Frankly Speaking

The selection of Jagmeet Singh as new leader of the federal NDP may make it harder for Liberal MPs in Surrey to win re-election in the 2019 federal election. Two years ago this month, the federal Liberals cruised to victory after a long and tiring election campaign – the longest in decades. They went from third place in the federal House of Commons to first, winning 184 seats after winning just 34 in 2011. One of the keys to the party winning a majority government was its very strong showing in B.C, a showing that surprised many observers. The Liberals won four of the five seats in Surrey, as well as the Delta seat. They won seats in Mission and Kelowna, Maple Ridge and Whistler – places where there had not been Liberal MPs since the 1950s. Party leader Justin Trudeau was a big reason. He contrasted very favourably with incumbent prime minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair. He brought a second round of Trudeaumania to the often-staid world of federal poli...

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...

The shocking news that two masked men entered a Quebec City mosque Sunday night, killing six people and wounding another eight, is deeply disturbing. This shouldn't happen anywhere, but it seems particularly out of place in boring, peaceful Canada. It certainly proves that the events of the world as a whole can end up in our front yards when we least expect it. That this happened in Quebec is only slightly less surprising. Quebec is a peaceful and quiet province for the most part, although racial and religious intolerance was fanned several years ago by the former Parti Quebecois government under Pauline Marois. It tried to introduce a charter of Quebec values. Some of those moves were foolishly followed up by campaign statements by the Conservative Party under former prime minister Stephen Harper in the 2015 federal election. Interestingly, the only place in the country where the Conservatives gained seats in that election was in the Quebec City region. This shooting came at t...