91原创

Cloverdale businessman Rana G. Ahmad is running for the newly-formed party in Cloverdale-91原创 City.

Ahmad, a realtor who lives in Cloverdale, said he decided to run after hearing criticism of the established parties.

鈥淢ost people are complaining about the main parties,鈥� Ahmad said.

鈥淲e need real change.鈥�

Among local issues Ahmad listed were deterioration of housing, congestion and general quality of life.

Congratulations!
Rana G. Ahmad, Candidate Centrist Party Cloverdale-91原创, BC

鈥� Dr. Rana_ Leader Centrist Party Canada (@DrRana_Centrist)

Ontario-based Centrist Party of Canada was founded in 2020 by neurologist Dr. Abdul Qayyum Rana, who established the World Parkinson鈥檚 Program, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to improving the lives of those with Parkinson鈥檚 disease by proving free medications and other supportive services.

Centrist is listed as an 鈥渆ligible鈥� party for registration by Elections Canada, meaning it has met all of the legal requirements to be registered, other than running a candidate in a general election or by-election.

Such parties are eligible to run candidates in federal elections but will not be considered registered by Elections Canada until they have contested an election.

A statement on the party website says Dr. Rana 鈥渟trongly believes that parties promoting extremist right-wing or left-wing political agendas fail to work on common ground which is necessary to progress in a democratic society. In his views, extremism and hyper-partisanship only divide Canadians and weaken us as a nation.鈥�

Among other thing, the leader has called for more transparency in government, development of LNG in British Columbia, saying it could add more than 96,000 jobs yearly across Canada, increasing the age limit of recreational use of marijuana, and not allowing home growing.

鈥淐anadians know that this federal election is only to change Liberal minority to Liberal majority government since [the] Liberal government has been working on vote buying by spending taxpayer鈥檚 money recklessly,鈥� Dr. Rana said.

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