Laurie Throness, the newly acclaimed Liberal candidate for the impending Chilliwack-Hope byelection, choked up Saturday addressing more than 250 supporters crammed into a conference room at the Coast Hotel.

His voice broke toward the end of his speech when he touched on the "incontestable virtues," like hard work and self reliance, that make for a prosperous and peaceful society, and he vowed to promote those virtues wherever he can.

"You can tell he's the son of a preacher," said one audience member filing out after the meeting.

Throness's acclamation Saturday officially rounded out the list of candidates set to contest the local provincial byelection precipitated by former Chilliwack-Hope MLA Barry Penner's resignation from politics last month.

The BC NDP had chosen Gwen O'Mahony at a nomination meeting a week before and the BC Conservatives had acclaimed UFV criminologist John Martin on Jan. 17.

Throness took to the podium in full campaign mode at a meeting packed with B.C. Liberal and federal Conservative heavy weights both past and present, including premier Christy Clark and retired Chilliwack-Fraser MP Chuck Strahl, who MCed the event.

Throness was Strahl's former chief of staff and worked for former federal Reform and Alliance leaders Preston Manning and Stockwell Day respectively. He also held positions in four different departments in Stephen Harper's government. During his speech he signaled the course his party will take during the campaign, during which he will face challenges from both the NDP and the resurgent BC Conservatives, who threaten to split the riding's small "c" conservative vote.

He touted his own right-wing credentials and emphasized fiscal conservatism in the BC Liberal government, noting that B.C. has a lower per-person deficit than Harper's federal Conservative government, the lowest personal income tax in Canada and among the lowest corporate taxes in the G7.

"These are all indications of prudent, careful financial management," he said, "and they are worthy of the support of every free-enterprise voter in B.C., including every conservative voter."

Throness, son of former Chilliwack Alliance Church pastor Harald Throness, said the NDP was still a "party of the radical left" and that liberals and conservatives in B.C. need to continue to "link arms" to protect free-enterprise as they have since they first joined forces under the Social Credit banner in 1952.

"I'm going to remember who our common political opponent is," he said, "and I'm going to be embracing conservatives and asking them to join me in supporting a government that's absolutely worthy of their support."

Premier Christy Clark made the same point in a campaign-style speech introducing Throness.

She described Liberal MLAs as a "thin blue line" protecting free enterprise in the Legislature and preventing the NDP from "piling mountains of debt on future generations."

A date for the Chilliwack-Hope byelection has yet to be set, but it will have to take place by July 9. The premier said it won't be an easy campaign to win since ruling parties tend to fair poorly in byelections.

"We are going to have to really sweat to make this happen," she said.

But an Angus Reid opinion poll last week underscored another reason the Liberals will have to campaign hard to hold on to the Chilliwack-Hope riding.

While the NDP have maintained roughly the same level of support provincewide as they won during the last election in 2009, the poll found the Liberals have lost one in four of their supporters to the BC Conservatives and one in ten of their voters to the NDP .

Liberal cabinet ministers, MLAs and local party members were back in Chilliwack yesterday, officially kicking off Throness's campaign with the opening of his campaign office at 44500 Sumas Rd.

cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com