Former Liberal cabinet minister Rich Coleman says he won’t run for re-election in 2021 and intends to retire from politics.
The MLA for Langley East made the announcement Saturday.
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Coleman was first elected in 1996 and went on to hold various cabinet roles, including minister of housing, energy and mines, and public safety as well as solicitor general.
Coleman said he looks forward to no longer hearing the question: “So are you going to run again?” He said he remains fully committed to his constituents for the remainder of his sixth term as MLA but wanted to give the Liberals the opportunity to make plans for the riding ahead of the next election.
“Nobody asked me, nobody pushed me,” he said in an interview. “I spent five years in opposition and 16 years in government, then I did the interim leader thing when Christy [Clark, the former premier] left to sort of rebuild this thing. You have a new leader in Andrew [Wilkinson] and he’s doing a good job, and I thought, well, you know, I can’t see myself running for a seventh term.”
Coleman, 66, said he will eventually seek a new line of work. His focus, for now, remains on government, his health and his family, including seven grandchildren and a grand-niece.
He said it was tough reaching his decision, but making it public on Saturday left him feeling relieved after 24 years in B.C. government and politics.
“It’s such a privilege,” Coleman said.
“I’ve met so many wonderful people. I’ve been gifted with a great riding and people to work with. Public life can be a strain — especially today, with the social- media piece, if you pay attention to it. But on the other side, it’s very rewarding.”
Coleman served as deputy premier from 2012 to 2017 and was the B.C. Liberal interim leader during the party’s last leadership contest. Before his entry into politics, Coleman ran a real estate management and consulting company, and was an RCMP member and security specialist.
He decided to make the announcement on Feb. 29 to coincide with the anniversary of his first nomination on the same date in 1996, he said.
The announcement comes five days after the beginning of inquiry hearings led by commissioner Austin Cullen into money laundering.
Reports commissioned by the NDP have indicated money laundering worsened under the B.C. Liberals’ watch between 2009 and 2015.
Last week, Attorney General David Eby said former Liberal cabinet ministers should be called to the witness stand, including Coleman, former finance minister Mike de Jong and former premier Christy Clark.
Coleman said he believes the inquiry is important. “I am totally comfortable with the inquiry — I said it at the very beginning — because it will help us point to how we’ll get better in the future,” he said. “It will find how we truly have to work at it, as we learned about it, but it’ll also find out that people acted with integrity.”
In a statement, B.C. Liberals Leader Andrew Wilkinson thanked Coleman for his many years in provincial politics.
“Among many achievements as a cabinet minister, he oversaw the delivery of a record number of new housing units for vulnerable British Columbians, stickhandled the softwood lumber file through challenging times and laid the foundation for an LNG industry that will support British Columbia’s prosperity for generations to come — helping to improve the lives of people all over B.C.,” Wilkinson said.
“Nearly a quarter-century in public life requires significant personal sacrifices. In addition to recognizing Rich for his years of service to the people of Fort Langley- Aldergrove, Langley East, and all of British Columbia, we thank his wife Michele, and their children and grandchildren, for generously sharing Rich with our team.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
