Frankly Speaking

The byelection to select a new councillor in the City of Langley takes place this Saturday. Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Douglas Recreation Centre. The byelection is to fill the seat of the late councillor Dave Hall, who resigned in November due to a battle with cancer. Sadly, he passed away in January. Normally, byelections attract little interest from voters. When a byelection takes place in the City of Langley (a rarity), a municipality where there is rarely more than 20 per cent turnout in general elections, chances are it will be doubly ignored by most people. Such may not be the case this time. What has made the difference? Simply the fact that there are nine candidates seeking office, far more than any observer had expected. Each brings supporters with them, and the number of candidates (and signs) has many people in the City talking. I served as moderator at the lone all-candidates meeting, held Monday at Langley Seniors Resource Centre. After hearing all of them...

Langley City Councillor Dave Hall resigned his seat on Monday, after seven years as a councillor. His resignation is for personal reasons, as he is fighting cancer. Hall is a longtime Langley City resident, and served nine years on the Langley School Board, three as chair, before first running for council in 2008. He and I disagreed on a number of issues over the years, particularly when he was part of the school board. He wrote a number of detailed letters to the editor which took issue with the editorial stance of The Langley Times , where I was editor from 1999-2015. We agreed on more issues after he was elected to Langley City council. Even while on the school board, he was a proponent of financial transparency and careful spending, and this continued with his council duties. One wonders if the school district would have gotten into its financial troubles (more than $10 million was improperly accounted for, prompting a lengthy repayment process set up by the B.C. auditor ge...