Christy Clark isn't the only politician to address the needs of Royal Columbian Hospital during the 2013 provincial election campaign.
For the past several years, Fraser Health has been working on a renovation plan that would address the need for space at Royal Columbian Hospital.
At all-candidates meetings, community members have posed questions about the hospital's expansion.
"I think it is an urgent, urgent problem that we need to get all the stakeholders in health care together and take action to address overcrowding in emergency rooms," said NDP candidate Judy Darcy.
Conservative candidate Paul Forseth said British Columbia needs to grow its economy, as that's the only way the province is going to be able to pay for the health care that people want and need.
"We need to expand that hospital," said Liberal candidate Hector Bremner. "It's one of the first things I am pushing for. I will push to get it done."
According to Bremner, the Liberals have committed some funds toward the expansion.
Healthy vote
The Heart and Stroke Foundation is pleased with some of the responses it received from political parties during the 2013 provincial election campaign.
The foundation sent a survey to B.C.'s four major parties in March, questioning them about various health-related issues, including disease prevention, health promotion and the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to young people.
The Greens, Liberals and NDP responded to the survey.
"We were encouraged by some of the answers we received," said Diego Marchese, CEO of the B.C. and Yukon Heart and Stroke Foundation. "For example, the B.C. Liberals will continue the smoking cessation program. The B.C. NDP want to provide better access to nutritious local food. The Green Party of B.C. will shift a significant percentage of health-care funding from hospital and acute care to community-based services geared to prevention and health promotion. These are all important issues to our foundation."
The survey and the results are available at www.heartandstroke. bc.ca/bcelection.
