It's not official yet, but local BC Conservatives should have candidates in place for the May 14 provincial election this Saturday.

The party received a single nomination package apiece for the Chilliwack and Chilliwack-Hope ridings.

Local realtor and Rosedale resident Michael Henshall put his name forward for Chilliwack-Hope, and local financial consultant and former Chilliwack city council candidate Chad Eros has submitted his papers for Chilliwack.

A vote to ratify Henshall's candidacy will be held sometime Saturday, according to BCCP Chilliwack-Hope president Hans Mulder.

Eros's candidacy will be announced at the Best Western Rainbow Country Inn at 7 p.m., Eros said.

A father of nine, whose children are all homeschooled, Eros said fellow homeschoolers were the first to urge him to put his name forward.

"They printed up the documents and even drove them to my front door," he said.

What finally convinced him, though, was the conviction that local voters need more choice.

"The more I saw that no one wanted to come forward to offer a choice, the more I started to consider contributing towards basically democracy," he said.

He said voters were out to punish the BC Liberals in the 2012 Chilliwack-Hope byelection when they elected New Democrat Gwen O'Mahony over Liberal Laurie Throness, but he said those who want to oust the Liberals shouldn't be forced to vote NDP.

"That's not democracy," he said. The best-case outcome of the March election, according to his "Elect Chad Eros" Facebook page, would be a minority BC Conservative government," he said.

"In the last two decades, B.C. governments have treated their majority government status as if they have a blank cheque to do whatever they want," he writes. "With a minority government, B.C. voters will be able test each party's ability to come up with the policy that serves them the best."

The worst-case scenario, he said, would be an NDP majority. "If NDP win a majority government, may God help us all, and by 'all' I mean any person, company, country, pension or investment fund that has money invested here."

cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com