In the 2014 December 13 Vancouver Sun, columnist Pete McMartin wrote this correction:
My apologies to Mayor Greg Moore for incorrectly identifying him in Friday’s column as mayor of Coquitlam. He is not. He is mayor of Port Coquitlam, which I am assured are two completely different communities. Mayor Moore informed me by email, however, that he will be invading Coquitlam and should be incorporating it into Port Coquitlam by spring.
Finally, a Metro politician in favour of amalgamation.
WOAH WOAH WOAH
“…he will be invading Coquitlam”?
Slow down there, chief. Invading Coquitlam is New Westminster’s game. Don’t forget what Jonathan Cote had to say:
I have long believed that New Westminster would benefit from an expanded land base. The twinning of the Bailey Bridge should help facilitate the Royal City’s long desire to have an IKEA.
Now, in the spirit of the season it’s not nice to be greedy and claim every part of Coquitlam for either Port Coquitlam or New Westminster. After all, Coquitlam is pretty big:
Look at all that space to share! It would be crazy to think that either New Westminster or Port Coquitlam could adequatly take over every part of Coquitlam, particularly all that land in the north. That’s why our cities need to work together to carve up Coquitlam like a Christmas turkey.
And why not get Port Moody in on the action too? They could use an expanded landbase too, right?
New Westminster’s targets are already clear:
Uptown, Maillardville, Downtown, Sapperton, Moody Park, Queensbourough, Burquitlam, Brow of the Hill, Fraser Mills, Victory Heights, Queens Park, Glenbrooke, Connaught Heights, West End, Quayside.)
I’ve bolded the neighbourhoods of Coquitlam that are to become New Westminster. I think Mr. Cote would agree that that’s enough for The Royal City, especially since that means we still get our IKEA.
Colony Farm Regional Park shouldn’t be split between two cities, so it’ll come completely within Port Coquitlam’s new boundaries.
And I think Port Coquitlam deserves a curling club. All proper cities in Canada have curling clubs, and both New Westminster and Port Moody already have one. Conveniently, Coquitlam has one based out of the Poirier Community Centre, so we’ll give that to Port Coquitlam.
And we’ll just bump up Port Moody’s borders a bit so they’re not so snug around the western end of Burrard Inlet.
That said, here are the new boundaries:
I think we can get this done by spring, don’t you?