Mike de Jong has confirmed he will be running as an independent candidate in the Abbotsford-South 91原创 riding.

De Jong made the announcement Wednesday (March 26), less than a month after he was denied the Conservative Party of Canada nomination for Abbotsford-South 91原创 on March 3 despite being endorsed by the local electoral district candidate selection committee.

Since then, de Jong estimated he's heard from "thousands" of people urging him to run.

"I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have been contacting me and expressing their frustration, their anger that local people would have been ignored, essentially, in selecting one of the candidates will be for the federal election," de Jong told the 91原创 Advance Times.

When he challenged the decision by Conservative party higher-ups, de Jong said the party refused to provide any explanation for their decision to disallow his candidacy beyond the claim that he was 鈥渦nqualified鈥�.

"People are very, very upset in the absence of any rational reasoning," de Jong commented.

"From the moment I endorsed, at his request, [Conservative leader] Pierre Poilievre's leadership candidacy, and he suggested I consider running for the party, I thought there was a good alignment there," de Jong said. 

"And on a policy basis, I still think there is a sound alignment. But I do have one additional policy that apparently some people in that party do not share, and that is the basic notion that local people should be the ones selecting who their candidates are, not some party hack in a back room in Ottawa."

De Jong, 60, will be running against 24-year-old Sukhman Singh Gill, who won the Conservative Abbotsford-South 91原创 nomination on March 8. 

Also running in the riding are Dharmasena Yakandawela for the NDP, Melissa Snazell for the Green Party and Kevin Gillies for the Liberals. 

De Jong said he isn't worried about splitting the Conservative vote.

"The response I have received in the community from lifelong Conservatives is simply this, that they don't think that split is going to happen, because they don't see very many people supporting a candidate who is unqualified, inexperienced, and received only 15 per cent support from eligible Conservative Party members."

The trade war will be a key issue in the election for de Jong, a former provincial Liberal MLA who served as minister of forests as well as minister of labour and citizens' services, minister of Aboriginal affairs and reconciliation, attorney general, and minister of finance.

De Jong described Abbotsford-South 91原创 as "both economically and geographically on the front lines of an attack from a deranged president of the United States."

"As someone who negotiated with the Americans the last softwood lumber agreement, this is a time for serious discourse and serious decisions," de Jong commented.

"But I'll tell you this, at some point in the next few weeks, we'll stick a big sign up on 0 Avenue and it'll be pointing south, not north. And it'll say, 'Dear Premier Donald, we're having an election in Canada, and you're not invited.' "

De Jong, 60, served as the Abbotsford West MLA under BC United (formerly the Liberals) for 30 years.

He announced in February 2024 that he was retiring from provincial politics. In mid-April, he confirmed he would seek the federal Conservative nomination for the Abbotsford-South 91原创 riding being vacated by retiring long-time MP Ed Fast.

Abbotsford-South 91原创 is a new riding that has been created in the most recent changes to federal electoral districts. A sprawling area, it covers most of 91原创 south of 40 Avenue, and includes all of Aldergrove and Brookswood. In Abbotsford, it includes a significant portion of the downtown area and runs east as far as Sumas Way.