Surrey city councillor Marvin Hunt leaves behind civic politics to run for BC Liberals in Panorama-Ridge, the riding Sukh Dhaliwal was forced to vacate due to his tax troubles.
SURREY – It took convincing from former Liberal MP and former BC Liberal candidate Sukh Dhaliwal to get Marvin Hunt, a long time city councillor leave civic politics and become the BC Liberal candidate in Panorama-Ridge, the riding Sukh Dhaliwal was forced to vacate due to his tax troubles.
“Sukh Dhaliwal came to my house on Monday night and spoke to my wife Ruth and myself, and convinced her to encourage me to run. He is very supportive,” Hunt told The LINK on Friday. “I’m excited, everyone has been very supportive. I’ve had a flood of emails and phone calls from my fellow councillors Tom Gill and Barinder Rasode.”
Hunt says it’ll be a learning curve but his involvement provincially on the executive at UBCM, provincial issues are a familiar challenge to him.
“I will continue as City Councillor as we are able to run provincially and federally while in council positions. The Mayor of Nanaimo did this for a number of years as both an MLA and Mayor,” Hunt said “If I’m elected it is up to the council to vote on what will happen then, but until then I will continue to do my duty on council.”
He told News 1130 it wasn’t his idea to jump in provincial politics. “It was actually Sukh himself. Sukh himself came and asked me and it was a painful process working through that because I love being a councillor and I love the work that I do.”
The announcement comes on the heels of an ethnic vote scandal scarring the BC Liberals, but Hunt insists he’s up for the challenges ahead.
“Well, the simple reality is when is a good time? But the reality is, is that we have a challenge ahead of us, one of those ones that I’m willing to step up and say ‘let’s get working on this and let’s see what creative solutions we can come up with.’”
Marvin Hunt was first elected to Surrey City Council in 1988, and has lived in Surrey for 30 years. He also sits on the Board of Directors at Metro Vancouver.
