Local Liberal candidate Mandeep Bhuller got caught driving drunk almost eight years ago, after serving a term on the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board.
This comes up now as media across the country are reporting it in the wake of the federal Liberal party dropping a candidate in northern Quebec who had founded a white supremacist group and made derogatory remarks about aboriginals. A Conservative candidate was also forced to step down this past week over money owed on taxes.
Bhuller contested the drunk driving change, but was found guilty in 2005. He was fined $800 and suspended for driving for a year.
Bhuller, who has spina bifida, is confined to a wheel chair and no longer able to drive, has since used his mistake as a teaching tool when counselling youths.
The Liberal party was aware of his conviction when he was nominated as the party’s candidate in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission and stands behind that selection.
Bhuller has paid the price for his mistake and made efforts to atone for it.
The fact it comes up now, during the campaign, should come as no surprise to him, and he’s not hiding from it, making no excuses.
He has chosen to be a part of public life, knowing full well what comes with that, sacrificing the privacy afforded to others who are not.
Fortunately, his mistake only hurt him.
It also showed poor judgement, which some will suggest makes him unqualified to be making important decisions for others.
That is now up to voters to decide, regardless of how long ago Bhuller made his mistake, or what he has done since.
That is what he has to live with.
– Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News
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