A former B.C. solicitor-general is vying for a seat on Richmond city council in the fall election, but he’s not ruling out running for mayor one day.
Kash Heed told the Richmond News a group of “influential” community members approached him last year to run for mayor in the Oct. 15 election.
Beating the current mayor, Malcolm Brodie, however, would be an “uphill battle,” Heed said, so instead he is now running for city councillor position.
But he said running for mayor might be something he'd consider in the future.
Heed has teamed up with former long-time city councillor Derek Dang, to form the Richmond Rise slate.
His motivation to run for city council is to improve how things are done at city hall, which he thinks suffers from “stagnation,” he told the News.
He also said he doesn’t like the bickering at city council, and the divisive nature of Richmond city hall politics and of politics at other levels of government.
“We’re not doing things for the right reasons,” Heed said. “We seem to be doing things based on how buried you are in your own ideology. That’s not necessarily serving the residents of Richmond, the businesses in Richmond, and, of course, the people that do visit Richmond.”
In its press release, Richmond Rise cites “good governance” as one of its four priorities. The others are public safety, seniors living and housing.
Before being elected MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview in 2009 as a BC LIberal and serving as the province’s solicitor-general, Heed worked with the drug and gang unit with the Vancouver Police Department and then headed the West Vancouver Police as chief constable.
As a former police officer and former solicitor-general, Heed said he’d like more accountability from the RCMP. Although he doesn’t have a problem keeping the RCMP, he said control should be local, not in Ottawa.
Only one challenger so far to long-time incumbent mayor
Currently, the only declared candidate challenging Brodie is John Roston with RITE Richmond. Roston ran in the by-election in May 2021 to replace Kelly Greene. At that time, he ran as an independnt.
There are six slates so far running candidates in the Oct. 15 election.
Richmond Rise and Richmond United are both new slates.
Meanwhile, the long-standing Richmond First no longer exists, with Coun. Bill McNulty, one of its driving forces, saying it “served its purpose.”
Dang, who's running with Heed under the Richmond Rise banner, previously ran with Richmond First as did Couns. Linda McPhail and Andy Hobbs who are now part of Richmond United.
McNulty said he hasn’t decided whether he’s running with another group or independently in the Oct. 15 election.
The municipal election takes place Oct. 15 when a mayor, eight councillors and seven trustees will be elected.
Candidates must file their paperwork between Aug. 30 and Sept. 9 (at 4 p.m.) At that point, the candidate list will be finalized.
For information about the election, go to Richmond.ca/Elections.
City council candidates
Richmond Rise
- Kash Heed (former BC Liberal MLA)
- Derek Dang (formerly Richmond First)
Richmond United
- Andy Hobbs (formerly Richmond First)
- Linda McPhail (formerly Richmond First)
- Melissa Zhang (formerly Richmond Community Coalition)
- Eric Yung (formerly Richmond First)
The Richmond Citizens’ Association (RCA)
- Jack Trovato
- Keefer Pelech
- Mark Lee
- Fipe Wong
Richmond Community Coalition
- Chak Au
- Sheldon Starrett
RITE Richmond
- Carol Day
- Michael Wolfe
- Laura Gillanders
- Jerome Dickey
Independents
- Bill McNulty (formerly Richmond First; told
News hasn’t decided if running with a group)
- Alexa Loo
- Evan Dunfee
Mayoral candidates
- Malcolm Brodie (independent)
- John Roston (RITE)
School board candidates
Richmond United
- Donna Sargent (formerly Richmond First)
Richmond Education Party
- Ken Hamaguchi
- Debbie Tablotney
- Heather Larson
- Chris Dinnell
- Andrew Scallion
- David Yang
Richmond Community Coalition
- Alice Wong
- Linda Li
- Rachel Ling
**Lists include candidates who’ve declared they’re running to this point
