Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam: A quick look at a big riding

Some familiar names will be on the ballot this year, with Liberal incumbent Ron McKinnon running against NDP candidate Laura Dupont and Conservative Party candidate Iain Black.

Black successfully ran for the B.C. Liberals in the riding of Port Moody-Westwood in 2005 and later served as labour minister.

After failing to field a candidate in 2021, the Green Party is back in the riding with Michael Peter Glenister.

Perennial Libertarian candidate Lewis Clarke Dahlby is also on the campaign trail.

Bounded by waterways, the riding encompasses 578 square kilometres and extends north past Disappointment Lake. Heading south, the riding follows Pipeline Road and Johnson Street down to the Fraser River.

2021 results

McKinnon captured 38.5 percent of the vote in 2021, comfortably ahead of Conservative challenger Katerina Anastasiadis, who finished with 30.3 percent.

Dupont, a former Port Coquitlam city councillor, received 26.9 percent of the vote, while People’s Party candidate Kimberly Brundell ended the night with a little more than four percent.

On the campaign trail, McKinnon discussed the value of $10-a-day childcare and defended his party’s governance during the pandemic.

McKinnon charged that a Conservative government: “. . . would’ve left you to fend for yourself and left the economy reeling from massive mortgage defaults and bankruptcies and business failures.”

McKinnon won by more than 4,500 votes in 2021. However, the riding has been competitive in the recent past, with McKinnon winning in 2019 by 390 votes.

Population: 114,460

Electors: 80,748