Canada Votes 2025: Liberals now leading Conservatives in polls, finally have a candidate in the Eastern Fraser Valley

With boundary re-alignments, a 20-year Conservative MP retiring, a 30-year MLA running as an independent, could this perpetually blue region see change?

*Updated: April 2, 2025.

Canada's 45th federal election is set for April 28, 2025 after Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon Sunday morning (March 23, 2025) to ask her to dissolve parliament.

Canada will have a new prime minister, but will it be Conservative Party of Canada opposition leader Pierre Poilievre or new Liberal Party of Canada leader Mark Carney? Clearly there are many differences between the two, not least of which is that Carney is not a sitting Member of Parliament and has never been in elected office, while Poilievre has never had a real job outside of elected office.

It's the World Banker versus the Perpetual Politician.

There are 343 electoral districts in Canada, up from 338 seats due to population growth and boundary revisions. At dissolution, the 338-seat House of Commons had 152 Liberals, 120 Conservatives, 33 Bloc Quebecois, 24 NDP, two Green Party members, three Independents, and four vacant seats.

In British Columbia, both the Liberals and Conservatives have 14 seats. The NDP won 12 of the 42 seats in the province in the last election in 2021, including party leader Jagmeet Singh in Burnaby South. The Green Party has one MP in B.C., party co-leader Elizabeth May. One B.C. seat is currently vacant.

The Eastern Fraser Valley has been consistently blue for most of our lifetimes, with one brief moment of red a decade ago, that being Liberal Jati Sidhu becoming the first MP elected for the then new riding of Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon.

The three local electoral districts in 2021 of Abbotsford, Chilliwack-Hope and Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon were around for a minimum of three elections each. Boundary adjustments in 2022 mean the new ridings in 2025 are Abbotsford-South Langley, Chilliwack-Hope, and Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford.

Chilliwack-Hope

Chilliwack-Hope was first created in 2012 with the federal electoral boundaries redistribution, and was first contested in 2015. That incarnation of the riding that includes Chilliwack made it its smallest size ever, created out of 76 per cent of the electoral district of the former Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, which went all the way from the Vedder Canal up to Cache Creek. That Fraser Canyon and north moved in 2012 to the Mission-Matsqui riding. Now with the 2022 adjustments, the Canyon is back with Chilliwack and Hope, along with the rural areas in between and some stretches north and east.

Candidates (as of April 2, 2025):

Conservative Party – Mark Strahl (incumbent - 2011-2025)
This has been a riding for the Conservatives as close to a sure-thing as there is. Even the candidate becoming the candidate was a sure thing as daddy Chuck was MP for 18 years, resigned in 2011 and handed the riding to Mark. Other wannabe candidates in Chilliwack for the Conservatives were frustrated because they weren't even given a chance to go up against Prince Mark.

New Democratic Party – Teri Westerby (new candidate)
Teri Westerby announced on March 24 he is running for the NDP in Chilliwack-Hope. Westerby is currently a trustee with the Chilliwack School Board elected in 2022 making history as B.C.’s first openly transgender man elected to public office. He is a marketing professional, small business owner, and longtime community advocate.

Green Party – Salina Derish (new candidate)
Salina Derish owns PickEco Refills in Chilliwack, the Fraser Valley’s first zero-waste grocery store she launched in 2018, and she is one of the founding directors of the Downtown Chilliwack Market Society. 

People's Party of Canada – Jeff Galbraith (new candidate)
Jeff Galbraith works at IMW Industries in Chilliwack, and his biography on the PPC website describes him as a semi-retired pensioner and Royal Canadian Navy veteran. 

Liberal Party – No one declared
*April 2: Still no one, despite a weird false alarm on March 31 that a Jake Sawatzky was the candidate. No one knows who Sawatzky is, he doesn't live in Chilliwack, but the federal party sent out an email Saturday saying he was the candidate, which only confused local party members. As of April 2, the New West Record reported that Sawatzky is the Liberal candidate in New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville.

All-candidates meeting

The Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Chilliwack Business Improvement Association are hosting a virtual all-candidates forum live on YouTube on Thursday, April 10 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The meeting will be livestreamed here as well.

Last election results:

Abbotsford-South Langley

The electoral district of Abbotsford-South Langley is the new riding created out of Abbotsford and portions of Langley with the 2022 federal electoral boundaries redistribution, and comes into effect as of March 23, 2025, with the election call. The riding includes most of the City of Abbotsford along with portions of the Township of Langley and the City of Langley.

Most interestingly here is that 30-year MLA Michael De Jong wanted to be the Conservative candidate for Abbotsford-South Langley but the party decided he wasn't experienced enough. Did I mention he was a cabinet minister under two premiers and spend 30 years as an MLA? They picked a 25-year-old blueberry farmer instead. On Thursday, De Jong announced he would run as an independent, which is almost sure to split the vote on the right. If only there was a Liberal candidate to come up the middle and win.

