Why are you running for federal office?
- I’m running because I believe strongly that our country needs change so we can restore Canada as the best country in the world to live, build a career, open a business and raise a family. My wife and I have two young children and we are very concerned that the Canada they are growing up in will not provide the same opportunities and quality of life that we had. I think the responsible view for all of us, whether we have kids or not, is to work to leave Canada better than we found it for future generations. If we are honest with ourselves though, the current state of our country is objectively worse than it was 9.5 years ago. That means we are going in the wrong direction and that is why we need change. We have a severe housing crisis — in terms of both prices and availability. We have a cost of living crisis — from monthly bill costs to the price of groceries. We have a healthcare crisis —where our system is legitimately overwhelmed and wait times are some of the worst in Canadian history. We need to acknowledge we did not have these three crises before the Liberals and NDP were elected 9.5 years ago. In addition to these crises, economic growth is low and job and wage growth is stagnant. Now, Donald Trump and the United States have started a trade war with our country. So in addition to the problems of the past 9.5 years, I am also running as part of our Conservative team to push back against Trump and the United states and achieve the best outcome possible for Canada in this trade war.
What federal roles have you held in the past four years?
- I won the federal Conservative nomination on Oct. 27, 2024, and have been the official candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada for the past six months. Prior to that, I was engaged in a rigorous 12 month nomination process to become our federal candidate that began in November of 2023. It is a true honour that I was able to win the Conservative nomination and now have this opportunity to represent our wonderful community.
What is your current job?
- I’m a business consultant and over the past 15 years I’ve been fortunate to build a successful consulting business serving the Tri-Cities and Lower Mainland. I help entrepreneurs start businesses and I work with existing businesses to help them solve problems and to improve and grow their business. I am passionate about my career and it is very rewarding helping local businesses succeed. My first passion was economics and I have a degree in economics from Simon Fraser University. My background in economics informs much of my mindset both in business and politics.
How long have you lived in the riding?
- I have lived in our riding for almost 40 years. I grew up in Port Moody and now my wife and I and our kids live in Coquitlam near Como Lake Park. We have two remarkable kids: a three-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter. My family originally moved to Coquitlam in the 1940s and my kids are now the fifth generation of our family to call Port Moody and Coquitlam home.
Why are you running for this party?
- Perhaps the most important point in this election is that if the United States is not going to be as friendly anymore, and our economies are not going to be as highly integrated going forward, then it is critical that we focus our domestic economy. This is the only rational response if we are going to keep Canada strong, free and prosperous. The key question of this election then becomes: Which party is best to manage and grow our domestic economy? I’m running for the Conservative Party of Canada because we have the best track record when it comes to managing and growing our economy. We also have the best current policies and plan to revitalize the Canadian economy. Here are some key points from our plan:
- Retaliate dollar for dollar to U.S. tariffs.
- Take every dollar of tariff revenue and direct it to support the workers and businesses that are most affected by this trade war.
- Lower income taxes as well as taxes on investment, energy and homebuilding. This will leave more money in your pocket and create significant economic growth.
- Open up our resource sector again in terms of mining, forestry and oil and gas. This will create countless high paying jobs and huge economic growth. If we don’t do this, our quality of life will continue to decrease and even more so in the face of this trade war.
- Remove interprovincial trade barriers.
- All of these policies combined will revitalize our domestic economy. Despite the trade war with the United States we still have huge economic potential in Canada. I’m excited to work to help unleash that economic potential.
How long have you been a party member?
- I have been a party member for the past 20 years with a notable exception. When I ran for city council, I let my Conservative Party of Canada membership lapse so I could run as a true independent candidate with no affiliation to any political parties.
What are your Top 3 campaign promises?
- Push back against Donald Trump and the tariffs from the United States, while directly supporting the Canadian workers and businesses most affected by the trade war.
