Eagle Ridge Hospital, Port Moody · Photo: Arnold C, via Wikimedia Commons
EDITORIAL · COQUITLAM-MAILLARDVILLE · THE RACE FOR THE SEAT
Waiting for care in Coquitlam-Maillardville: Jennifer Blatherwick or Matt Liang?
Coquitlam-Maillardville chooses between Jennifer Blatherwick, the BC NDP MLA and a former two-term school trustee, and Matt Liang, a former deputy sheriff and child care counsellor running for the Conservatives. Both put health care first: her campaign promises more doctors, and he says diagnostic waits have doubled. Eagle Ridge Hospital, the Tri-Cities’ own, still has no MRI, and both parties have promised one. 338Canada projects a seven-point race. Here is where they stand, and why, in our view, the record favours Liang.
Coquitlam-Maillardville 338: NDP leaning
Matt LiangConservative · former deputy sheriff
Jennifer BlatherwickBC NDP · incumbent, MLA since 2024
The clause below is four sentences long. It comes from Bill M219, a private member’s bill tabled in October 2025 by Anna Kindy, the Conservative MLA for North Island. If it had passed, every health authority in B.C. would have had to tell a seriously ill patient when their care would come later than a doctor says it should. The highlights are ours.1
Bill M219, Health Authorities Amendment Act, 2025First reading, 30 October 2025 · section 19.03, “Notice when timely care unavailable”
(1) If a board determines under 19.02 that a patient will not receive health services to treat or detect a serious medical condition within the medically recommended time period, the board must, as soon as reasonably practicable provide notice to the patient.
(2) Notice under subsection (1) must include the following information:
- (a) the health services recommended in relation to the patient’s serious medical condition;
- (b) the medically recommended time period within which the patient should receive the health services;
- (c) the expected time period within which the patient will receive the health services;
- (d) the options if any, that are available to the patient for obtaining equivalent health services outside of the board’s region.
The notice section of Bill M219. The bill would also have required health authorities to report patients who died waiting for care.1
On 1 December 2025 Jennifer Blatherwick, the BC NDP MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville, rose to speak to it. She told the House: “Waits to see specialists continue to be a concern.” Then she argued against the bill. The next afternoon the House voted it down, 48 to 43, and she was one of the 48.23
On 24 October Coquitlam-Maillardville chooses between her and Matt Liang, a former deputy sheriff running for the Conservatives, who says the waits she called a concern have doubled. 338Canada projects the two of them seven points apart.45
Matt Liang
Conservative Party of BC candidate, Coquitlam-Maillardville
- Work
- Deputy sheriff; child care counsellor; health and safety facilitator for the BC Public Service and the BCGEU
- Volunteer
- Special Olympics BC, the Share Society food bank, the RCMP, St. Paul’s Advocacy Office
- On wait times
- “For those requiring surgery or diagnostic care such as MRIs and CT scans, wait times have doubled under the NDP”
Portrait: Conservative Party of BC
Jennifer Blatherwick
BC NDP MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville since 2024
- Office
- Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity
- Before
- Two terms as a School District 43 trustee; executive director of the Access Youth Outreach Services Society
- On wait times
- “Waits to see specialists continue to be a concern.”
Portrait: BC NDP
Where Matt Liang and Jennifer Blatherwick stand, in their own words and records.
Before the argument, the comparison. Both candidates were asked to make their case to the same riding, and both put health care first.
Health care and waits
An MRI for Eagle Ridge Hospital
Record and background
01 Matt Liang has spent his working life in public service, as a deputy sheriff, a child care counsellor and a workplace safety facilitator.
His party describes a career spent in the public service: “He has served as a Deputy Sheriff, worked with young people as a Child Care Counsellor, and helped keep workplaces safe as a health and safety facilitator for the BC Public Service and the BC General Employees’ Union.”8
His volunteer work runs the same way. “He has volunteered with Special Olympics BC, the Share Society food bank, the RCMP and St. Paul’s Advocacy Office, supporting people with disabilities, vulnerable individuals, youth and those experiencing poverty.”8
“Matt believes strong communities are built through service, personal responsibility, compassion and people working together to find practical solutions.”
His public record is thin, and we will not pad it. He has no previous run for office on record, we found no campaign website or public social media account of his own, and his campaign’s public statements so far are the party’s.1011 In our view, that is what a new candidate looks like. A former deputy sheriff, a children’s counsellor and a public-service safety officer would bring Victoria something it is short of: someone who has worked the front line of the services the government runs.
02 Matt Liang says the waits for scans have doubled, and Eagle Ridge Hospital still has no MRI after nine years of NDP government.
Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody is the Tri-Cities’ own hospital, and it has never had an MRI machine. On 14 October the Conservative candidates in the Tri-Cities committed that a Conservative government would deliver one, and Liang put the case this way.4
“For those requiring surgery or diagnostic care such as MRIs and CT scans, wait times have doubled under the NDP.”
“After leaving our health care system in chaos and doubling wait times for diagnostic care, David Eby cannot be trusted to deliver the health care British Columbians need.”
Eight days earlier Premier David Eby had come to Town Centre Park in Coquitlam with his own promise. The Tri-Cities Dispatch reported it plainly: “The province has plans to buy eight MRI machines including one earmarked for Eagle Ridge Hospital, but not until after the election.”7
“If we’re successful in the election, we’ll be ordering the machine right away.”
Samantha Agtarap, a Port Moody city councillor, had already written to the paper about what the gap means: patients sent off-site for scans, sometimes with a nurse along. “In a time where we are already experiencing staff shortages, this seems like a ridiculous situation – and an unnecessary financial and human burden,” she wrote.7
In our view, the order matters. Eby’s government has had nine years to buy Eagle Ridge a scanner, and it is offering one now on the condition that it is re-elected. Liang’s party has made the same promise, and it has not had nine years to break it.
03 Jennifer Blatherwick told the House that waits are a concern, then argued against telling patients how long theirs would be.
Blatherwick did not dismiss the problem. She made a real argument: that doctors’ time is the scarce thing, and that every new form takes some of it away from patients.2
Waits to see specialists continue to be a concern.
If we add a process that doesn’t free up more time for physicians to see patients but adds more bureaucratic time, that’s a problem.
This bill would create hundreds of millions of dollars per year across the system in costs if it’s passed, without creating additional better patient outcomes. It’ll create two-tier care.
Political responses are not health care responses.
Anna Kindy closed the debate with the line the bill was written around: “No one in British Columbia should die waiting for care without being empowered with information.”2
In our view, Blatherwick’s argument looks after the system and forgets the patient. A person told they need care for a serious condition is owed two numbers: how long a doctor says they should wait, and how long they will wait. Giving them those numbers costs a letter. Withholding them costs the patient the chance to look for care somewhere else while there is still time.3
04 She voted for the budget that raised the lowest income-tax rate, and she has never once voted against her party.
Budget 2026 raised the income-tax rate on the first slice of every British Columbian’s income, the slice everyone pays on. The enabling bill, Bill 2, made the change in one line.12
Bill 2, Budget Measures Implementation Act, 2026Clause 37, amending the Income Tax Act
Section 4.1 (1) (a) of the Income Tax Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 215, is amended by striking out “5.06%” and substituting “5.6%”.
The same bill put provincial sales tax on accounting, architectural, engineering, non-residential real estate and security services. In fairness, it also raised the BC tax reduction credit for the lowest earners, from $436 to $690. Global News reported that government staff expect 60 per cent of tax filers to pay more, by $76 on average, in a budget that forecast a record $13.3 billion deficit.1213
On 1 April the House split 46 to 46 on Bill 2 at third reading, and the Speaker’s casting vote passed it. Jennifer Blatherwick was one of the 46 who voted for it.14
That is her pattern. Across the recorded divisions of this Parliament she was present for all 105 of them, and BC Ballot’s count of her record finds that she broke with her party on none.15 In our view, an MLA from a riding this close should have at least one vote she can point to and say she cast it for Coquitlam-Maillardville and not for the government. We could not find one.
05 Jennifer Blatherwick answers the people who write to her online, and she deserves the credit for it.
This site has spent the campaign documenting NDP candidates who shut out voters online. Blatherwick is not one of them. Her comments were open on every campaign post we read.16 In our read of the 41 BC NDP MLAs running again, she was one of only two to earn an A: she posted in her own words, and when a constituent asked whether the local winter shelter would run again this year, she answered.17
We say so because it is true, and because it sharpens the point. The case against Jennifer Blatherwick is not about her manners. She is a former school trustee who answers her messages. The case is about her votes: for the tax rise, against telling patients their wait, and never once against her party.143
“Waits to see specialists continue to be a concern.” She spoke and voted against Bill M219, which would have told patients when their wait ran past the medical limit.23
“For those requiring surgery or diagnostic care such as MRIs and CT scans, wait times have doubled under the NDP.”4
Her government has never put an MRI at Eagle Ridge. Her leader promises to order one if they are re-elected.7
He stood with the Tri-Cities Conservatives on 14 October when they committed to a new MRI machine at Eagle Ridge.4
