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Liberals name their candidate in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge

Hoping to bounce back from dismal showing in 2011 election

It's a now a four-way race for the Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge seat in the House of Commons.

Local business owner Dan Ruimy was named the Liberal candidate by acclamation last week.

He got into the world of politics after federal Liberals started meeting at his Bean Around Books and Tea shop.

"The people that I heard in the shop every day– every day I heard what they had to say, hear their frustrations.

"Having had this store for the last four years has been a real eye-opener for me as to what happens when you involve people in your community.

"I won't work for Ottawa, I would work for the constituents of Maple Ridge."

Running in this election will be Ruimy's first foray in politics.

But he says his background is in the food business working for McDonalds, A&W and Quizno's and training more than 300 franchise owners has been good preparation.

"I'm not concerned. I'm pretty good at dealing with people and issues and learning how to resolve them."

Last election in 2011, the Liberals drew only 2,739 votes under candidate Mandeep Bhuller.

But Ruimy says his chances are as good as any, even though he's running against the Conservatives and the NDP, who each took 28,803 and 18,835 votes respectively in the 2011 election.

He doesn't want to make any policy announcements until he talks more with Liberal headquarters and is reluctant to criticize Conservative Randy Kamp who's been MP for more than a decade before announcing his retirement this year.

"I think he's one of the good guys out there. I'm not here to try to shoot down other people.

"All I can do is talk about who I am, what I can bring to the table, what my beliefs are and how I work. That's going to be my focus."

Kamp has been in office for a long time so that's got to say something, Ruimy added.

"I don't have anything negative to say about him. That's not the way I want to run my campaign."

The Conservatives choose their candidate this Tuesday, either Mike Murray or Marc Dalton, while Bob D'Eith is already running for the NDP. Peter Tam announced last week he's trying for a second time with the Green party.

Ruimy said he's always voted Liberal and started thinking of running as he got more involved with the local group.

"More and more, when the decision came for me do this or not, those meetings played a big part.

"I believe in getting involved with the community. I feel really good when I'm able to help people. When we accept people, the community is much stronger for it."

A campaign office hasn't been found yet.