And then there were six.
Dan Coulter resigned from his position on the Chilliwack school board on Tuesday, Nov. 24, just hours after being sworn in as the newest Chilliwack MLA. A statement regarding his resignation was read at board meeting, by board chair Willow Reichelt.
Coulter was among 57 NDP MLAs to be sworn in by Premier John Horgan, and his resignation was announced at the Chilliwack board meeting later in the evening.
Now that he has resigned, a byelection will be triggered for his seat. School board byelections are under the purview of the City of Chilliwack and the municipality will have 30 days to hire an chief elections officer.
The byelection must be held within 80 days of that hire.
Chilliwack school board byelections generally have very low turnouts. For example, just 2.3 per cent of eligible Chilliwack voters turned out in 2013’s byelection, and in 2015, the winner of the byelection earned just over 800 votes.
Coulter said he will be using the constituency office on Airport Road that was used by previous Liberal MLA John Martin, and will be working out of that office in the near future.
“I’m just looking forward to getting to work as the MLA in Chilliwack,” he told The Progress earlier in the week. “I’m really excited about that.”
He said his main goal will be doing outreach into the community to find out what people want from their government locally. He first elected as a school trustee in Chilliwack through a byelection seven years ago.
“It was a great seven years,” he said. “All the folks I got to meet in the school community, they’ve all been wonderful to me, and very understanding and very generous with their time and knowledge. Everyone in this school distirct are top notch wonderful people.
“I was very happy to be a trustee in this district,” he said.
READ MORE: NDP’s Dan Coulter elected in Chilliwack riding
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