legislature is scheduled to meet. That will allow the government to present a throne speech He is also correct that the NDP-Green agreement seems quite shaky. We will know best how strong it is after there is an NDP minority government in place. For now, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver is making irresponsible statemen...

I wanted to share some thoughts about the B.C. provincial leaders’ debate tonight. First, moderator Jennifer Burke did a good job of explaining the format and rules beforehand, sticking to them and not letting any one of the leaders get out of hand. In general, the rules were good and gave viewers an opportunity to hear most of what each candidate was saying. Where the format fell down was when two leaders were interrupting each other after one asked a question, the other responded, and then a free-for-all ensued. On a number of those occasions, it was virtually impossible to hear what they were saying. It may make for good TV sound bites, but it turned off potential voters and added nothing of value for voters. Each leader had plenty of time to articulate their platform and the economic approach to their platform and promises. It was very helpful to hear each explain their approach to leadership, and to further explain some of their promises. The questions from viewers we...