Three people, including a former city councillor and a MP, have received the OK from BC Liberal party headquarters to seek the nomination in Maple Ridge-Mission.
Dan Ruimy, Patrick Dobbyn and Corisa Bell have all been confirmed as contestants, said Deanie Wong, communications director with the BC Liberals.
Ruimy was a federal Liberal Member of Parliament for Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge for one term, before being defeated in last October’s federal election by Conservative Marc Dalton.
Read more: Two seeking Liberal nod in Ridge, Mission
Bell served as a councillor with the City of Maple Ridge, from 2012 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2018.
Dobbyn, with no politicial experience, is the land and resource manager for B.C. for Lafarge Canada, with responsibility for government relations, and is seeking the nomination because he wants to address the opioid crisis.
He said that he was honoured to be mentioned with Corisa (Bell) and Dan (Ruimy).
He said there should be a meeting involving a question-and-answer session for party members, athough no date has been set. In announcing his candidacy earlier, Dobbyn said he wants to focus on treatment of mental health and addiction, adding though that he’s not a single-issue candidate.
“I have a 20-year career in natural resource development. I’m by no means a single-point politician. I have a very diverse background that will play welk into this … public consuation and rescource development … so that’s really my forte.”
Jamie Seip, founder of Clean Up Maple Ridge, who announced in January that he was seeking the nomination, wasn’t on the list of approved candidates.
A nomination date hasn’t been set yet.
pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
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