Former long-time Abbotsford councillor and two-term MLA Simon Gibson has announced his intention to run in the upcoming municipal election.
Gibson announced in a press release that he will seek a seat as a city councillor in the election on Oct. 15.
Gibson sat on Abbotsford city council for more than 20 years and resigned in January 2014 after being elected as Liberal MLA for Abbotsford-Mission in May 2013.
Council then operated with seven councillors until the next civic election in November of that year.
During his term as an MLA from 2013 to 2020, Gibson served on the treasury board and finance and public accounts committees. He was also a deputy speaker and a parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Education.
He was narrowly defeated by former Mission mayor Pam Alexis, who had 10,364 votes to his 9,620, in one of the closest races in the 2020 provincial election.
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Gibson said he believes he has the experience and knowledge to be a “productive and active member” of council.
“My legislative experience will be useful to council as the city requires ongoing support from the province on various projects and initiatives.”
Gibson said he has the time available to participate fully in council’s work because he is retired, although he continues to teach part-time in the School of Business at Trinity Western University (TWU).
He previously taught at both TWU and University of the Fraser Valley for a total of 16 years. He was the former marketing manager for a precursor credit union to Coast Capital for eight years.
Gibson a graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa, the University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University.
He is married to Joy, a retired Abbotsford elementary school teacher, and they have two daughters and three grandsons.
He enjoys long-distance running, cycling and creative writing.
Gibson said anyone wanting to reach him can do so by phoning or texting 236-509-3340.
He becomes the eighth person to announce their intention to seek a council seat. He joins incumbents Dave Sidhu and Les Barkman, as well as Dao Tran, Tom Norton, Bharathi Sandhu, Steve Pimm and Alex Mitchell.
Current councillor Ross Siemens is so far the only one to announce he is running for the mayor’s seat, which is being vacated by Henry Braun, who is not seeking re-election.
vhopes@abbynews.com
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