Emotions run high after Chilliwack by-election, as SD33 trustee labels winner ‘career politician’
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CHILLIWACK — Emotions ran high in the aftermath of Saturday’s Chilliwack by-election, with one current SD33 trustee labeling the by-election winner a “career politician.”
According to the text of a social media post Saturday night, roughly two hours after Laurie Throness won, current SD33 trustee Teri Westerby said the nearly 3,800 votes Throness received did not reflect Chilliwack.
“3,800 votes do not define Chilliwack. They do not determine the heart of our community, the strength of our diversity, or the deep commitment so many of us have to inclusion and human rights,” Westerby said. “Because look at how close we came—just 800 votes separated a career conservative politician from a parent who represents the people actually raising children in our schools. 800 votes. That’s the razor-thin line between concentrated power and collective power.”
Throness doesn’t exactly embody a career politician. He served seven years as a democratically elected MLA representing Chilliwack, the same manner in which Westerby was elected in 2022 – by the voters of Chilliwack. Throness has not served as an elected official anywhere else in Canada previously. Of the people currently occupying seats on the Chilliwack Board of Education, Willow Reichelt and David Swankey have served for over six years and are coming up on their seventh year as elected officials later this year, the same amount of time that Throness served as an MLA in Chilliwack.
