Liberal Party finally selects its Chilliwack-Hope candidate

CHILLIWACK — With five days left until the nomination process closes, the Liberal Party of Canada has found someone local to represent the Chilliwack-Hope riding in the upcoming federal election.

According to an email of confirmation from Liberal Party spokesperson Youmy Han, Chilliwack resident Zeeshan Khan has been acclaimed as the Liberal candidate to run.

Canada Elections Tracker, an election tracking social media account on X/Twitter, pointed out that the Chilliwack-Hope riding was one of the 10 remaining electoral districts that had not yet nominated and acclaimed a candidate as of Tuesday morning, April 1.

Khan’s acclamation comes after the party wrongly selected Jake Sawatzky last weekend, only to rescind the nomination and apologize for the error.

Fraser Valley Today profiled Khan in a March 2024 story when he was selected as the keynote speaker at a civic function in Chilliwack. At the time, Khan, who is married with children, worked as a child and youth care worker at Vedder Middle School. He co-founded Streams Foundation Canada, a volunteer-based non-profit organization working in Chilliwack. Khan has also been a member of the City of Chilliwack Accessibility and Inclusion Committee.

More recently, Khan graduated with a degree in nonprofit management from Simon Fraser University.

Khan will be one of five candidates who intend to run in Chilliwack-Hope, along with longtime Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl, People’s Party of Canada candidate Jeff Galbraith, Green Party of Canada candidate Salina Derish and NDP candidate Teri Westerby.

Fraser Valley Today reached out to Khan at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday evening to request more information about himself.

This story will be updated when the Liberal Party of Canada issues a news release about Khan’s candidacy, or Khan reaches out to Fraser Valley Today.