Summary: Spanning both the Lower Mainland and the Interior, this area has elected members of the Strahl family for 22 years.
Boundaries: A riding separating the Lower Mainland from the Interior of the province, Chilliwack-Hope was carved out of the southern half of the former Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon riding. It includes Chilliwack and Hope, along with the rural areas between the two municipalities south of the Fraser River. The riding has lost the towns north of Hope on Highway 1 from Yale to Cache Creek.
Last Election: Conservative candidate Mark Strahl was elected by 31.4 per cent over the NDP candidate Gwen O’Mahony, succeeding his father Chuck as the MP for the region.
History: The region has elected right-wing candidates in general elections, federally and provincially, for decades.
Candidates
Conservative: Mark Strahl, MP since 2011
NDP: Seonaigh MacPherson, the head of Adult Education at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Liberal: Louis De Jaeger, entrepreneur and aboriginal leader in the region
Green: Thomas Cheney, a master’s student specializing in Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Northern British Columbia
Libertarian: Alexander Johnson
Marxist-Leninist: Dorothy-Jean O’Donnell