Conservative candidate Alice Wong is perhaps the most qualified candidate in a riding where more than 40 percent cite a Chinese language as their mother tongue. Wong has a PhD from UBC in curriculum and instruction. She is manager of international programs at Kwantlen University College.

Unlike other Conservative candidates, Wong spoke publicly in favour of a national program of needs-based grants for postsecondary students. The Georgia Straight will not endorse her because of her opposition to same-sex marriage. In 2000, she told the antiabortion group Campaign Life Coalition that she favours delisting abortion services from provincial health plans.

Her Liberal opponent, Raymond Chan, has told the Chinese-language media that he opposes same-sex marriage. In an English-language debate at Kwantlen University College on May 25, Chan said he is worried that "churches, priests, and pastors will be forced to marry gay couples against their own religious rights".

Chan, a former engineer at the UBC TRIUMF facility, rode into Parliament in 1993 after leading a local group that criticized human-rights abuses in China. As a junior minister in Jean Chrétien's cabinet, Chan said little about those same abuses as his boss forged close ties with the Chinese dictatorship.

Who is least worst? In our opinion, Alice Wong.

NDP candidate and political neophyte Dale Jackaman, a computer expert, says his top priority is health care. However, when asked by the Straight , Jackaman couldn't cite a single principle of medicare in the Canada Health Act. He needs more experience.

Green candidate Stephen Kronstein spent most of his time reading prepared statements at the Kwantlen all-candidates debate. This simply isn't good enough for someone running for Parliament, a job that pays $140,000 per year.

If you want to place a protest vote, former Liberal MLA Allan Warnke is running for the Canadian Action Party. The party wants to reinvigorate the Bank of Canada and rip up international treaties--two issues that didn't get a lot of attention from Warnke while he was Liberal MLA for Richmond-Steveston.