I’ve spent 22 years as a journalist, listening to the community. Now I’d like to speak for it.
I’ve lived in this community for 30 years. I raised my family here. I've watched farmland turn into neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods turn into towers, and I've watched the people who live here adapt, organize and push back.
As a reporter with The Surrey Leader, my job was to sit across from politicians and keep asking until the answer made sense. I covered city hall, policing, the courts, health care, addiction and mental health. Officials gave me the official version. The people living with the consequences gave me the rest.
My series Equal Opportunity Destroyer followed mental illness through the lives it upends: patients, parents, siblings, neighbours. It taught me that a system can look fine on paper and fail badly in person.
From the press gallery to the front lines
My own recovery from addiction took me somewhere journalism never could. I became a recovery coach, then began training others to do the work.
When you’re up close, you see what the headlines miss. Someone finally says "I'm ready" and gets handed a phone number. A family gets lost in a maze of referrals. A person finishes treatment and finds the support ends when the door closes behind them.
B.C. has spent heavily on the addiction crisis. Some of it is working. Some of it isn't. An MLA should be able to speak to both without worrying about offending their party.
Why I'm running
Surrey–White Rock faces problems that slogans won't solve. Family doctors are scarce. Housing is out of reach for renters and first-time buyers alike. Young people wonder if they can afford to stay where they grew up. Seniors wonder whether the care they count on will be there when they need it. And addiction and mental illness sit at far too many kitchen tables, throughout this riding.
I won't pretend to have a tidy answer to every one of these. What I bring is a method: find the people who know, follow the evidence, and never accept the first answer when it doesn't add up. Journalism taught me that. Recovery taught me the rest: a policy is only as good as how it meets the needs of the person it was intended to serve.
Why Independent
No party whip. No borrowed talking points. I'll back a good idea no matter who brings it and oppose a bad one no matter who owns it.
Independent doesn't mean isolated. It means I can work with anyone in the Legislature who's serious about fixing a problem, and I'll never have to defend a bad decision out of loyalty. Every vote gets the same test: Is this good for Surrey–White Rock?
I've spent a career listening to this community. Now I'd like to speak for it.
