Matthew Laird

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Matthew Laird was the leader of the short-lived Moderate Democratic Movement political party in the Canadian province of British Columbia. He led the party into the British Columbia Democratic Coalition which eventually became the Democratic Reform British Columbia party, serving as the new party's first president. Laird is DRBC's organizational chair and was the candidate in riding of Burnaby North during the May 2005 general election.

A founding member of DRBC, Laird was the main author of the party's constitution and co-author of the party platform. Since the founding of the new party, Laird has remain the party's chief organizer, chairing the founding convention and the 2005 AGM, as well as the party's election campaign. Laird also remains the party's main public relations coordinator, penning most releases and maintaining the website, e-mail, and phone system.

Before joining the MDM, Laird was the co-founder of RecallBC, a non-partisan organization which failed in a number of attempts to recall BC Liberal MLAs.

In the 2005 B.C. General Election Laird ran in the Burnaby North riding for Democratic Reform British Columbia. He finished last in a field of four candidates with 316 votes (1.38% of total valid votes).

Laird later ran for New Westminster city council in November 2005, receiving 1010 votes (lowest vote count receiving a seat was 3432).

In March of 2006, Laird released the Democratic Reform British Columbia Gateway Strategy, of which he was the main author. The report was an alternative vision to the BC Liberal plan for Greater Vancouver long term transportation planning.

He is also a founding member of New Westminster Environmental Partners, a New Westminster, BC based environmental and sustainability advocacy group. For most issue he acts as the group's spokesperson.