Ian Paton will be the Liberal candidate in Delta South.
The city councillor beat out former police chief Jim Cessford in a candidate selection meeting for the local riding association at the Delta Town and Country Inn Wednesday evening.
It was an overflow crowd of members, many newly signed up, who arrived to hear brief speeches by the two vying for the nomination before casting ballots. More than 600 people voted as party members were given several hours to show up at the hotel to vote, many sticking around for the result that was announced around 10 p.m.
“The nomination meeting is over, but we’ve got a very big job ahead of us now. We’ve got a team of people out there that really love (current two-term MLA) Vicki Huntington and we have got to get out there. It’s a great thing that we’ve built this membership, between Jim and his people and our people. We’ve built this membership in the last four or five months and we’ve got to keep it going,” said Paton in his victory speech.
Paton also slammed Huntington in his earlier speech, accusing the independent MLA of being disconnected with city council. He noted that as a councillor, who topped the polls in Ladner in his past three civic elections, he’s been willing to make difficult decisions, even if they meant voting against the mayor or his fellow councilors. A life-long Ladner resident and farmer, Paton’s platform includes preserving farmland and ensuring responsible port growth.
Thanking his supporters after the votes were announced, and especially his wife Pam who stood beside him at the podium, Paton acknowledged Cessford as well as the retired cop’s group of supporters, asking, “Let’s just keep it together, let’s just put whatever happened tonight, put it in the past…let’s just keep focused for May of 2017 and let’s get this riding back to the Liberals.”
In his opening speech, Cessford, who described South Delta as a powerhouse riding, said he’s terrible at spin, adding he always only focused on whatever is the right thing to do. In his speech later in the evening, he said he learned a lot from the process and, “Who knows, I may try this again someday.”
Riding association president Kelly Guichon said the race between two good candidates for the nomination was beneficial as the local membership shot up from around 300 to approximately 1,300. She said it shows there’s a lot of interest in the upcoming provincial race. The election is set for May 9, 2017.
