Gwen O’Mahony, who has failed twice before to win an election
in the Chilliwack area, is trying again.

The health-care advocate with training in biochemistry and
microbiology won the NDP’s nomination in the Chilliwack-Hope
riding against Dennis Adamson and Kathleen Stephany on
Saturday.

“She’s an excellent candidate and she gave a superb speech,”
said BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix after the vote, decided by just
35 out of 84 riding members. “She raised our (the NDP’s) vote
in the last election.”

Dix, who gave a speech to the 200 party faithful who gathered
for the nomination vote and raised $10,000 for her campaign,
noted the NDP hasn’t won before in the riding but said
O’Mahony’s running to win.

With criminology Prof. John Martin running for the B.C.
Conservatives and the Green Party sitting this one out, the
by-election will be a three-way race with votes splitting on
the right rather than the left.

The seat is empty after Liberal Barry Penner resigned in
November after representing the riding for four terms.

The Liberals have yet to name a candidate.

O’Mahony first ran for office in the 2009 B.C. election, losing
to Penner in the Chilliwack-Hope riding.

And she ran unsuccessfully for the federal NDP in
Chilliwack/Fraser Canyon in last year’s federal election,
placing a distant second to Conservative Mark Strahl.

She lives in Chilliwack, where she is raising two nieces, and
has in past served as president of the Abbotsford Rotaract, a
college and career extension of the Rotary Club, and been
involved in community environmental issues.

Voters will also be asked to go to the polls this year in the
Port-Moody Coquitlam riding because Liberal MLA Iain Black also
resigned last year.

The government has yet to set a date for either by-election.

slazaruk@theprovince.com

twitter.com/susanlazaruk

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B.C. NDP select Gwen O’Mahony to lead Chilliwack by-election charge