06 Coquitlam-Maillardville is within reach, and Matt Liang is the only challenger close enough to take it.
338Canada, which turns the published polls into a projection for every riding, rates Coquitlam-Maillardville “NDP leaning.” Its update of 16 October puts the BC NDP at 49% and the Conservatives at 42%. Its margins overlap: eight points either way for the NDP and seven for the Conservatives.5
Coquitlam-Maillardville, projected vote
338Canada, update of 16 October 2026. Bars show the projection; the thin lines show its margin either way.5
0%35%70%
Nicola Spurling, the BC Green candidate, is projected at 9%. She is the only other name on the ballot.5
The last result shows how small the gap is. In 2024 Blatherwick won with 11,972 votes to 9,146 for the Conservative, Hamed Najafi: a margin of 2,826. If 1,414 of her voters had chosen the Conservative instead, the seat would have changed hands. Only 56.9% of the riding’s 40,666 registered voters cast a ballot.18
In our view, Matt Liang is the candidate who can take this seat, and the one who deserves it.
07 Four sentences in a bill asked for a letter to patients. On 24 October Coquitlam-Maillardville answers for itself.
Advance voting runs from 16 to 21 October, and Final Voting Day is 24 October. Any voting place in the province will take your ballot during advance voting, and the district electoral office for Coquitlam-Maillardville is at B-15 King Edward Street in Coquitlam.1918
Section 19.03 asked for very little: a notice telling a seriously ill patient how long a doctor says they should wait, how long they will wait, and where else they could go. Jennifer Blatherwick said the waits are a concern, and voted against sending it.2 Matt Liang has spent his working life in the services the province runs, and he says the waits have doubled.4 In our view, Coquitlam-Maillardville’s waiting rooms deserve the MLA who starts from the patient.
A patient is owed the date. In our view, Matt Liang is the MLA Coquitlam-Maillardville should send to Victoria.
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Both candidates in Coquitlam-Maillardville put health care first. Jennifer Blatherwick’s campaign promises more doctors, and Matt Liang says diagnostic waits have doubled under the NDP.
Jennifer Blatherwick, the BC NDP MLA, told the House in December that “waits to see specialists continue to be a concern.” The next afternoon she voted against Bill M219, which would have told seriously ill patients when their care would come later than a doctor says it should.
Matt Liang, the Conservative candidate, has worked as a deputy sheriff, a child care counsellor and a workplace safety facilitator for the BC Public Service and the BCGEU.
Eagle Ridge Hospital, the Tri-Cities’ own, still has no MRI, and both parties have now promised one. In our view, the record favours Liang.
Advance voting runs until 21 October, and Final Voting Day is 24 October.
🔗 backcountry.cx/editorials/swing-coquitlam-maillardville/
#BCpoli #BCElection #Coquitlam #Maillardville
Sources
- ↩ Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Bill M219, “Health Authorities Amendment Act, 2025,” first reading 30 October 2025, sponsored by Anna Kindy (North Island): Part 2.1, “Transparency in the Provisions of Health Services,” sections 19.02 to 19.04. leg.bc.ca
- ↩ Hansard, 43rd Parliament, 1st Session, Monday 1 December 2025, morning sitting (issue 110), second reading of Bill M219 (continued): the remarks of Jennifer Blatherwick at about 11:00 a.m. and Anna Kindy’s close of debate, quoted here as published. leg.bc.ca
- ↩ Hansard, 43rd Parliament, 1st Session, Tuesday 2 December 2025, afternoon sitting (issue 113): second reading of Bill M219 “negatived on the following division: YEAS — 43 … NAYS — 48,” with Blatherwick among the nays. leg.bc.ca
- ↩ Conservative Party of BC, 14 October 2026, “Conservative Party of BC will build a new middle school in Burke Mountain and invest in a new MRI machine at Eagle Ridge Hospital”: the Tri-Cities candidates’ commitment and the statement attributed to Matt Liang. conservativebc.ca
- ↩ 338Canada, “Coquitlam-Maillardville,” latest update 16 October 2026: rated “NDP leaning”; projected vote BC NDP 49% ± 8%, Conservatives 42% ± 7%, BC Greens 9% ± 5%. Its simulated odds of winning on the same date were BC NDP 85%, Conservatives 15%. It is a projection based on polls, not a poll. 338canada.com
- ↩ Jennifer Blatherwick’s campaign site, “Jennifer Blatherwick and David Eby’s BC NDP team,” read 18 October 2026: her background and “She is focused on making life better for families — hiring more doctors, creating more daycare spots, and building more schools.” bcndp.ca