- Revitalize our domestic economy through reducing taxes, regulations, opening up our resource sector and making Canada open for business and job growth again. In the face of this trade war, the future of our country and our quality of life depends on us revitalizing our domestic economy. I know the Conservative Party has the best track record and the best current policies to achieve this.
- Be the strongest advocate for our local community. Anything that matters to our local community will be a priority for me. I am most passionate about advocating to increase the quality of healthcare in the Tri-Cities. Specifically, I will advocate to increase the size and scope of Eagle Ridge Hospital to become a much larger and full service hospital to serve the needs of our growing community. This is my No. 1 local priority. I will also advocate strongly to improve road infrastructure and finally alleviate traffic and congestion in the Tri-Cities.
If elected, how will you ensure you are available to constituents?
- I believe strongly in being a true local representative and advocating for our community. To do so, I will be in my office all day every Friday to meet with, and take phone calls from residents, all day. Most weeks of the year I would be required to be in Ottawa Monday to Thursday so I will fly back every Thursday evening and be in my office all day Friday to meet with residents in person, or on the phone or via video call, if they prefer. This means I will be consistently available to constituents every week, in person. I will also run our local constituency office like a small business, with the No. 1 focus on delivering the best customer service possible. I will take my mindset and expertise in small business and apply it to serve constituents. We will offer prompt service to residents for any issue regarding the federal government. Things like problems with the Canada Revenue Agency, immigration services, etc. I will also continue to door knock, even when it is not election season. I find this is one of the best ways to engage with constituents and hear what matters to them. Most elected officials only door knock during election season when they are looking for votes. If I am elected I will door knock throughout my term. Last, but not least, you will see me at all major community events in the riding and will be able to speak with me in person at events consistently throughout the year.
The Tri-City News will be closing no later than May 21. How will you and your party work to strengthen or change the Online News Act to ensure Canadians in communities of all sizes continue to have access to independent, trustworthy local information?
- I am very sad to see the Tri-City News closing down. Over 30 years ago, in the 1990s, I actually delivered the Tri-City News in Port Moody as my first job. A close family friend of ours was also the distribution manager for many years. The Tri-City News has been a positive and important party of our community for decades and it will be truly missed. The question asked about how our party would strengthen or change the “Online News Act” which is also known as Bill C-18. This bill is why most social media does not allow news articles to be shared anymore. Like many Liberal-NDP policies of the past 10 years, the “Online News Act” backfired completely and ended up harming local newspapers like the Tri-City News. This is very important for voters to understand. A Conservative government will repeal the “Online News Act” completely. Here is a breakdown of this issue:
- Shortly after the Liberals and NDP announced their coalition government in March of 2022, they passed Bill C-18, the “Online News Act.” The Liberals and NDP thought they could force Google and Meta (Facebook) to pay news companies for the right to show their content in search results and on social media platforms. Instead, Meta’s response was to simply stop allowing news to be shared on their social media platforms, so they wouldn’t have to pay. So, if you have ever been frustrated by the fact you can no longer share news articles on social media, this was caused by the Liberals—NDP coalition government and the “Online News Act.”
- A reasonable government would have changed course after Bill C-18 backfired. However, the Liberals and NDP chose to be stubborn and not change course. As a result, you still can’t share news articles on social media 3 years later and Bill C-18 has harmed countless media publications in Canada over the past 3 years and the Tri-City News is one of them. So if you are wondering why the Tri-City News is shutting down, the Liberals and NDP are partly to blame.
- How does Bill C-18 harm local newspapers? Prior to Bill C-18, when someone shared an article on social media, the Tri-City News didn’t get direct revenue but it got exposure and more web traffic which directly translated into more advertising revenue from its sponsors. Now its articles receive less views and less reach which means their main website gets less views, reducing their advertising revenue. We have seen consistently since the advent of the internet that trying to force consumers or companies to pay fees doesn’t work. The internet works best when there are no fees, then usage increases and revenue is generated through advertising. A Conservative government will repeal Bill C-18, allow you to share news articles on social media again, and allow smaller, local newspapers to receive more exposure and generate more advertising revenue again.
