It’s not an easy time to be a B.C. Liberal.
But that’s not keeping city councillor Doug Bing from trying to win the nod for the party, then trying to win the seat in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows.
“I think probably Victoria needs some new blood, and if there’s going to be some renewal there, people like me have to step up and provide a new outlook, “ he said Thursday.
Bing just decided a few days ago to try for the Liberal nomination against Terry Becker, meaning at least two will be vying for the title.
Becker said Thursday she’s still in the running, unless she hears differently from the party.
The party wants to have nominations contested, Bing added.
There’s still no nomination date to decide who will run for the Liberals in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows against the NDP’s Elizabeth Rosenau.
“I think if you look at the polls today, it would look like Elizabeth would win,” Bing said.
But as the election approaches, he added, the contest will become tighter.
“It usually is, in this riding.”
Polls change and political predictions of disaster sometimes don’t materialize, as happened in Alberta recently when the Conservative party was supposed to be wiped out, or in the Quebec election, when the Liberals were supposed to be decimated, but weren’t.
Bing, who’s been a Pitt Meadows councillor for seven years, was first asked by someone in the B.C. Liberal party in July. He turned it down because he didn’t think it would fit with his dentistry practice. He was asked again in August and said, yes.
“I have to win the nomination, of course. That’s the first thing. And that’s not automatic either.”
He added if he got elected, he’d put his dentistry practice on hold and resign from council.
Bing finished first among council candidates in the 2011 municipal election with 2,341 votes, ahead of Deb Walters, Gwen O’Connell and Janis Elkerton.