Former MLA Wealthy Coleman operating for Langley township mayor

Article content material

Former B.C. solicitor normal Wealthy Coleman is operating for mayor of the Township of Langley.

Article content material

Coleman, former MLA for Fort Langley-Aldergrove and Langley East, retired from a 24-year profession in provincial politics in 2020, however is leaping again into the fray — this time, within the municipal ring.

Article content material

He’s looking for to fill the seat left by outgoing mayor Jack Froese, who isn’t operating for re-election in October.

“I really feel like I’ve extra to provide,” Coleman advised Postmedia Friday. “After the current mayor, who I feel the world of, stated he wasn’t operating, individuals began asking me whether or not I’d contemplate it.

Coleman talked to his spouse Michele and determined to provide it a go. “I really feel like I’ve extra to provide to this neighborhood. We are able to present some management and attain different targets.”

Coleman heads up a brand new political occasion known as Elevate Langley, which he stated will deliver “a much-needed breath of recent air” into Township politics.

Article content material

A part of the attract operating in municipal politics is for the possibility to mentor younger individuals who need to go into public service, he stated. The occasion plans to run six or seven different candidates for Township council seats.

Different candidates who’ve introduced a mayoral run are councillors Blair Whitmarsh and Eric Woodward and former councillor Michelle Sparrow.

Coleman stated he is ready to deliver individuals collectively and ship outcomes, together with tasks inside Langley throughout his tenure in provincial politics, such because the Langley Occasions Centre, the development of the brand new R.E. Mountain secondary faculty, and expansions at  Langley Memorial Hospital.

B.C.’s Built-in Murder Investigation Staff (IHIT) was additionally created below Coleman’s watch as solicitor normal.

Article content material

Coleman stated his priorities for the Township embrace managing development and growth, visitors and questions of safety, and bettering public security.

Coleman was first elected as a Langley MLA in 1996. He has served as minister for housing, public security, vitality and mines, and as deputy premier from 2012 to 2017. After former Premier Christy Clark resigned in 2017 following NDP Premier John Horgan’s victory on the polls, Coleman served as interim chief of the Official Opposition.

Extra not too long ago, Coleman was one of many B.C. Liberal ministers who testified on the Cullen Fee, the province’s inquiry into cash laundering.

The fee’s findings, launched in June, discovered that elected officers did not take steps to cease in depth cash laundering in casinos and gaming operations, however that there was no foundation to conclude any of them engaged in corruption.

Article content material

Coleman is assured his document in provincial politics can be an asset, even along with his work investigated by the Cullen Fee.

“Individuals (in Langley) perceive who I’m, They perceive I’d do my job, and do it truthfully.”

Whereas he understands criticism will get levied at ministers in cost, he stated he needed to stay at arms size as minister in command of gaming and never intrude with operations.

Previous to becoming a member of politics, Coleman was an RCMP officer in Alberta and ran an actual property administration and consulting firm. He presently volunteers with Honour Home and Indigenous communities.

He and spouse Michele have lived within the Township for 38 years and have two youngsters and eight grandchildren.

chchan@postmedia.com

twitter.com/cherylchan