It's early on a rainy Friday morning and Linda Reimer is keeping her jacket on because of the cold. Not everyone has shown up for work at the Coquitlam campaign office and it's still warming up but Reimer is ready to face the day - with her binder of BC Liberal talking points and a long list of concerns about the NDP of the 1990s and today.
The Coquitlam city councillor with a lengthy CV of community activism, including work with the the Tri-Cities Joint Family Court Youth Justice Committee, District Parent Advisory Council member and many other posts, is committed to taking on Joe Trasolini, a popular former Port Moody mayor and now NDP MLA because, she says, someone needs to step up for the BC Liberals.
"I decided I had an obligation to step forward and run for this party," Reimer says.
She's walked up and down the hills of the Port Moody-Coquitlam riding for months talking to voters. The HST has people concerned, Reimer acknowledges, but she said most people come around to the notion that leader Christy Clark did what the people asked and brought back the PST.
ECONOMIC ISSUES
For Reimer, the BC Liberal Party has had the steadiest hand on the wheel when it comes to the economy.
"I think it's important to focus on a strong economy because when the economy is thriving, there is more money for education and those social programs that citizens want."
A party supporter for years, Reimer got involved at the end of the NDP term in office in the early 2000s because she thought the party would get the province's "financial house in order."
Now she credits the BC Liberal government for the province's Triple A credit rating. "In the '90s it was downgraded six times," she says.
She says the BC Liberals' plans for the liquified natural gas industry will create revenue and jobs. Skills training is also top of mind for her party, Reimer says, something that's "very important because we are expecting the need for skilled workers in the next 10 years."
On the education front, Reimer, who was active in the District Parent Advisory Council when her children were in school, is sympathetic to School District 43's budget challenges.
"My hope is that they will resolve the deficit while mitigating the impact on kids," Reimer says.
EDUCATION STRONG
But she maintains underfunding isn't the problem. In fact, she suggests the BC Liberals have improved the education system by implementing full-day kindergarten, free Strong Start programs for pre-schoolers and increasing education funding at a time when enrolment has been declining provincially.
She notes other BC Liberal government accomplishments, such as the start of construction for the $1.4-billion Evergreen Line and the construction of the long-awaited middle school in Anmore, as important to the riding.
As for transportation, Reimer believes Translink must find efficiencies and a referendum is needed on funding before making taxpayers and commuters open their wallets.
But it's the strength of the economy and the BC Liberals' plan for improving it that Reimer turns to often during the conversation. A former banker, Reimer says issues such as the BC Jobs Plan, controlling spending and reducing provincial debt is the road map to a strong and productive province.
More about the BC Liberal Party can be found at http://www.bcliberals.com/ More about Linda Reimer can be found at http://www.lindareimer.ca.
