SURREY - Surrey mayoral candidate john Edwards has revealed his election platform.
"I want to be part of the debate," said Edwards, who has lived in Surrey since 1994.The independent candidate announced his five-point platform at Eaglequest Coyote Creek Gold Course on Friday (Sept. 26).The Newton resident touched on transportation, public safety, disaster relief, vehicular emissions, tourism and job creation, and council accountability.Edwards told a small group of reporters that he would like to see a Surrey World Trade Centre built in Cloverdale "to increase regional, national and global opportunities for our local businesses and create job opportunities.""All great cities have a convention centre," he said. "I don't believe we can go much longer without having a convention centre. If we don't build it, and we have to build it down the road we're going to have to pay much more money for it, for one thing, and we might be missing good business opportunities."Edwards said the price tag for this would be about $30 million and could be built on city land.Edwards has been president of the Rotary Club of Surrey and member of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society, American College of Healthcare Executives, American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and other organizations. He was rained as a registered nurse and psychiatric nurse in England.In 1984, Edwards sought federal political office in Mission-Port Moody but was defeated by Gerry St. Germain.tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com