Richmond Review Richmond Review
DIAPER-CLAD AND DASHING TO THE FINISH LINE, toddler Valerie Gemmell crawls to her mom Bonnie - and to a second-place finish - as brother Gage (at left) and Roger Wilde cheer during the first annual diaper dash at Lansdowne Park Shopping Centre Saturday. (photo by Mark Patrick)
The provincial Liberals closed the final chapter in their bitter feud with MLA Allan Warnke by electing a new member to take his place.
Geoff Plant, 40, handily won the B.C. Liberal Party's nomination for the Richmond-Steveston riding over lone competitor Miguel Tu, 51, at a meeting Saturday by a vote of 275 to 75. While Tu, a Vancouver court interpreter, made his political intentions known a year ago, Plant announced his nomination just two months ago.
Plant, a constitutional lawyer, replaces Warnke as the Liberal candidate. Warnke quit the party last week after months of public squabbling.
"Allan (Warnke) is history. He's finished," Plant quipped afterwards.
Warnke has earlier stated that he disliked how the party had shifted too far to the right under leader Gordon Campbell. He also claimed party brass wanted to replace him in favor of Plant, who he said was a close friend of Campbell's. Both Plant and party officials denied Plant was either a close friend of Campbell or was the favored pick.
At Saturday's nomination meeting at Gateway Theatre, dozens of vocal Plant supporters in red shirts waved banners, posters and balloons, and passed out literature at the entrance. Tu's few supporters and homemade signs just couldn't compete.
"He has quite the (organizational) machine behind him," Tu admitted as he waited for the votes to be counted and watched the red-shirted Plant supporters outside the theatre. "I'm fighting an uphill battle. I can't quit now.
"
Following the vote, Plant said he did not receive any party help and attributed his campaign to learning about fund-raising activities while growing up in a political family.
Meanwhile, Warnke, who has since declared he will run as an independent in his old riding, said Monday that the party wanted Plant and "threw everything they have" behind him.
"Absolutely, there's no doubt about it," he said. "He had a lot of party help."
Richmond Review Home Page