Liberal leader Mark Carney paid a brief visit to White Rock's waterfront Wednesday afternoon as part of a whirlwind day in the Lower Mainland.
Carney 鈥� sandwiching the event into a busy day's campaign schedule, including stops in Victoria and a planned one at a small business in New Westminster 鈥� was taking advantage of sunny weather on the West Coast to shake hands and greet residents.
But while he got to breathe the fresh sea air, sample donuts from a Memorial Park food truck with South Surrey-White Rock Liberal candidate Ernie Klassen, meet White Rock Mayor Megan Knight and members of council and the White Rock Youth Ambassadors, even catch a glimpse of a handful of Conservative supporters with Kerry-Lynne Findlay signs 鈥� as well as shake multiple hands and pose in countless people's cellphone pictures and selfies 鈥� he did miss one treat.
Swarmed by well-wishers, media, security personnel and the merely curious, Carney didn't make it as far as the city's iconic pier.
"You mean I came all this way and I don't get to go on the pier?" he quipped, as handlers guided him up the steps from the head of the pier to Marine Drive.
While few at the waterfront were aware the visit was about to happen, shortly after Carney arrived there were never fewer than 50 people around him at any one time, as he made slow progress in a route that looped around White Rock's Museum and Archives.
Barely 45 minutes after he arrived, Carney's informal motorcade of SUVs was back on the road and on its way to New Westminster.
The afternoon event was a prelude to a rally scheduled for the Cloverdale Agriplex at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
