Friday - Nov. 15, 2024 - By-election announced for Cloverdale-Langley City

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Good morning!

I am so grateful to be a journalist at The Current for many reasons: the flexible hours, the decent boss, the freedom to write stories I find interesting. But I think the biggest reason I love this publication is because our readers—all you folks getting this email—are thoughtful consumers of media, and overwhelmingly decent people.

When we published yesterday’s story about train fatalities in the Fraser Valley, I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of responses it would get. In a traditional media organization, you would be all but guaranteed some harsh or insensitive comments about the issue or the story. Instead, we received thoughtful emails from readers sharing their own personal grief or experiences with trains.

To those who emailed, thank you for sharing your stories with us. And to everyone else, thank you for being the sort of people we need more of on the internet.

– Grace

P.S. Our reader survey is still ongoing, because we want to learn more about all of you. One respondent will get a $100 gift card to Field House Brewing. You can take the survey here.

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Canada’s deadliest rail communities

Nearly 4,000 people have died on Canada’s train tracks over the last four decades. And just five cities—Toronto, Montreal, London, Winnipeg, and Chilliwack—account for more than 330 of the deaths.

Although cities with the highest number of train fatalities were predominantly large and urban, some comparatively small communities—including Chilliwack, Kamloops, and Dorval, Que.—also experienced dozens of deaths in the last 40 years, according to The Current’s analysis of Transportation Safety Board data.

The number of rail deaths has been declining since the 1990s, thanks in part to better crossing protections on the tracks. But experts say it will take both social and infrastructure changes to further reduce rail fatalities and better protect the vulnerable communities that frequently live closest to Canada’s increasingly busy rail lines.

• Today, Grace analyzes 40 years of train fatality data, and writes about where people are dying, what railways and communities are doing to try to reduce fatalities, and what experts say needs to happen to further improve safety along Canada’s rail corridors.

• Tomorrow, Insider members can listen to Grace and Tyler talk about the series, the train fatality data, and the process of putting together the story. Become a member here.

If you read yesterday’s train story before 9am, you may have missed some of the interactive data. (Our website didn’t load it properly right away.) You can find our interactive dataset on Fraser Valley fatalities here. You can see the national data set here. Both work best on desktop.

Related

Need to Know

⚠ A rockslide closed Highway 7 between Hope and Ruby Creek; an update isn’t expected until Friday at noon [DriveBC]

👉 Thursday marked the third anniversary of the Fraser Valley floods; Abbotsford’s mayor noted that although most recovery work is complete, there are still some repairs to go [City of Abbotsford] / You can read all of The Current’s flood coverage here [FVC]

🐻 Boothroyd Indian Band hosted a tour of its lands that are still recovering from fires and floods [First Nations Health Authority]

🚒 Two people were sent to hospital after a home in the Chilliwack River Valley caught fire Wednesday afternoon [CityNews]

🚓 RCMP are still looking for a woman who is facing charges related to a Mission road rage incident in September [Mission Record]

🎳 The building housing Galaxy Bowl, Abbotsford's only bowling alley, has been listed for sale for $7.5 million; the listing focuses on the property's long-term development potential [Realtor.ca]

🚔 Hope RCMP are warning residents to not leave valuables in their vehicles after a recent increase in theft [Hope Standard]

💉 Health Canada has given the thumbs up to three vaccines that could be used to combat bird flu; there are currently no indications the virus would spark a pandemic [Fraser Valley Today]

📽 A Vancouver location scout shares how to get your house into a movie [Vancouver Sun]

📸 RCMP across Canada are rolling out body cameras this month [Global]

🚧 Metro Vancouver is building a giant tunnel from Surrey to New Westminster; the tunnel will help ensure the region’s water supply can keep up with demand [Vancouver Sun]

The Agenda

Cloverdale-Langley City to choose new MP in December

After six months without a sitting member of parliament, residents in the Cloverdale-Langley City riding will be able to vote for their chosen representative this coming December.

Former Liberal MP John Aldag resigned from his position in May to run as a BC NDP candidate in Langley-Abbotsford during the fall provincial election. (Aldag did not win a seat in the legislature.) Now his seat will be filled in a by-election on Monday, Dec. 16.

So far, three candidates have been announced for the riding: the NDP’s Vanessa Sharma, Liberal Madison Fleischer, and former Conservative MP Tamara Jansen.

Jansen previously held the riding before losing to Aldag in 2021. She was last elected to parliament in 2019, beating Aldag with 37.7% of the vote. She lost her seat in the 2021 election by 1,660 votes. She had been subject to controversy earlier that year for her use of a Bible quote during a debate on conversion therapy, for a statement about “lesbian activity,” and for blocking some of her constituents on social media.

Sharma is a newcomer to the area’s political scene. She is an equity vice-president at Canadian Labour of Congress, a union advocacy group and labour organization. She also works for FortisBC doing community engagement.

With Aldag gone, Fleischer, a local business owner, will be tasked with retaining the seat for the Liberals. Fleischer runs a public relations firm, and was named Surrey’s Top 25 Under 25 in 2023 for her Slava Sweatshirts project, which helped provide financial assistance to people in Ukraine.

The by-election will take place on Dec. 16, with advance voting available from Dec. 6 to 9 between 9am and 9pm. People can also vote in-person at the Elections Canada office now, or vote by mail if you apply before Dec. 10. Details on how to vote are available here.

Electors can register to vote in advance, although it is not mandatory. Details on polling stations will be available after Nov. 19.

Whoever ends up in Parliament will have to immediately think about their next campaign; the next full federal election is set to take place in the fall of next year.

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🗓 Things to do

Symphony: Fraser Valley Symphony Concert opens its 2024-2025 season on Sunday at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium in Abbotsford. The first concert features music by Rossini, Rachmaninov, and Beethoven. Doors open at 2:30pm, concert begins at 3pm. Details and tickets online.

Comedy: Jokers Canada brings a line up of professional comics to The Clarke Theatre on Saturday at 7:30pm. Comedians include: Patrick Maliha, who has the world record for the most impersonations in a minute; Syd Bosel from Canada's Got Talent; Myles Anderson from CBC's The Debaters; and more. Details and tickets online.

Hockey: The Chilliwack Jets host the Langley Trappers at the Sardis Sports Complex on Sunday starting at 5:30pm. Details online.

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Catch up

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