This might be John Sherry’s first crack at politics, but the B.C. Conservatives Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA candidate said he has worked for years to build the party from the ground up to present a viable alternative to the NDP and B.C. Liberals and he doesn’t mince words about why he chose to run.
“It finally got to the point where I couldn’t look at my children and say, ‘It’s OK, they’re not the NDP,” Sherry said. “So, being a former B.C. Liberal supporter, I knew that we had to get back to good government. I hadn’t seen that from any party in the last 20-plus years I’ve been able to vote, so I’ve put my money where my mouth is and instead of being an armchair quarterback I want to take a leadership position and see if we can build a viable alternative.”
Sherry, 40, was raised in the Cowichan Valley. He has been branch manager for an environmental services company, an investment portfolio manager and co-business developer for a Calgary-based real estate firm. He currently works for concrete products manufacturer Expocrete and maintains his real estate consulting business.
Sherry said his riding has some of highest unemployment numbers in B.C. Dozens of his friends and their families have moved to Alberta for work. High-paying jobs must be brought to the region and combined with an education system to provide workers with a future where young people can establish themselves locally.
Sherry is against raising corporate taxes and wants to see B.C. Hydro rate increases reversed. Both, he said, are job killers.
If elected, Sherry said, he wants to restore government accountability by carrying the voice of constituents to the legislature. The B.C. Conservatives do not believe in a whipped vote – the will of constituents trumps that of the party.
“There may be times where I will have to vote against my own party in the legislature to best represent the will of the constituents,” he said. “That’s just the way it has to be.”
For more information, please visit http://johnsherry.ca or e-mail info@johnsherry.ca.
Also running in Nanaimo-North Cowichan are Doug Routley (NDP), Amanda Jacobson (B.C. Liberal) and Mayo McDonough (Green).