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Optimist Delta
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Another battle
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Ice Hawks look to close gap on 1st place Sockeyes
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PHOTOS BY
CHUNG CHOW (LEFT)
AND
604-940-0200
SANDOR GYARMATI (RIGHT)
Liberal leadership candidate Christy Clark (left) addressed a crowd at Brown’s Social House in Tsawwassen Monday afternoon, about an hour before fellow candidate George Abbott (right) was at the Delta Town & Country Inn in Ladner.
Leadership hopefuls court MLA Abbott and Clark make stops in Delta South to woo Liberal voters and Vicki Huntington BY
SANDOR GYARMATI
sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com
Two Liberal leadership candidates visited Delta South Monday and both made overtures to independent MLA Vicki Huntington to join the governing party. George Abbott made a campaign stop at the Delta Town & Country Inn in Ladner late in the afternoon, addressing a crowd of local Liberals, including a few who had dropped by Christy Clark’s campaign stop in Tsawwassen an hour earlier. In the back of the crowd to hear what Abbott had to say was Huntington, who had also dropped by Clark’s campaign appearance
at Brown’s Social House. During his meet and greet with attendees, Abbott approached the independent MLA saying he’d like for her to seriously consider joining his fold if he wins the leadership race. Saying he believes the Liberals can not only win back Delta South but also take Delta North, Abbott would go on to make an overture to Huntington during his address to the audience. He told the Optimist his government would reach out and listen to the people when it comes to policy decisions, which Huntington has advocated. “I think the current MLA is a very good person and I would
hope she would consider joining our caucus during this term. It’s something I’d certainly want to talk to her about and I think she’d make a great contribution,” he said.
When asked about Abbott’s remarks, Huntington’s only response was to smile and note the candidate has always seemed like a reasonable man and a consensus builder. Clark wasn’t as forceful in her courting of Huntington, saying
that’s something the caucus would have to discuss. “I can say, personally, Vicki has done a good job representing this riding but it’s tough when you’re not part of a team,” Clark said. “Part of my pitch to Vicki, we are going to be a democratic government that’s going to allow MLAs to represent their communities in Victoria and sometimes that means disagreeing ... I think you should be able to make sure communities are heard within the party system.” Clark said she intends to change the culture in Victoria so that government listens to communities. Huntington became the first
PHOTO BY
CHUNG CHOW
MLA Vicki Huntington was laughing it up at Christy Clark’s campaign stop in Tsawwassen Monday. independent in over 50 years to win a seat in the legislature in 2009 when she edged cabinet minister Wally Oppal.
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