- ↩ Tri-Cities Dispatch, Jeremy Shepherd, 6 October 2026, “Eagle Ridge Hospital’s first MRI machine is on the ballot, Eby says”: the eight planned MRI machines, the Premier’s words at Town Centre Park, and Coun. Samantha Agtarap’s letter. tricitiesdispatch.com
- ↩ Conservative Party of BC, candidate page, “Matthew Liang,” read 18 October 2026: his career, his volunteer work and the statement of what he believes, quoted here. Portrait from this page. conservativebc.ca
- ↩ Province of British Columbia, “Jennifer Blatherwick, Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity,” and Wikipedia, “Jennifer Blatherwick,” read 18 October 2026: two terms as a School District 43 trustee, past executive director of the Access Youth Outreach Services Society, board service with ACCESS Youth and the Coquitlam Foundation, and the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. gov.bc.ca · wikipedia.org
- ↩ Tri-Cities Dispatch, Jeremy Shepherd, 4 October 2026, “Meet the candidates in Coquitlam-Maillardville”: Blatherwick, Liang and Nicola Spurling; Liang “previously served as a deputy sheriff and a child care counsellor.” BC Ballot’s riding page lists him with “No previous run on record.” tricitiesdispatch.com · bcballot.ca
- ↩ Backcountry Coalition’s search of party and campaign pages, news coverage and web search for Matt (Matthew) Liang, 16 to 18 October 2026: no campaign website or personal public social media account found. The Tri-City News could not be read directly; its pages refused our automated reads, so we relied on search-index copies and other outlets.
- ↩ Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Bill 2, “Budget Measures Implementation Act, 2026,” first reading text: clause 37 (lowest income-tax rate from 5.06% to 5.6%), clause 38 (BC tax reduction credit from $436 to $690), and clauses 82 to 100 (provincial sales tax on accounting, architectural, engineering, non-residential real estate and security services). The Province’s budget tax-changes page applies the 5.6% rate to the first $50,363 of taxable income for 2026. leg.bc.ca · gov.bc.ca
- ↩ Global News, “5 things to know about B.C.’s 2026 budget,” February 2026: the deficit projected at “a record $13.3 billion,” and “government staff saying 60 per cent of tax filers will face higher bills, and the average taxpayer will be hit with a $76 hike.” globalnews.ca
- ↩ Hansard, 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session, Wednesday 1 April 2026, afternoon sitting (issue 146): third reading of Bill 2, “YEAS — 46 … NAYS — 46,” with Blatherwick among the yeas; “the votes being equal, the Chair is required to make a casting vote.” leg.bc.ca
- ↩ BC Ballot, “Jennifer Blatherwick,” read 18 October 2026: “Present for 105 of 105” whole-House recorded divisions in the 43rd Parliament, “0 broke with party.” BC Ballot is an independent tracker built from the Legislative Assembly’s records. bcballot.ca
- ↩ Backcountry Coalition, “The BC NDP say they’re listening and want your vote,” 18 October 2026: Jennifer Blatherwick, “open on all 50 posts read.” backcountry.cx
- ↩ Backcountry Coalition’s read of the public posts and replies of the 41 BC NDP MLAs running again, 22 September to 17 October 2026 (research data): Blatherwick wrote 54 of her 57 campaign items herself, kept replies open on every campaign post read, and answered one constituent’s question with substance, on the local winter shelter. She and one other MLA graded A; 39 graded F. If we could not find it in public, an MLA got no credit for it.
- ↩ Elections BC, 2024 Provincial General Election, Coquitlam-Maillardville, final results as tabulated by BC Ballot and on Wikipedia’s riding page, read 18 October 2026: Jennifer Blatherwick (BC NDP) 11,972 votes, 51.80%; Hamed Najafi (Conservative) 9,146, 39.57%; Nicola Spurling (Green) 1,461, 6.32%; Ken Holowanky (Independent) 535, 2.31%; turnout 56.90% of 40,666 registered voters. BC Ballot also lists the district electoral office. bcballot.ca · wikipedia.org
- ↩ Elections BC, “2026 Provincial Election,” read 18 October 2026: “Final Voting Day is October 24, 2026”; advance voting October 16 to 21, 2026; and the Where to Vote application. elections.bc.ca
Sources were read on 18 October 2026. Words are quoted exactly as published in Hansard, the bills and the cited reports; the highlights are ours. Portraits: Jennifer Blatherwick and David Eby, BC NDP; Matt Liang, Conservative Party of BC; Nicola Spurling, BC Green Party. Photo: Eagle Ridge Hospital, by Arnold C, 2006, via Wikimedia Commons.