From his home on one of the main roads into town, Douglas Blamey has seen Maple Ridge change before his very eyes.
Every year, Dewdney Trunk Road gets busier with cars speeding towards the growing eastern suburbs.
“On Friday nights, you can’t get out of the driveway between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at night. They have over-built housing for the road. They should have put a freeway to the north years ago,” said Blamey, a resident of 37 years.
He is a retired CP Railway maintenance worker who, so far, hasn’t been involved in municipal issues. But it was a recent event close to home that triggered him to file his papers.
“What really set me off the other day was when that guy got shot the other day [and another fatally stabbed] on Laity Street.”
Blamey said Maple Ridge has become a “lawless town,” and said if he’s elected he’ll work to reduce the crime rate by 10 per cent a year.
He wants homeless people to have job opportunities by starting a recycling processing facility in the Albion area, then using the nearby railway line as transportation link.
“We’ve got to get these people who are homeless, we’ve got to get them working.”
He suggested a shelter for homeless could be built in the Albion flats area along Lougheed Highway, which then would be near the industrial area.
He also said some of the new townhomes on 240th Street are “the slums of the future.” He said Maple Ridge is in a beautiful location, which should be preserved.
He also said the bylaws department is too strict.