Former Surrey mayor and outgoing Conservative MP Dianne Watts threw her hat in the BC Liberal Leadership ring Sunday afternoon with a full house in attendance at the Guildford Sheraton hotel. The crowd was evidence of Watts' appeal and support she has in Surrey and clearly she has put herself in the best position to win the leadership but it won't be easy with many sharks lurking in these deep BC political waters who will be making Watts path to leadership a difficult one. On the Liberal front, opposition has already come from MLA and former minister Michael de Jong, aka "Punjabi Mike", and will come collectively from those who will also be seeking the leadership, including probably her main competutior in BC Liberal MLA Andrew Wilkinson. The politically important Indo-Canadian-South Asian community will again play a dominant and deciding role as they did with Christy Clark in defeating front-runner Kevin Falcon. One of the known Indo-Canadian King-Makers (aka The Fool) has already begun putting one person with each of the branded candidates in this leadership including Watts and his usual modus-operandi is have his gang sign up members and then take it to the candidate who will win and ask for goodies and influence. Also the NDP will be doing their best to defeat Watts by helping her closest rivals and don't count out the federal Liberals also supporting candidate other than Watts. And if former MP Herb Dhaliwal enters the race then we will have further divisions of South Asian support. Many scenarios but the goal for Watts is to coalesce all the support under her umbrella if she hopes to WIN!

By R. Paul Dhillon – Editor-Founder DESIBUZZCanada

SURREY – Conservative MP and former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts made her bid to replace Christy Clark as BC Liberal leader official on Sunday in Surrey, where she made the announcement in front a packed crowdd at the Sheraton Guildford hotel. Speaking to her supporters, Watts said she is stepping down as MP and seeking the BC Liberal leadership.

The crowd at the Sheraton was evidence of Watts' appeal and support she has in Surrey and clearly she has put herself in the best position to win the leadership but it won't be easy with many sharks lurking in these deep BC political waters who will be making Watts path to leadership a difficult one. On the Liberal front, opposition has already come from MLA and former minister Michael de Jong, aka "Punjabi Mike", and will come collectively from those who will also be seeking the leadership, including probably her main competutior in BC Liberal MLA Andrew Wilkinson

The politically important Indo-Canadian-South Asian community will again play a dominant and deciding role as they did with Christy Clark in defeating front-runner Kevin Falcon.

One of the known Indo-Canadian King-Makers (aka The Fool) has already begun putting one person with each of the branded candidates in this leadership including Watts and his usual modus-operandi is have his gang sign up members and then take it to the candidate who will win and ask for goodies and influence.

Also the NDP will be doing their best to defeat Watts by helping her closest rivals and don't count out the federal Liberals also supporting candidate other than Watts.

And if former MP Herb Dhaliwal enters the race then we will have further divisions of South Asian support.

Many scenarios but the goal for Watts is to coalesce all the support under her umbrella if she hopes to WIN!

Watts is definitely a strong contender for the role as seen by a recent poll that said she is the only candidate who has a shot of defeating NDP.

An Insights West poll released in August found 39 per cent of the province holds a favourable view of Watts, compared to 30 per cent for Sam Sullivan and 28 per cent for Mike de Jong.

BC Liberal knives have already come against her from party hacks like former finance minister Mike de Jong, who questioned where was Watts during the spring election campaign as the Liberals were neck-and-neck with the NDP.

"We were in a very tight electoral contest," de Jong said. "She'll need to explain why, during a tight race, she wasn't around.

"They may well ask themselves who has been there for us in the past? Who has lent their support to us when we needed it most?" said de Jong, who may also vie for leader.

Earlier last week, interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman revealed there are seven high-profile potential candidates mulling a run, including Todd Stone, Mike Bernier and Andrew Wilkinson.

DESIBUZZCanada was the first to break the story that former Liberal MP Herb Dhaliwal is also testing the waters for a provincial leadership bid

The BC Liberals have also already scheduled the party's first leadership debate for Oct. 15.            

Watts’ run will trigger a byelection in her federal riding of South Surrey-White Rock, which she won for the Conservatives in the 2015 election.

She won the riding with 24,934 votes.

Earlier this summer, Watts was appointed to new federal Conservative Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer’s shadow cabinet as critic for Employment Workforce Development and Labour.

Entrants will have to pay a preliminary $10,000 fee to enter the leadership race, and another $50,000 if they want to stay in the race up until February, when party members choose a new leader.