2005 Candidates (as received from Elections B.C.):
- David Michael Anderson, Moderates
- Malcolm James, New Democratic Party of B.C.
- Hans Mulder, Green Party of BC
- Barry Penner, BC Liberal Party
District Profile:
This Fraser Valley riding runs from the U.S. border in the south to the Garnet Creek drainage in the north, and from the Chilliwack Lake area in the east to the Cultus Lake Provincial Park area in the west. Communities include Harrison Hot Springs, Agassiz and Lindell. This is the least suburban of the Lower Fraser Valley districts, with agriculture (cash crops, dairy and mixed farming) as one of the economic mainstays, along with manufacturing, retail trade and health and social services. The average family income is $57,317 – below the B.C. average – but unemployment, at 8.6 per cent, is around the provincial norm. Though immigrants account for just 14 per cent of the population, there's a diversity of ethnicities here: Sixteen per cent of residents are of Dutch extraction, while 12 per cent are German. Aboriginal people make up another 8 per cent.
Political History:
The incumbent in Chilliwack-Kent is Liberal Barry Penner, who in 2001 polled nearly 75 per cent of the total vote, defeating New Democrat Malcolm James by an approximately 6-to-1 margin. Penner had come to office in 1996 by beating Rollie Keith of the New Democrats by more than 3,000 votes. The then-incumbent, Robert Chisholm, finished third. Chisholm had run as an independent; he'd been elected in 1991 as a Liberal (unseating incumbent John Jansen of the Social Credit Party) but subsequently lost the nomination to Penner. Socreds William Kiernan, Harvey Schroeder and Jansen dominated this riding between 1952 and 1991.
In 2001, voter turnout in Chilliwack-Kent was 71.6 per cent – just above the provincial average.
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