Endorsement catches candidate by surprise

A candidate in Saturday's Port Moody council byelection said she was unaware her answer to an email survey from a Coronation Park resident would be used by a property agent to endorse her.

But Karen Rockwell said she stands by her statement.

In an email dated Sept. 19 and addressed “Hello Coronation Park,” Erin Williams of London Pacific, a property agent that is heavily involved in land assemblies in the neighbourhood, writes, “We would very much like to see a council that supports making Coronation Park’s redevelopment a priority… It would appear that Karen Rockwell is the candidate with the most amount of experience in municipal office and who also is the most pro-TOD [transit-oriented development].”

The email then goes on to quote Rockwell’s reply in a survey of candidates compiled by Coronation Park resident Dan Attridge to a question about redevelopment in neighbourhood. Rockwell wrote, in part: “I fully support the current land use plan for Coronation Park as it makes sense that the older single-family neighbourhood is redeveloped to provide more types of housing.”

Rockwell told The Tri-City News she stands by her answer but wishes she would have been informed how it might be used.

“It’s not like I said anything I truly don’t believe,” Rockwell said. “I wish they had given me a heads up.”

Attridge said he sent surveys to all eight candidates earlier this month “to see which councillors were on board and which ones weren’t,” with the intent of “passing on the information."

“We took the information and shared it with the people who are representing us as homeowners,” Attridge told The Tri-City News.

London Pacific’s Williams confirmed Rockwell’s quote was supplied to the company by Attridge, adding the email was sent to a private distribution list.

Attridge said Rockwell’s responses stood out as “the most detailed and supportive,” adding, “Most of the responses from the candidates were disappointing. They didn’t understand what was going on. They have no idea what’s going on in Coronation Park.”

But another candidate who also participated in the survey said he was taken aback when he saw Rockwell’s answer used in the London Pacific endorsement.

“It is pretty shocking to find a local land developer… lobbying voters in a brazen attempt to influence the outcome of the race to favour its own commercial interests,” Hunter Madsen said.

Madsen and another candidate, Shane Kennedy, are denounced in the email because of a “concern” they “would be adversarial if elected.”