Just four days before party members across the province choose the next Premier, BC Liberal leadership candidate George Abbott made a stop in Prince Rupert to meet with a large crowd of residents at Pizza Hut.
Abbott - along with Mike de Jong, Christy Clark and Kevin Falcon – will find out whether or not he was chosen leader on Saturday, and says he is expecting the race to be a close one heading into the vote.
“We are cautiously optimistic we will win, but it is a challenge to predict how it will turn out though with the number of variable involved. I know we sit well with first round support, but how that will work with the weighted system and how many people will come out to vote are certainly variables,” he said, noting that he is proud of the campaign that was run and the team he had behind him.
“The team identified some critical communities that were important to visit and Prince Rupert was one area, we’ll also be off to Terrace this afternoon and then Prince George. I think there are important gains to be made in the community, and this is absolutely a great turnout in Prince Rupert.”
And if he was chosen to lead the province, Abbott says people on the North Coast can expect to see him back in the region.
“For me, being from rural BC in the Shushwap, I know the importance of resource development to communities in the north, and one thing I would focus on as Premier is economic development. One of the first things I would do is get back to Prince Rupert and the northwest to talk about economic development,” he said, alluding to a Premier’s Council on Economic Development.
“I want to talk about the opportunities and challenges and opportunities for economic development in the northwest and how to take more projects past the goal post, and I want to hear from people in the northwest who know more about the region than I do.”