A business associate and former campaign manager for Township mayoralty contender Rick Green created the website for the Langley “Unelection campaign” that aims to unseat incumbent mayor Jack Froese and other members of council.
Ian Cameron, a long-time friend and business associate of Green, told The Times he accepted the volunteer assignment before Green announced his candidacy.
“I had no idea Rick was running,” Cameron said on Thursday (Nov. 6).
The website for Rick Green Associates lists Cameron as an “Associate, Marketing.”
Green told The Times that he suggested Cameron when he was asked if he knew anyone who could build a website for the Unelection campaign.
“I had numerous calls from people asking advice,” Green told The Times.
“[Asking] ‘did you know somebody who can help us out with the website?’ and I said yeah, I know a friend.”
Green said Cameron also built the Rick Green Associates website.
Unelection campaign spokesperson Andy Schildhorn said Cameron agreed to build the www.unelectioncampaign.ca site about six months ago.
“It was done for free,” Schildhorn said.
“I didn’t even know who Ian Cameron was [when he agreed to do the work].”
In response to a Times query, Schildhorn said the group wasn’t working with any of the municipal contenders.
“We have no candidates in our group,” Schildhorn said, adding “there is no conspiracy here.”
Green said Cameron was his campaign manager in 2008, when he won election as Township mayor, but not this year.
Green described Cameron as an “old friend” and long-time business associate.
“We go back to my food industry days,” Green said, adding “there’s absolutely no connection with me [and the Unelection Campaign] … there’s no smoking gun.”
The Unelection Campaign launched its website in August, with four identified members; Schildhorn, Lee Lockwood, Anna R. (who refuses to give her last name) and Bob Duncan.
Schildhorn was part of a committee that filed and won a lawsuit against Langley Township’s approval of the Coulter Berry building in Fort Langley. The decision was overturned, and the building is under construction.
Lockwood, an Aldergrove resident, has been involved in a number rural and transportation issues.
Duncan was part of a campaign against the Athenry Development multifamily residential development near to Willoughby Hall on 208 Street.
“Anna R.” was among the Brookswood and Fernridge residents who fought against a proposed Official Community Plan for the area that would have allowed increased housing density in some areas.
The Unelection Campaign sponsored a well-attended all-candidates meeting on Friday. The Times will publish a report from that meeting in Thursday’s paper.
The campaign website gives Mayor Jack Froese and Councillors Grant Ward, Charlie Fox, Bev Dornan and Steve Ferguson “Fs” and recommends against re-electing them.
Councillors Michelle Sparrow and Bob Long received “C-” marks, with cautious re-election endorsements, while Councillors Kim Richter and David Davis received “Bs.”
The website has not, as yet, rated non-incumbent candidates like Green, who served one term as mayor before his defeat by Froese.