Frankly Speaking

The Liberal wave hit B.C. in a big way, as it did in most parts of Canada. In B.C., the Liberals won in most urban areas, but the extent of their win shows just how urban B.C. has become. For example, Kelowna-Lake Country, a conservative bastion for generations, went Liberal. So did four of the five Surrey seats, Delta, and a seat which straddles Burnaby and North Vancouver. Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge and Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam are also now Liberal. In most of those areas, there has not been a Liberal MP since Louis St. Laurent was prime minister. Four Vancouver seats, one in Richmond, and two other North Shore seats are also Liberal - as is, quite surprisingly, Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon. That may be the most rural seat of the 17 the Liberals won. They still have a chance at an 18th seat- incumbent NDP MP Kennedy Stewart is barely ahead of his Liberal rival Adam Pankratz in Burnaby South, with a number of polls still to be counted, as this is written. The NDP are still powerfu...

Justin Trudeau with former South Surrey-White Rock Liberal candidate Joy Davies This week's column in the Peace Arch News and Surrey Leader  It’s been a topsy-turvy week for the federal Liberals in South Surrey-White Rock, with candidate Joy Davies resigning Sept. 10 after controversial remarks she made about marijuana use on social media came to light. Davies has been replaced by longtime Liberal and former Surrey councillor Judy Higginbotham. South Surrey resident Higginbotham has been soldiering for the Liberals, both federal and provincial, since 1983, when she first ran with the provincial Liberals in what was then the two-member riding of Surrey-White Rock. She left the provincial Liberals to run with the doomed Social Credit party in the 1991 provincial election in Surrey-Cloverdale, but has been a loyal Liberal since that time. She has run provincially five times and federally three times, in 1988, 2004 and 2008. In 2004, she got almost 37 per cent of the ...

I have quite deliberately ignored the federal election campaign until now. It made no sense to write about leaders who talked too much about nothing during the month of August, when no voters were paying attention anyway. However, it is now time to share a few thoughts. This is my column published in the Friday edition of The Peace Arch News and Surrey-North Delta Leader. Although the federal election has legally been under way since Aug. 2, it only really began in earnest this week. There was one leaders’ debate in August, the details of which no one can now recall.   There were very few signs up in August, and they were ignored by almost everyone. Attempts by candidates to portray themselves as saints and their opponents from other parties as the worst types of sinners have, for the most part, gone unheard. Far too much media attention focuses on party leaders. This is not only unhealthy for democracy, as it makes leaders think they are in charge of the entire campai...