View Article Here: http://www.richmondreview.com/news/201484791.html
By Matthew Hoekstra – Richmond Review
Published: April 04, 2013 11:00 AM
Updated: April 04, 2013 4:32 PM
A former school trustee who finished 302 votes short of a council seat two years ago is running for the B.C. Conservatives in Richmond-Steveston.
Carol Day will challenge incumbent Liberal John Yap in the May 14 provincial election. Day made the announcement alongside party leader John Cummins at a press conference at Charthouse Restaurant Thursday morning.
Day said what pushed her to run is the proposal to barge jet fuel to Riverport and build a pipeline across Richmond to supply the airport.
“We’re going nowhere fast with the Liberal government,” she said of the proposal, which the government has shelved until summer. “I thought something has to be done.”
Day, 56, said she’s “cut from the same piece of cloth” as Cummins, who believes constituents should come before the party.
“When I read that I thought exactly,” she said. “That’s how I feel all MLAs should be—constituents before the party.”
Day has owned her own sign business, Cat Signs, for 30 years. A resident of Shellmont, Day has lived in Richmond most of her life and has three adult children. She’s a community activist who has fought against the jet fuel pipeline project as chair of the citizens’ group VAPOR, Vancouver Airport Project Opposition for Richmond.
It’s a key issue for Richmond-Steveston, she said, as is the site of the old Steveston High, which has sat vacant since 2007.
“That has to be dealt with. I felt that in the last eight years, MLA Yap just hasn’t worked for the community. I feel that land should go back to the people of Richmond for assisted living or (housing for seniors).”
Day also believes better consultation is needed around the future of the George Massey Tunnel. She favours a new crossing in the No. 8 Road corridor—provided farmland is protected—that could serve trucks and connect with Boundary Road in the future.
In Richmond-Steveston, Scott Stewart is running for the New Democrats, while Jerome Dickey is the Green candidate.
The B.C. Conservatives have one other local candidate. Nathaniel Lim is running in Richmond East.