Question: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Answer: I am a father of two boys, came to New Westminster 10 years ago with my wife and have been very, very happy to be here. It's been a wonderful experience.
Q: What do you think makes you uniquely qualified to represent this riding in Victoria?
A: Well, I think people are looking for a new kind of politics. I think people are looking for a new generation of leaders. It's the 21st century now, it's time that we had that kind of leadership. You know, I was looking for it, I wasn't seeing it ,and I said - I've always been a big believer (that) you've got to be the change you want to see in the world - so you've got to get out there, you've got to offer yourself to do it, and that's what I feel I am bringing to this race is a new voice, someone who has contributed to this community in a positive way, put the community first. I have done nothing in this community because I wanted to run for office. I was actually doing those things - you know what, I can do more. I am very excited to offer myself to do it.
Q: What would be your priority if elected MLA?
A: On the highline level, I really want to make sure that my kids have a bright future. That's every parent's job. And I think ultimately every politician's job is to make sure our children have a bright future. I am deeply concerned about our economy. On a local level, I really want to make sure that New Westminster has a strong voice, that's not a warm seat for special interests but what it is is being used to effectively represent the community's best interest in Victoria. I think a lot of people, myself included, have felt over the last 20/25 years, politics has become inverted where we elect people that represent a party's interest or a government's interest to a community. They are sales people, whereas I would see it as the traditional sense - we elect someone from our community to be our voice in the commons, in the legislature of British Columbia and say this is where our standpoint is, this is our view point and this is what matters to us.
Q: What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of?
You have professional accomplishments and you have personal ones through volunteerism, there's lots of things you can talk about, but I think growing up as an only child in a family that was fragmented, I am very proud of building a strong family. You know, I have been so blessed to meet my wife and to have our kids and to have the family around us. To me, at the end of the day you can boil everything down to - people who are financially successful, people that are famous, people who accomplish a lot of different things - but at the end of the day, all that really matters is, are you surrounded by people that love you? I feel that I am very, very blessed to count good friends on both hands, I can count them with all 10 fingers, and family all around me. That's something I am very proud of.
Q: Who has been a role model for you?
A: There's a lot of them. My grandfather just passed away. He was very influential on me. Every summer my parents worked, and they didn't know what to do with me so I would go to Winnipeg and kind of bounce around with relatives there, and I would spend most of that two months of the summer with my grandfather. He served for 30 years in the army; after he left the army as a protocol officer, he started his own companies. He was a very successful person. He taught me a lot about life; more than I ever learned in school, I learned from my grandfather. He taught me that if you are not contributing, you are wasting everybody's time. So contribute, give everything that you have and always do things for the right reasons. He said to me the empty can rattles down the street the loudest - so I always try to be the full can.
To view a video of the interview with Bremner, click here.
