Ray Boucher isn't claiming any special issue vaulted him to replace long-time electoral area director Dick Bogstie at the Fraser Valley Regional District board.
"I just think it's time for a change," Boucher said Wednesday, when he finally found the time to comment on his Saturday election victory.
For the record, Boucher confirmed he was in Mexico election night, but he was there on a family vaction planned three years ago, well before he decided to run for election.
"I've lived in the area for 30 years," he said. "I've been a firefighter in Coquitlam, recently retired."
And he's been up at the crack of dawn recently to help put up two million twinkling lights in Stanley Park, part of an annual fundraiser for the B.C. Professional Firefighters Association Burn Fund.
Where his election support came from to upset Bogstie, Boucher claims he doesn't know.
"It's possible," he conceded, that Bogstie's support of the Aggregate Pilot Project that identifies approved gravel mining areas in the region may have something to do with it.
"Gravel is an issue," Boucher agreed, "but whether I'll be able to make any headway with it, who knows?"
His goals as the new director for Electoral Area F (Hatzic Prairie/McConnell Creek)?
"Listening to the people and representing their issues as best I can at the board," he replied.
Boucher said he's really not sure what those issues might be, "but I'm open to take calls on any issues from anybody."
Boucher was the only challenger to replace a sitting electoral area director in the 2011 election, winning 129 votes to Bogstie's 87 votes.
rfreeman@theprogress.com
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