Vaillancourt named final candidate for city council

The New West Progressives have announced Ellen Vaillancourt as their final candidate for city council.

This announcement brings the total to four NW Progressive candidates for city council and four school board trustees and officially closes the candidate recruitment process.

“We are very pleased to bring Ellen into the fold as our final candidate for October\’s civic  election,\” says NW Progressives President David Halkett. \”From her successful fashion-design businesses to her humanitarian work with Simon Fraser University (SFU), she brings a wealth of valuable knowledge and experience to the team.\”

After attending fashion school in Paris, Vaillancourt returned to Vancouver and launched a series of private-label apparel manufacturing and consulting businesses. She then shifted her focus and began working with SFU on international development projects in areas of Adult Education for Economic Development and sustainable Women’s Empowerment initiatives.

In 2012, Vaillancourt was awarded the Simon Fraser University Staff Achievement Award for her work in the development of the Centre for Muslim Societies and Cultures. Her role concentrated on building bridges between the increasingly plural and diverse societies of Islam and the West.

In April 1988, she made her home in New Westminster where she raised her two sons and spent decades as a Salmonbellies lacrosse mom, a Canada Games Pool regular, and a dedicated Music Mondays Suzuki violin mom at Douglas College, while sitting on countless boards and PAC committees.

\”As a proud and active citizen of New Westminster for 30 years, I could not be more eager to begin working with the New West Progressives to serve the residents of a City that has offered me so much,\” says Vaillancourt. \”With the committed group that they have already assembled, it\’s clear the NWP are more than willing and capable of affecting positive change in our community and I can\’t wait to get started.\”

She currently works for the City of Vancouver in External Relations and Protocol, hosting delegations and diplomats and producing council-approved protocol events.

The NW Progressives officially introduced Vaillancourt as a city council candidate tonight at an event held at their campaign headquarters in New Westminster. This event included remarks from President David Halkett, a mix and mingle with attendees and a photo-op with the final slate of candidates.