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Former B.C. housing minister denies rumours he’s eyeing Surrey mayor’s chair

Langley MLA Rich Coleman says he ‘got a kick’ out of rumours
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Rich Coleman is currently a Liberal MLA for the Langley East riding. He is denying rumours that he’s eyeing the mayor’s chair in Surrey. (File photo)

Langley East MLA and former B.C. housing minister Rich Coleman is denying rumours he’s mulling a mayoral run in Surrey.

“It’s an unsubstantiated rumour,” he told the Now-Leader Friday morning.

Coleman said he was on a ferry Thursday evening when a friend text messaged him a link to a report that had surfaced, suggesting he was going to run.

“(The story) said I’ve already started to talk to people about a slate, building a team,” he said. “I’ve been in Victoria the last two weeks and haven’t been on this side of the water, except weekends. I got a bit of a kick out of it.”

Coleman did say he’s received phone calls asking if he’s interested in the job.

“As soon as Linda (Hepner) decided not to run (for mayor), people phoned and said, ‘What do you think about that?’…. But I’ve got a job to do and a session to finish and I just didn’t think anything of it, and I haven’t given anybody an indication that I am.

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“It really is a rumour,” Coleman added. “I’d never say absolutely no to anything but I haven’t even talked to my wife about this.

“Politics is such an organism. Every time an election is coming along people start scouting around.”

From 2012 to 2017, Coleman was Deputy Premier and served variously as Minister of Natural Gas Development, Minister Responsible for Housing.

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amy.reid@surreynowleader.com

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