With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation this week, Tri-City candidates running for a federal seat are now fast-tracking their campaigns in anticipation of an early election.
As of this year, the Tri-Cities will have three ridings following the redistribution of federal boundaries, meaning the region will have three members of parliament after the vote.
Here’s who running so far (*asterisk denotes incumbent):
Coquitlam–Port Coquitlam
- Iain Black, Conservative
- Laura Dupont, NDP
- Ron McKinnon, Liberal*
Port Moody–Coquitlam
- Paul Lambert, Conservative
- Bonita Zarrillo, NDP*
New Westminster–Burnaby–Maillardville
- Peter Julian, NDP*
- currently New Westminster–Burnaby MP
Tejal Laul, seeking the Conservative's candidacy in the newly created riding of New West–Burnaby–Maillardville, said the electoral district association will hold a nomination hearing later this month. At least two other contenders are vying for the nod: Lourence Singh and Cindy Khella.
As for the Conservatives' Paul Lambert, he won the nomination in Port Moody–Coquitlam last fall after former MP Nelly Shin bowed out last summer due to health reasons.
Lambert, who has run for Coquitlam city council, said the main reason he’s running for federal office is to “restore the promise of Canada.”
That means allowing young people to have a home and find work, he said. “The things we used to take for granted we can no longer take for granted. I’m lucky, but a lot of my peers have been unable to do that.”
“The promise of Canada is broken.”
Lambert, who has a background in economics, said the Tories will incentivize home building, as well as bring down taxes, inflation and the cost of living.
“Our position is we didn’t have to have this much inflation,” he argued, “but the Liberals and NDP have been so irresponsible with their spending. We need to fix the budget […] and look for efficiencies.”
Lambert said many households he’s speaking with in the riding want to see change.
Coquitlam–Port Coquitlam Conservative candidate Iain Black, a former BC Liberal MLA, did not return a request for comment nor did the Liberal Party of Canada in B.C.
However, the NDP’s Laura Dupont told the Tri-City News on Jan. 7 she was nominated as the candidate for Coquitlam–Port Coquitlam in 2023 and has been knocking on doors for the past six months; she’s also held 25 community coffee chats to date.
Residents are most concerned about the cost-of-living, as well as housing affordability.
“Everyone is talking about it,” she said. “People are shocked every time they go into a grocery store. People are struggling and it’s not OK.”
Dupont, who in 2021 got 26.8 per cent of the vote compared with 38.5 per cent for Ron McKinnon, said she’s seeking federal office again because she's "concerned about the growing inequality" in the Tri-Cities that she "can’t sleep at night anymore."
"I need to use this energy to fight for a better future for us," she added.
"I feel deeply obligated to the next generation because the gap is widening and everything is festering.”
Under the NDP, she said, the party plans to permanently remove the GST from home heating, internet and cell phone bills plus clothing, diapers and some grocery items.
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