THE BC Liberals on Tuesday said that the BC NDP candidate in Surrey-Cloverdale has fallen in line with the party brass and is now opposed to Surrey residents having a say on how policing is conducted in the city.

They noted: “But it wasn’t that long ago that Mike Starchuk was singing a different tune. In reference to the City of Surrey moving ahead with a change of police, he wrote in June: “If there ever was a time in history to press pause, it’s now,” Starchuk wrote on his blog.

“As well, in a since-deleted post, Starchuk said: “If McCallum thought for a minute that the majority of the residence (sic) of Surrey really wanted this, he would have a referendum to prove it.” The sudden reversal of his position by Starchuk raises a lot of questions.”

“What is so wrong with the people of Surrey getting all the cost information, on the number of officers, on technology costs and what other priorities may be pushed off,” said BC Liberal Marvin Hunt. “The NDP’s silencing of candidates makes you wonder what the NDP is hiding. This is a long-term commitment and it seems totally fair to let people decide what they want once they have all the information.”

But the BC NDP have been repeatedly reminding the BC Liberals about the stand that their candidates had taken, besides the flip-flopping of their leader Andrew Wilkinson:

 * Rich Coleman: “We all know that the city of Surrey unanimously decided, as a council, that they wanted to change their police force about a year and a half ago. We now know that the government has done the right thing here” (Feb 13, 2020 Hansard)
* Stephanie Cadieux and Tracy Redies: “We don’t want to comment on the merits of a municipal force over the RCMP or vice versa. We do want to say thank you to the men and women in uniform that keep us safe and contribute so much to our community. We respect that this is by statute, a municipal decision to move forward.” (July 6, 2020 Facebook)