There has been a lot of controversy in our recent provincial election, some of it written about in this BLOG. In reality there has been an underbelly of discontent in our community for years. Our just retired MLA, Rich Coleman, is and was at the center of much of it – again many of those issues we have written about.
Staunch supporters of free enterprise have, since the mid 90’s, gravitated to what they considered to be their only free enterprise political option in British Columbia, the B.C. Liberal Party. Unfortunately, that old saying, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute Power corrupts absolutely” can best be found in the make-up that provincial party and locally by extension a small Cabal of power brokers closely aligned with the Langley East Liberal Constituency Association. Obviously, not everyone associated with it, because most innocently align themselves with parties that best represent their personal philosophy. Unfortunately, in my experience many are innocently being taken for granted and have been taken for a ride for years in Langley East.
To put Megan Dykeman’s victory into an historical perspective, the constituency area which is now known as Langley East has been redistributed many times over many years. The various free enterprise options (Social Credit and then B.C. Liberal) were created out of the Delta Constituency in 1966 and certainly since that date the free enterprise option has been the party of choice, before and since in our community.
Why have we promoted the need for change, why have we endorsed Megan Dykeman and why, for the first time in my life have I endorsed, worked for, and donated to the NDP? Well, a great candidate with a strong resume, first of all, with an ideal opportunity to make a significant difference in our community. Positive change has come to the Township of Langley! Read ON-
Back just prior to the 2017 election I had received a strong favorable opinion about the NDP and its new leader from a good friend. We were able to arrange a meeting with then candidate John Horgan and had a great conversation in a two-hour meeting. I was a strong free enterprise supporter, but NEVER at any cost. The fact remains, BAD government is BAD government, left, right or center. In our view John Horgan had done a particularly good job over the last three and a half years and we feel he deserved a solid mandate for a full term.
There is a long list of wrongdoing by the B.C. Liberal Government and its members over their sixteen years in office which we will not go into detail here. Having said that, the Cullen Commission into money laundering currently underway has received some very damaging and critical public testimony against our former MLA Rich Coleman. We are not accusing anyone of anything, but we are reporting based on very recent public testimony. In the areas of property deals there is the debacles with Western Forest Products on Vancouver Island, the Little Mountain and the Burke Mountain property sales, all that carry a stench with them.
As to how our MLA’s actions have affected the Township of Langley, there are many? For our purposes today we will illustrate just a couple of examples I am personally aware of that in my view raise alarming questions.
Provincial MLAs should NOT be involved in the local politics of their constituency(s), in any way, that is IF you care about political independence and/or the potential for undue influence in your municipal government. Why? Municipalities have to be able to work with whatever Provincial Government is elected. MLAs should not be exerting pressure or influence on locally elected officials. That has happened in the Township of Langley for decades.
Over the past two decades it has reached the point where this office is not attempting to hide their endorsements, as a matter of fact they are openly flogging their endorsements.
In Langley’s case openly getting involved in who is or is not running municipally and who they will support including having candidates in for interviews. Our residents should be shocked!
In proving that we are not talking conspiracy theories here, we offer the following:
Leading up to my announcement as a candidate for Mayor in early February 2008 I requested and had a meeting with our MLA Rich Coleman which I had requested as a courtesy to introduce myself as a candidate for Mayor of the community he represented. In that meeting I received three very clear messages from Rich Coleman – 1) They are OK with the job the current Mayor is doing – 2) The CAO of the Township (Mark Bakken) is a good friend of mine and 3) You have been making noises about municipal land deals, I want you to know we are OK with them. My responses were – to #1, we are not – to #2, that is interesting and – to #3 we are not OK with it, it is bull shit, and it is going to stop. It did not take a rocket scientist to realize I would not be his first choice for Mayor, nor after that meeting, did I care.
Facetiously I ask – Who is we Rich? (to the statement made by Rich that we are OK with the Municipal land deals)
The good news? We won the Mayoral campaign that year. The bad news – Be careful what you wish for?
Further proof are some internal emails received and statements made by one local realtor Joel Schacter, good friend of Rich Coleman in an email to the realtors in his office (full content of emails in our March 2013 BLOG Post) and signatory to an RCMP complaint against me that received significant media exposure. For the record it was found to be baseless. Excerpts from those emails follow:
Schacter: I have had discussions with some of the senior management at the hall as well as our MLA Rich Coleman and 2 former mayors…. they are all suggesting Mel has the best chance of taking Green out.
A fellow realtor stated the following:
Pretty easy to prove my point.
In a further response:
I was told a long time ago, to find the truth……. simply follow the money.
In summary: This is a great day in the Township of Langley. We now have an MLA that will truly represent the Township of Langley and the interests of all of our residents, as opposed to that of special interests. It has been a long time coming and we are excited for our communities future.
As to the B.C. Liberal Party and its future, the jury is out. The internal fights are just beginning; Do they change the name? Do they seriously undertake renewal and take a deep internal look at who and what they represent? When will they conduct a leadership contest? And one thing that to-date has not been talked about, what was the net effect of the NEW Political Campaign Financing rules. This was the first election conducted under this NEW campaign financing legislation.
Campaign Financing rules just may be the toughest hill to climb for the B.C. Liberal Party in their attempt to comeback.
The B.C. Liberals (or whatever name they use) has a long way to come back, if they do? We have seen some relevant B.C. history of a political party that has so damaged their reputation and image with the public that any thought of a come-back was a non-starter. Of course, a lot of this will depend on the performance of the NDP over the next four years, we believe they have a great opportunity if they play their cards right!
RG
I am working on a few posts at present that I believe are of significant concern to Township of Langley Residents, come back often for news of interest to Township residents.
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langleywatchdog.... and more! 
Fingers crossed! Time to continue the fight to ‘clean house’ in the TOL. This district has been taken for granted and run like a corrupt Southern Dixiecrat town for far too long.
On another note, speaking of swamp slime, have you heard that Charlie Fox has thrown his hat in the ring for School Trustee to replace Megan? Can you believe it? Let’s do all we can to retire him and keep him away from the schools.
David, I agree it is far past time that the Township of Langley underworld are exposed for who and what they are. As to Charlie Fox, the last thing taxpayers need on School Board is an insulting and condescending individual that always seems to have the answer to all the questions – one problem, he doesn’t understand the questions yet!
Yes. It’s funny how the most ignorant often are the most arrogant. Charlie, if you’re reading this, you might want to take Honest Abe’s advice: better to be quiet and thought stupid than open your mouth and remove any doubt.
Well said David, could not agree more.