In the latest high-profile NDP campaign stop in Langley, Adrian Dix, who served as health minister, visited with local candidates to talk health and hospitals on Thursday morning.
Standing across the street from Langley Memorial Hospital, Dix spoke about upgrades underway on LMH, about the new Langley Hospice Society facility, and the new MRI clinic, all under construction.
He also promised that more local health resources would be on the way soon, speaking specifically about urgent and primary care centres in Fraser Health and the local area.
“I think we’re going to see those kind of services established as well in the next year.”
He also praised local groups for laying the groundwork for expansions.
“We have an extraordinary hospital foundation here which did a lot of work in advance,” Dix said. The foundation raised millions for the ER expansion.
Dix the Liberals, saying they had not put enough health resources in the fast-growing community when they were in power from 2001 to 2017.
The visit came just a day after NDP leader John Horgan made his second campaign stop in Langley.
Although the Langley-area ridings have long been Liberal strongholds, going back to the early 1990s, the NDP has indicated they believe they can potentially win them this time.
Horgan also spent time in Richmond and Abbotsford on Thursday, two other areas held largely by the Liberal party in recent years.
Dix expressed support for local candidates Megan Dykeman (Langley East) and Andrew Mercier (Langley).
Mercier expanded on Dix’s theme, saying that the Liberals represented the area for 20 years, but the NDP broke ground on the ER upgrade.
Dykeman spoke about the impact of the Langley Hospice.
“My mother passed away there a few years ago,” she said.
The expanded hospice facility, now under construction, will give more options for end of life care locally, she said.
Mercier is going up against incumbent Liberal candidate Mary Polak as well as Green Bill Masse and Conservative Shelly Jan, while Dykeman, the chair of the Langley Board of Education, is facing another local politician in Liberal Margaret Kunst, Green Cheryl Wiens, Conservative Ryan Warawa, Libertarian Alex Joehl and independent Tara Reeve.
