Frankly Speaking

Bonnie Bucholtz photo Three of the four candidates in Cloverdale-Langley City attended a candidates' meeting Wednesday organized by a variety of seniors' and veterans' groups in Langley City. With organizer Leslie Gaudette (far left) are (left to right) Rebecca Smith (NDP), John Aldag (Liberal) and Dean Drysdale (Conservative). The candidates' meeting in Langley City Wednesday was the best of the three I moderated during this campaign. There were two reasons. One was the presence of Conservative candidate Dean Drysdale, which ensured that there were clear choices offered to the voters who attended. The other was the fact that all three candidates are passionate and not afraid to defend their partisan perspectives. This was particularly true of Drysdale and NDP candidate Rebecca Smith. Both on occasion became a bit personal in their remarks, underscoring why they are running. Liberal candidate John Aldag, who has worked very hard in the past year to get to know ...

Another federal candidates' meeting, another missing Conservative candidate. I moderated a forum Monday in Aldergrove, which was organized by a number of seniors'  and veterans' groups. Candidates from the Langley-Aldergrove riding, which takes in most of Langley and a small portion of western Abbotsford, were invited to attend several weeks ago. Three of them showed up - Green Simmi Dhillon, NDP Margot Sangster and Liberal Leon Jensen. All gave detailed presentations of both their parties' platforms and their own views on numerous seniors' and veterans' issues, as well as topics like the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The 130 people or so in attendance were mostly seniors. Judging from their questions and conversations I had with a number of them afterwards, most were there to get more information about candidates, to help them decide who to vote for. There were few overt partisans of one candidate or another. Prominently missing was longtime Conservative MP Mar...