Candidates (as of April 2, 2025):

Conservative Party – Sukhman Singh Gill (new)
Sukhman Singh Gill is the Conservative candidate in Abbotsford-South Langley after winning the nomination on March 8. Gill announced in January that he was seeking the nomination, and said he is a lifelong resident of the area and has roots in farming. After De Jong's bid to run was rejected, he appealed but that was rejected so he's running as an independent. Retiring Ed Fast served as MP for the riding of Abbotsford from 2004 to 2025.

Independent – Mike De Jong (30-year MLA rejected by Conservatives)
Mike De Jong has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly in B.C. since 1994 but he was told by the Conservatives he was "unqualified" to be the candidate. De Jong served as a cabinet minister under two premiers, including as Attorney General, Minister of Labour and Citizens' Services, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Minister of Health, Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism, and Minister of Finance where, from 2013 to 2017, he tabled five consecutive balanced budgets. Not qualified ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

New Democratic Party – Dharmasena Yakandawela (candidate in Abbotsford in 2021 election)
Yakandawela is a first-generation immigrant, a former judge in Sri Lanka, and is a practising immigration lawyer with a firm that focuses on providing pro-bono support to individuals. Yakandawela finished third in the 2021 election in Abbotsford with 17 per cent of the vote, spending $2.3 million or one-fifth of the fourth place PPC candidate, one-25th of the Liberal, and one-33rd of Fast.

People's Party of Canada – Aeriol Alderking (2019 Christian Heritage candidate)
(Not *Carlos Suarez Rubio)
Aeriol Alderking is now the candidate with zero personal information listed on the PPC site other than that she is "a proud supporter of the People’s Party of Canada" who "stands for the core values of freedom, personal responsibility, respect, and fairness." Sh e also believes "that Canada can restore its prosperity and empower the people through bold convictions." Alderking also ran for the Christian Heritage Party in the 2019 election in Abbotsford finishing sixth out of six with 270 votes.
*On March 23, the party had Carlos Suarez Rubio listed as the candidate with a photo and full bio. As of March 25, Rubio's photo and information was gone. On March 28 this information about Alderking is in its place. I've. asked the party what changed, will update when I hear.

Green Party – Melissa Snazell (ran for Greens in 2024 provincial election)
Melissa Snazell is a pharmacy technician, a mother of an 18-year-old son, and ran as a candidate in the 2024 provincial election for the B.C. Green Party. She says she has lived in the Fraser Valley for 25 years and have been in Aldergrove for the past 12 years.

Liberal Party – Kevin Gillies (new)
Kevin Gillies was announced as the candidate on March 31. Gillies is an Abbotsford realtor who used to be a journalist at the Abbotsford-Mission Times from 1995 until 2003.

Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford

Now the weirdest electoral district in the Lower Mainland, this riding encompasses the farmlands of north Abbotsford, Harrison Hot Springs, half of the District of Kent (but not Agassiz proper) and north to just shy of Lillooet and Cache Creek, which mercifully moved to Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.

Candidates (as of April 2, 2025):

Conservative Party – Brad Vis (incumbent in Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2021)
Vis is off to an interesting start. A month ago, he presented a petition in Parliament to "implement a comprehensive Anti-Spam Strategy and stop the harassment of unsolicited and fraudulent phone calls and text messages to Canadian consumers." Last week his team sent out a robocall. Oops. Vis claims it was unauthorized.

New Democratic Party – Jules Côté (new)
Jules Côté is a University of the Fraser Valley student, a member of the National Farmers Union, and a community volunteer.

People's Party of Canada – Kevin Sinclair (ran in Abbotsford 2021)
Kevin Sinclair is a truck driver and "devoted family man," according to his PPC page. He ran in Abbotsford in the 2021 election finishing fourth, bumping the Green candidate to fifth.

Liberal Party – Jeff Howe (new)
Jeff Howe lives in his hometown of Abbotsford with his wife Tina, and their three children. He's a member of the Law Society of Saskatchewan, and the Law Society of Ontario, and he maintains a law practice focused on Canadian Aboriginal law, according to the party's website.

Green Party – John Kidder (new)
John Kidder describes himself as someone who has made a living as a cowboy, a farmer, a range manager, a miner, a fish worker and a warehouseman. He was an environmental economist, an early computer adopter and an entrepreneur in electronic music, software and fibre optics. He's also clearly a realist, maybe to a fault as he describes the incumbent as the "sure winner" but "I want to finish second, with enough votes to fairly reflect your feelings."

All-candidates meeting

The Mission Chamber of Commerce is hosting an all-candidates meeting for Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford candidates on Tuesday, April 8 at the Best Western Conference Centre in Mission. Doors open at 6 p.m., forum starts at 7 p.m. The event will be livestreamed on the chamber’s YouTube channel. Residents in Agassiz and Harrison will be able to attend a simultaneous in-person stream of the meeting; details on that event are not yet available.

Last election results:

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Paul J. Henderson
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