 Following a summer of deliberations on his future , Howard cited " personal reasons " including a desire to spend more time with his wife , in his September 2012 announcement that he would not be seeking re @-@ election in the up @-@ coming May 2013 provincial general election . This decision was a surprise to his party because his Richmond Centre riding was considered a safe seat for him to be re @-@ elected . With no obvious successor , a competitive BC Liberal Party primary began . By the end of the year , two candidates announced their intention to run : school trustee Grace <unk> and <unk> officer Gary Law . However , Howard approached Teresa Wat , the CEO of the Chinese language radio station <unk> , to be his replacement . Though she did not live in the riding , she was viewed as a better candidate and , in January 2013 , the party announced she would be the candidate . While the other candidate <unk> withdrew his nomination to accept a position on a political advisory committee , Law alleged he was harassed to drop out and requested a <unk> investigation . Law decided to run as an independent candidate but only received <unk> of the vote , with Wat winning the election and subsequently being named Minister of International Trade . Following the election Howard founded the non @-@ profit organization <unk> to advocate for Open Sky agreements to allow more airline competition in Canadian international airports . 