How are you and your party preparing for future pandemics?
- One of the most important parts of our plan for the next four years is to revitalize our domestic economy like we haven’t seen in decades. A big part of this plan is to start manufacturing our own products in Canada again. This includes vaccines, PPE and everything we were in such short supply of, and dependant on other countries for, during the COVID pandemic. Our plan is to make Canada self-sufficient when it comes to pandemic response. This is a key policy that sets us apart from the Liberals and NDP. The Liberals and NDP have no problem leaving us dependent on other countries. The Conservative Party of Canada will make sure our domestic economy is as strong as possible and when it comes to things like pandemic response we will make sure we are fully self-sufficient.
How are you and your party implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action?
- Truth and Reconciliation is an area I have a lot of optimism about as long as we have the right approach. Our core approach as Conservatives is to empower our First Nations communities through economic reconciliation. We have been meeting with First Nations across the country to communicate the potential we have if we work together. The economic potential for First Nations is astonishing. There is nothing more beneficial for a community than economic growth and there are countless resource projects throughout Canada where First Nations can be partners if they choose. This will raise significant revenue and create more high quality local jobs for First Nations as well. Also, voters might not yet be familiar with the First Nations Tax Commission or the optional First Nations Resource Charge (FNRC). The key aspect of the FNRC is to allow First Nations to make their own agreements on projects and collect their own revenue. This way Ottawa isn’t involved and the proceeds go directly to First Nations. The optional FNRC was developed by First Nations themselves and the First Nations Tax Commission and then presented to us as Conservatives. We have accepted this proposal and made it a key component of our plan for economic reconciliation. It will allow First Nations to be in more direct control of resource projects they partner in and the revenue that will be generated.
Municipalities are struggling with growth orders from senior levels of government. How will you and your party address the needs for more/upgraded infrastructure?
- I really appreciate how this question was written. The phrase “growth orders” is very appropriate because over the past 9.5 years that is exactly what the federal and provincial governments have been doing to our municipalities: ordering them to grow at a rapid pace. However, the federal and provincial governments have not provided support for our municipalities and as a result our cities are struggling with inadequate infrastructure and budget shortfalls. This is leading to large increases in property taxes and utility fees in many cities. The Liberals and NDP also never asked municipalities and for that matter, didn’t ask voters, if they supported the level of population growth we have had the past 9.5 years. They just ordered it, which is completely undemocratic. The No. 1 solution to this problem is to get our level of population growth back into balance. Housing, healthcare and infrastructure cannot keep up with the pace of population growth the Liberals and NDP have ordered the past 9.5 years. To be very clear, myself and the Conservative Party are pro-immigration and pro-growth. However, the number of people we welcome to our country each year is very important. It is one of the most important government policies and affects housing, healthcare and infrastructure directly.
- The Conservative Party of Canada will restore our immigration system to being the best in the world. To do this, we will calculate our population growth based on how much new housing was built the year before. We will ensure we are adding new housing units faster than we are adding people. That way we will finally come out of our housing crisis. This is one of the key policies that separates us from the Liberals and NDP. They will not reform our immigration system and calculate our population growth based on housing availability and healthcare system capacity. Conservatives will.
- In addition to this, I will strongly advocate for more federal funding to come directly to our riding to build much needed infrastructure. My top priorities include funding to expand the size and scope of Eagle Ridge Hospital, funding for a new overpass from Clarke to Murray Street in Port Moody, funding for a new bridge at Ioco Road and funding for a comprehensive new exit at Brunette and Trans-Canada Highway. With the right infrastructure projects we can significantly improve healthcare in the Tri-Cities and finally alleviate road congestion that has plagued our community for many years.
How will you and your party improve income support for seniors and people with disabilities?
