Rebecca Darnell – Liberal Candidate for Langley

The Rebecca Darnell Campaign Office is up and running!! Please stop by to say hi, sign up to volunteer, or grab a lawn sign! Let’s paint Langley red!

Unit 104 – 6351 197th St.
Langley, BC
V2Y 1X8

T. 604.533.8436
E. darnell4langley@gmail.com

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Mark Warawa has missed his Mark. In reality it matters not whether the statements made by him were perceived as promises by him or the parties to whom those statements were made. The real point is that Langley now has a first class sports facility and centre to which the Government of Canada, under the leadership of Reform Conservative Stephen Harper, made absolutely no contribution. Shame on Warawa and the Conservatives.

Insofar as the Nicomekl is concerned I am heartened to see a public information meeting moving forward. Rest assured that I will watch every step of this project to make sure that it is not a repeat of the ultimate failure to fund the Langley Events Centre. To call this an economic stimulus project is a misnomer. The Langley Events Centre, in contrast, contributed significant jobs while under construction and many more jobs were created in Langley to operate the facility. The Langley Events Centre achieved both the short and long term objective of economic stimulus. The Nicomekl, on the other hand, if it really does complete, will create a few jobs for a very short period of time, falling far short of any significant short or long term economic stimulus.

The job of the opposition is, you see, to hold the Minority Conservative Government accountable. I take that job very seriously indeed.

Rebecca L. Darnell
Liberal Candidate – Langley

Dear Editor:

On Thursday, September 24, 2009 as I wrapped up my Federal Liberal Rally In The Valley at Langley’s new Event Centre, our current Member of Parliament was doing photo-ops, once again promising infrastructure dollars and touting the Conservative flagship infrastructure program.

The very next day the Liberal Party released its own infrastructure report, clearly demonstrating that a mere 12 per cent of the money committed by Stephen Harper’s government has actually been expended, creating only 4,800 jobs across the country well short of the 40,000 jobs promised.

It is important for the voters of Langley to watch carefully to ensure that Conservative commitments made are infrastructure projects realized.

Consider the Langley Events Centre, built in spite of and not because of our MP Mark Warawa’s efforts and those of the Stephen Harper government. It comes as no surprise then that there’s not been a nickel received for the Nicomekl bridge even though the City of Langley continues to move forward with research for the Nicomekl project.

So there is no transparency as to the strings attached to the shovels held at the ready nationwide. Remember the $5 Million dollars promised by Warawa for the Langley Event Centre? That was scuppered because the shovels were already in the ground. How convenient.

No details are evident in the press releases announcing projects getting the nod in Langley. There’s no note of the number of jobs they’re expected to generate or over what period these three projects or the two projects announced August 17, 2009, the day before the Langley Federal Liberal Candidate Selection meeting, might generate. The infrastructure program requires that these projects be finished by March 2011. Can Langley wait that long? Should Langley wait that long? If the other funders or partners run out of money, will the federal money evaporate? These are just some of the questions Langley needs to ask.

Could it possibly be this government needs to secure votes just in case all of the opposition parties stand up to the next round apparently set for Thursday. I urge the citizens of Langley to watch the progress of these projects closely – all six of them. There is nowhere near enough information to ensure that the funds will actually materialize and there has never been a time when six federally funded projects were on the go in Langley at the same time.

Shovels or no shovels. Money or excuses. It’s a coin toss.

Anyone got a nickle for the Nicomekl?

Canada can do better. Langley deserves better.

Rebecca Darnell
Candidate, Langley
Liberal Party of Canada

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Michael Ignatieff and Rebecca Darnell