Image: Dan Grice via YouTube / Chilliwack real estate lawyer Dan Grice has filed to run as an independent candidate for this year's provincial election in the Chilliwack North riding. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Provincial election

Chilliwack lawyer to run as an independent MLA candidate in B.C. election

Sep 18, 2024 | 10:45 AM

CHILLIWACK — Real estate lawyer Dan Grice suggests the lack of a moderate alternative motivated him to file as an independent candidate for this year’s provincial election.

Grice, an 11-year resident of Chilliwack and parent of two children in Chilliwack public schools, has positioned himself as a centrist in announcing his candidacy for the Chilliwack North riding.

Grice says he decided to enter the provincial campaign over his frustration with both parties, citing the NDP’s plan to abolish the law society and its ongoing attack on professional independence. He also leveled criticism at the B.C. Conservatives for what he called “threats to massively cut university funding.”

The B.C. Conservative platform says “universities and colleges that do not support and defend freedom of expression on campus will be defunded. Taxpayer money will not be used to support places of censorship and intimidation.” It also says government funding within post-secondary institutions will be re-allocated to promote and incentivize training in essential fields such as medicine, engineering, and skilled trades.

He’ll be pitted against incumbent MLA Dan Coulter from the B.C. NDP and Chilliwack school board trustee Heather Maahs of the Conservative Party of B.C.

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“I’m a lawyer, I’m a parent, I’m a long-term resident of Chilliwack, and I’m running to be an independent MLA in this year’s provincial election,” Grice said in one of his YouTube videos. “Like many of you, I am absolutely tired of partisan politics running and ruining this province. The NDP has gone far too much to the left and brought in very harmful policies. The worst in my mind being with just a few weeks left in the spring legislature, they brought in legislation to abolish the Law Society of British Columbia and severely undermine lawyer independence. On the flip side, I cannot support the Conservatives to their continuous policies and platforms that attack scientists and are threatening to muzzle teachers’ abilities to put on anti-bullying platforms and to help vulnerable students in our education system.”

Grice may have his work cut out for him. A Research Co. poll released Tuesday (Sept. 17) by pollster Mario Canseco shows the B.C. Conservatives with a substantial 27-point lead in the Fraser Valley, 57-30, over the NDP. There is no B.C. Green Party candidate in the Fraser Valley between Langley and Chilliwack.

Grice’s platform inveighs against unfunded promises and reckless tax cuts while supporting a balanced budget aand stressing the need for academic freedom for teachers, and rethinking the Agricultural Land Reserve with what he refers to as “strata farms.”

“I propose opening up the agricultural land reserve to permit far more flexibility by creating new Strata Farm legislation that will allow strata farm corporations to offer new ownership models based on cumulative buildings on ALR properties to allow new types of ownership and occupancy,” Grice wrote on his election website.

He argues that a seven per cent tax on legal services currently mandated through the PST (Provincial Sales Tax), represents a “significant burden” for the average client, particularly those already in financial distress.

Before entering law, Grice acted as an electoral reform organizer and co-authored papers for Elections Canada. He worked for a family software development firm and sold computer servers.