- I am very passionate about supporting our seniors. I think there are a number of ways the quality of a society should be judged, and one of those is how it treats its elders. Our seniors are the people who have built our country and our economy and if you are a senior reading this article, I want to express my most sincere gratitude for everything you have done. Seniors worked and paid taxes for decades and they deserve the utmost respect, support and quality of life in their retirement. First off, there was misinformation out there that a Conservative government would increase the retirement age to above 65. This is not true and it was never true. Conservatives are committed to keeping the retirement age at 65. Second, the trade war Donald Trump and the United States have started, is wreaking havoc on people’s retirement savings and investments in the stock market. We have announced that we will increase the RRSP age limit from 71 to 73 so the stock market has an additional 2 years to balance out and Canadians approaching retirement have more time to plan and not be adversely affected by the current trade war. This is a key policy when it comes to supporting seniors.
- Next, from 2006 to 2015 when our economy was under Conservative management we had very low inflation. Then from 2015 to 2025 under Liberal and NDP management, we had the worst cycle of inflation Canada has seen in the past 40 years. This inflation increased the price of groceries, household bills, consumer products, restaurant meals, etc. Most seniors are on a fixed retirement income so inflation adversely affects seniors in our community the most. One of the true strengths of the Conservative Party is that we keep inflation very low. A Conservative government will end the current cycle of inflation once and for all.
- Healthcare and housing are also crucial issues for seniors. Our plan outlined above to bring our population growth back into balance will have a very large positive effect on both healthcare and housing. We are also going to incentivize home building throughout the country to bring supply and demand for housing back into balance. These two policies will have a positive impact for seniors in terms of housing and navigating the healthcare system.
With threatened annexation by the U.S. president, do you and your party support an increase in defence spending?
- Yes, myself and our party strongly support increasing defence spending. In fact, we have supported this for the past 9.5 years as the Liberals and NDP did not prioritize defence and did not fund our armed forces at the level they should have. We have to make sure we have accountability in Canadian politics and this is a failure the Liberals and NDP need to be held accountable for. Our armed forces currently have substandard equipment, are having difficulty recruiting and are facing low morale due to a decade of neglect and bad management by the Liberals and NDP. The Conservative Party of Canada will get the equipment our troops need and restore morale and pride in our armed forces.
Canada's overdose epidemic is a national crisis. What will you and your party do to ensure that harm reduction services and safer supply programs are more available?
- With the utmost respect, I found this question to be biased. It seems to imply that the best and only solution to the addiction and overdose epidemic is harm reduction and safe supply. It also seems to imply that our only choice is to increase this approach even further. However, I believe the best solution for people who are addicted and at risk of overdose is actually treatment and recovery. That is what myself and the Conservative Party of Canada support. To be clear, harm reduction can be an important part of the cycle of treatment. However, if we are going to finally address our mental health, addiction and overdose crisis, we need to shift the focus of government from harm reduction and safe supply, to effective treatment and recovery. The Liberals and NDP have almost exclusively focused on harm reduction and safe supply and this approach has failed. The statistics show this clearly. Outcomes in mental health, addiction and overdose deaths are actually getting worse each year, not better, under the Liberal-NDP’s narrow focus on harm reduction and safe supply. On April 6, the Conservative Party of Canada announced 50,000 new treatment and recovery spaces for people struggling with mental health, addiction and who are at risk of overdose. If we are elected, this will be one of the largest increases in support for mental health, addiction and overdose risk in our country’s history.
- I attended an event called “Recovery Day” in New Westminster in 2024. There were several thousand people there and I had dozens of conversations with voters that day. The majority of them have had very difficult lives but thankfully have come out of the grip of addiction and are in recovery. They all said the worst thing the government could have done for them when they were still addicted was to give them free drugs. Most of them have never voted Conservative before but almost all of them said they were voting Conservative this election. There is no stronger endorsement of our Conservative plan to focus on treatment and recovery than former addicts voting for us.
