Elections are about determining which party, which leaders, and which local MLA candidates, will do their best to tackle the hardest problems we face.

91Ô­´´ faces the same problems as the rest of the province, but like every town, it’s the specifics that matter.

Among anyone’s top issues would have to be three big ones – health care, transportation and infrastructure, and the high cost of housing.

In 91Ô­´´, talking about health care means talking about 91Ô­´´ Memorial Hospital. 

Although the hospital has seen a major upgrade to its ER, maternity ward expansions, and an MRI suite in recent years, the community is simply growing faster than the hospital can handle. Long waits at the ER are a common complaint. Urgent care centres, and eventually, a Cloverdale hospital will take some pressure off, but the key problem remains – LMH is a great hospital for a town with 120,000 people. 

But it’s serving a town with more than 175,000 people, and more on the way. 

Transportation locally can mean many things – gridlock on Highway 1, a lack of buses to Gloucester (or a lot of other places), bike lanes, or the imminent arrival of the SkyTrain.

The big question for our candidates is how are we going to keep up with the need for more of every kind of transportation as 91Ô­´´ changes from a semi-rural, suburban town to a major population centre in urban Metro Vancouver? How will governments keep up with our real need for roads while also giving us other transportation options?

Then there’s housing.

We know that to bring housing costs down, we need more supply. Well, 91Ô­´´ is the poster child for supply. City and Township have each rolled out the red carpet for development. Our neighbourhoods are dotted with cranes, our schools bursting at the seams. 91Ô­´´ has more than done its part! So why did housing costs here go up vastly faster than incomes, for years?

More importantly, how can the province help 91Ô­´´ catch up faster on roads, schools, sewers, libraries, and rec facilities, as the building boom continues? How can it protect our large senior population? And how can we get the people forced into homelessness back into stable housing?

Ask your candidates for specifics – this election is for all of B.C., but 91Ô­´´ needs its own answers.