Chilliwack City Council Candidates

Kyle Hislop is a local realtor and is heavily involved with the Chillwack and District Real Estate Board (CADREB). He approached me a few weeks ago with what he thought was a crazy idea for me to get involved with. Part of what Kyle does at CADREB is help get the Real Estate business plugged into the community of Chilliwack, one of those ways is through The Valley Votes The last municipal election in Chilliwack was ranked 9th from the bottom of all BC Municipalities. The purpose of The Valley Votes site is simple and important "Our goal with this initiative is to change those stats and to see voter turnout in the communities CADREB serves: Chilliwack, Hope, Kent and Harrison, rise." Basically, get people out and vote!

Kyle approached me about filming each of the city council candidates to help give voters in the Chilliwack District a better idea of who they were voting for (just council as the mayor was acclaimed for a 2nd term). If we could educate people on who was available to vote for, they had one less excuse why they couldn't vote.

Here's the biggest reason I chose to help Kyle and CADREB with this project, it's completely selfish. Being a 2nd time voter with a municipal election in Chilliwack, I wanted to sit and talk with each of the candidates. I got to ask them questions I thought people wanted answers to. How can we keep Chilliwack growing, but with a small town feel? How do you think the downtown area can improve? You look too young to be on council, what do you say about that? Why should I vote for you?

Secondly, it was great to share from my own perspective as a small business owner and to hear what they thought they could do to help small business in Chilliwack. I wanted to hear straight from their mouths how they could help someone like me and hundreds of other small businesses. I also wanted to hear how they could keep Chilliwack on track with zero debt and a strong infrastructure for growth and stability. Like I said, selfish reasons.

I was privileged for the chance to interview each of them and look forward to, what I hope will be a better voter turnout, and what happens to our city council for the next term.

I highly recommend you head over to The Valley Votes site and check out the videos. I also recommend you follow Jamie Billingham on Twitter for up to the minute info on our council candidates.

*If you'd like my opinion about who I'm voting for for council, you'll just have to find me some time and ask.

Thanks again to Kyle and CADREB. Matthew