Image: Heather Maahs

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Political strife

Ex-MLA questions walkout by Chilliwack MLAs over ARPA vote, but Maahs says motion was a ‘nasty bit of vitriol’

Oct 8, 2025 | 9:39 AM

CHILLIWACK — A former one-term Chilliwack-Kent MLA is challenging Chilliwack’s two sitting MLAs after they walked out of an NDP-led motion condemning a group for discriminatory views, but one of those MLAs says the motion in the B.C. legislature contained a “nasty bit of vitriol.”

Former Chilliwack-Kent MLA Kelli Paddon wrote on Facebook that a motion was brought forward in the B.C. legislature on Monday, Oct. 6 to “condemn intolerance” and discrimination” by the Association for Reformed Political Action for what she what she alleged was “their harmful advocacy.”

“After thoughtful debate, the vote was scheduled for 6:00 p.m.,” Paddon said. “And when it came time to stand up for inclusion, equality, and basic human rights…not a single member of the BC Conservative Party showed up. Not one. Even more troubling, Chilliwack-Cultus MLA Á’a:líya Warbus, who claims to be inclusive when asked, was in the chamber just moments before the vote, and chose to leave rather than take a stand. Because leadership isn’t about slogans or sound bites, it’s about showing up when it counts, and both Chilliwack MLAs failed today.”

Warbus defeated Paddon in the October 2024 provincial election by nearly 2,300 votes (13,657 votes to Paddon’s 11,367 votes, a margin of roughly nine per cent) in the Chilliwack-Cultus Lake riding.

In a statement posted to her Facebook account, Chilliwack North MLA Heather Maahs says many hateful, prejudicial statements were made by NDP party members about the Christian views of ARPA.

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“The Conservative Party caucus chose not to give oxygen to this nasty bit of vitriol and did not attend for the vote,” Maahs said. “I want my constituents and all the fair minded and freedom loving people of my community of Chilliwack to know that I do in fact believe in freedom of speech and freedom of religion. What have we come to as a province or nation, if we will not support freedom of speech or freedom of religion, and defend the rights of our citizens to uphold their christian values anymore? These freedoms are at the heart of who we are as Canadians, and I will always stand up in their defense.”