New Westminster resident Ellen Vaillancourt is the fourth and final addition to the New West Progressives council slate.
Vaillancourt currently works for the City of Vancouver in external relations and protocol, where she hosts delegations and diplomats and produces council-approved protocol events. Previously, she launched a series of private-label apparel manufacturing and consulting businesses after attending fashion school in Paris, before shifting her focus and working with Simon Fraser University on international development projects in areas of adult education for economic development and sustainable women’s empowerment initiatives.
"As a proud and active citizen of New Westminster for 30 years, I could not be more eager to begin working with the New West Progressives to serve the residents of a city that has offered me so much," she said in a press release. "With the committed group that they have already assembled, it's clear the NWP are more than willing and capable of affecting positive change in our community and I can't wait to get started."
Given the populism politics of people like U.S. president Donald Trump and Ontario premier Doug Ford, the Glenbrooke North resident said it’s important for the right people to be in politics right now – people who are there to serve the community.
“My interest would be more culture and arts,” she told the Record. “I just love some of the things they have done with New West – with New Westminster Pier, things on Columbia Street, Uptown Live, markets. I just want to see more of that. “In Portland, there is something amazing in each one of the quadrants. I thought New West can be such an incredible destination city for something like that.”
In addition to Vaillancourt, Daniel Fontaine, Paul McNamara and Bryn Ward are running for council with the New Westminster Progressives.
