Port Moody-Burquitlam candidate suspends campaign before vote

The CentreBC candidate in Port Moody-Burquitlam is stepping away from the campaign three days before the October 24 provincial election, saying he needs to be with his grandmother, who recently entered hospice care.

Freddy Rawji announced his decision in a statement on October 20, first reported by Freshet News. "The toll of not spending enough time with her has weighed heavily on me," Rawji said. "My number one priority right now is to be fully present with my grandmother, both now and beyond election day."

His name stays on the ballot

Although Rawji has withdrawn from campaigning, his name will still appear on Port Moody-Burquitlam ballots. The deadline for candidates to formally withdraw from the October 24 general election was 8 a.m. on October 14, nearly a week before his announcement. Any votes cast for Rawji, including advance ballots already marked since voting opened October 16, still count as votes for him.

The timing means thousands of Tri-Cities residents who voted early did so without knowing one of the candidates had stepped back. Port Moody-Burquitlam recorded 4,441 advance ballots in the first two days of voting alone, up 17 per cent over the same period in 2024.

A race that rarely sees a late exit

Candidate withdrawals this late in a BC campaign are uncommon precisely because the mechanics work against them. Once the formal withdrawal deadline passes, Elections BC finalizes and prints the ballots, and there is no procedure for removing a name. A suspended campaign is exactly that: the candidate stops door-knocking, advertising and attending forums, but remains a choice in front of every voter in the riding.

For strategic voters, a late suspension can scramble calculations. Supporters who planned to back Rawji must now decide whether to stay with him as a statement, shift to one of the three active campaigns or hold their vote for general voting day while they think it over. With the NDP, Conservatives and Greens all competing seriously in Port Moody-Burquitlam, even a small pool of freed-up votes could matter in the final margin.

The riding

Port Moody-Burquitlam pairs the city of Port Moody with the Burquitlam area of west Coquitlam, including the growing towers around Burquitlam Station on the Evergreen Line. The riding mixes long-established hillside neighbourhoods above Burrard Inlet with some of the fastest-densifying blocks in the Tri-Cities, and local campaigns have leaned heavily on housing, transit and health care.

Three candidates remain active

The rest of the Port Moody-Burquitlam field continues to campaign: BC NDP incumbent Rick Glumac, John McEwen of the Conservative Party of BC and Wei Chou of the BC Green Party.

Glumac is seeking another term in a riding he won by 2,995 votes in 2024, after taking more than half the vote in both 2020 and 2024. He serves as Minister of State for AI and New Technologies and has campaigned on his record on health care, including helping establish Port Moody's Urgent and Primary Care Centre. His wife, Haven Lurbiecki, was elected mayor of Port Moody in the October 17 municipal election.

McEwen carries the Conservative banner in a riding the party sees as competitive territory in the northeast sector, while Chou represents a Green party that has historically drawn a meaningful share of the vote in Port Moody.

CentreBC is one of the newer parties contesting the 2026 election, fielding candidates in several BC ridings, including Kaden Mann in neighbouring Coquitlam-Burke Mountain. Rawji's suspension leaves the party without an active candidate in Port Moody-Burquitlam for the campaign's final days.

Rawji framed the decision as personal rather than political. His statement made no criticism of the party, the campaign or his opponents, and he did not ask supporters to shift their votes to any other candidate. He has not said whether he intends to seek office again.

Debate goes ahead Thursday

All of the Port Moody-Burquitlam candidates were invited by the Residents of Pleasantside Ioco Community Association to a candidates debate at Old Orchard Hall in Port Moody on Thursday, October 22, with doors at 6:15 p.m. Whether Rawji attends is unknown; the other three campaigns are expected to take part.

What voters should know

Advance voting continues through Wednesday, October 21, the final advance day, with polls open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at locations across the Tri-Cities, including the Klahanie Canoe Club in Port Moody. General voting day is Saturday, October 24, also 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters can cast a ballot at any voting place in the province with ID showing their name and home address.

Rawji's name will appear on those ballots as printed. Anyone unsure which riding they live in can use the riding lookup on the Elections BC website, which also lists assigned voting places.

For the full riding-by-riding field, see our Tri-Cities candidates guide. For early turnout numbers, see our advance voting report. Elections BC posts results on election night.