Question: How long have you lived in New Westminster.
Answer: I started in Grade 1, so I would say almost 60 years.
Q: Why do you think you are uniquely qualified to represent this riding?
A: It's a job application. You want the consent of local voters to say, "yes, we believe that you are best qualified to represent our ongoing aspirations." You try and turn it around and look at the competition, where there is a party or an ideology, or there is a machine (saying) look what we will do for you. Of course, they are outbidding each other. One of the easiest decisions is to spend, but if you approach the role as being the community advocate and say, "I will be your servant and I will try and be your voice and on an ongoing basis, work and dialogue with the community to represent those values rather than representing a party." I think that is a much more modern approach of improving the bounds of democracy so we don't go away and be always mad and angry at our politicians and say that it's all just a sham. People get turned off and half the people don't vote anymore. I am trying to turn that around. I am an experienced legislator and I've also got a track record of looking after the individual, so it's more about community representation rather than representing a party.
Q: What would be your own personal priority as MLA?
A: I think we first of all need to look after the finances of the province. We can do that first of all by leading by example - the MLAs' expenditures, being very transparent about that. Being very careful about what you draw down the services so that when you have the courage to say no to the next scheme that someone else comes along and says I want to do this but of course it involves spending someone else's money. Be prepared to say no and get the permission of the community, so never will we ever be in a situation again where an HST is imposed on a community. If something like that is considered you have to build the case and get political permission first before we ever implement any grand scheme like that. That's the difference, I think, with the conservative values coming forward. You try to conserve the best and then you fix the rest. You approach life with a set of values and therefore you are able to deal with what ever challenge comes over the horizon. You are prepared to negotiate forward.
Q: What accomplishment in your life are you proudest of?
A: I think I have had a life of public service and I've stayed away from scandal and difficulty. I am proud to be a husband and a father, but I've had a life of public community service, striving to say I've left the community a little bit better than I found it. I have had some great examples in my parents and others who had a lifetime of service, so we have been through these social exercises before where we say what would you want written on your tombstone or whatever. Well, 'he came and he served his community.' I think that would be a good legacy for anyone to have.
Q: Who, in your life, has been a role model for you?
A: Both my parents. My father was a reverend minister in the community, so I was in a home where financial achievement and public image really wasn't particularly important, but trying to help those who cannot help themselves and being an encourager of people brought me, I think, into a life of social service where academically when I was younger I thought I could become a high school counsellor. I took courses related to that. Eventually that led into working in the attorney general's ministry doing young offender work. The last duty I had was divorce mediation and child custody investigations. So that whole legal lifetime was very helpful in the larger public service, going to Ottawa and being vice-chair of the justice committee in the House of Commons. Working on all those issues for the community is very important. So my parents had a lifetime example of public service.
