Chilliwack-Hope MLA Laurie Throness met up with constituents at the Hemlock Coffee Mountain Company on Friday to discuss the budget, upcoming election, and just about everything in between during a “Chat with Laurie” session. Throness, also, took a moment to chat with The Observer amidst the cheerful banter of guests.
Throness mentions an issue with water well users in The Village of Harrison Hot Springs.
“The water is very bad, so they’ve applied for an infrastructure grant to get connected to the main water, and I’m just waiting to hear on that,” he said.
It’s right on the subdivision and some of the houses are failing to get their water, according to Harrison resident Peggy Arndt, who was also on hand for part of the conversation.
“We’re putting a lot of pressure on The Village to get it done. Aside from the quality of the water not being great, when the power goes out, we can be without water, and that can be a bit of an issue — this year it didn’t go out, but last year it went out for a couple of hours and that means you can’t flush the toilet, or brush your teeth. I would be tempted to go to District Hall with a tooth brush and a towel, should that happen,” she said.
Throness, has been doorknocking of late to prepare for the upcoming election, and has spent a lot of time getting to know the constituents in his riding, citing Harrison as a top area for Laurie visits, with his riding flipping to Chilliwack-Kent when the writ drops Apr. 11. and as his loyal constituents wait on baited breath to see if he is re-elected as the Liberal MLA against NDP Chilliwack-Kent opponent Pattie McAhonic.
On his position as the MLA...
“I don’t take anything for granted,” he says.
Throness has delivered 2500 of his flyers with the help of volunteers, as he gets to know the new part of the riding, which is between Vedder and Prest in Chilliwack.
There are about 5,000 people in this area.
A second wave of flyers will be sent out in March to make sure constituents get another hit.
He good naturedly answers the question regarding his plans should he be ousted from his seat as MLA.
“If I’m not re-elected I would probably go back and teach,” said Throness, who holds a PhD in History from Cambridge University and has taught at UFV.
On the election…
“We’re going to hit the ground running when the writ drops on Apr. 11 — I’ll be on the door step and probably before then, and just talking to as many people as I can,” he said. “We’ll be visiting strata complexes to talk to seniors, we’re going to run the whole gamete of things, all candidates meetings, flyers that are sent, advertising, radio, phoning people, but I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the door step because that’s what I like to do most, that’s where you meet people, where they are and you hear their complaints and you get a sense of where you are in the election...on the door step — it’s 28 days of hard work.”
Of the numerous concerns Throness hears, MSP was a big one, which has been taken off the table with premiums being cut by half in the latest results from the provincial budget.
“Another one I hear is about Highway 1, people have complaints with administration about welfare and disability and other pensions, and so we try to help them to rectify those problems,” he says, which is normal constituency work.
According to Throness, there’s not a lot of policy concern on the doorstep.
“When I say do you have problems with government? Are you satisfied with government? Most people say we have no issues right now and that’s very different than it was four years ago. People had all sorts of issues four years ago, things they were dissatisfied with, but I don’t sense that dissatisfaction this time, so I have high hopes for the election.”
Throness, sees himself as a servant to his communities and he plans to take them where they want to go.
“Communities have a way of communicating that — I go community by community, saying where do you want to go and how can I get you there.”
On the budget...
“It’s balanced for the fifth time and nowhere else in Canada has anyone come close to that and we created $77,000 jobs last year alone — the government provides the confidence in the economy and the platform for those jobs to be created, I think our government deserves re-election.”