Dear Editor:
Congratulations to the successful candidates elected to mayor, council and school board.
I would like to thank and commend the unelected "independent" candidates for their honesty in declaring their independence up front, and who put their best foot forward and became involved in Election 2014. You are the real winners for standing up for your beliefs. Once again I found it a very enlightening and somewhat shocking experience to see how democracy really works in New Westminster.
Once again the efforts of developers, labour groups, socialist media providers and endorsement/promotion by the provincial NDP MLA (past and present) have resulted in even a greater imbalance of control of our city.
It is now up to all of us to be diligent watchdogs to assure our elected representatives live up to the concerns of the taxpayer. It is now time to reflect on the elected officials to make sure issues like transparency, accountability, transportation issues, spending, private sector job creation, economic development and avoidance of discrimination towards those who do not march to their drummer.
I invite all taxpayers to join in over the next four years to hold elected officials' feet to the fire by ensuring they are accountable to taxpayers for the benefit of all. This is to include federal NDP and provincial NDP politicians who undemocratically endorsed their friends in the DLC slate and bypassed the views of the balance of their constituents.
John Ashdown, New Westminster
