So much so, he's lodged a formal complaint with the B.C. Press Council against this newspaper for reporting, in our Oct. 27 issue, that Watts lives in Cloverdale when in fact she lives in South Surrey.

In his letter to the press council - a body which aims to uphold the highest standard of professionalism and ethics in journalism - McMurtry charges that this was designed to "perpetuate Dianne Watts' populist appeal, for it might look worse for her to be residing in posher South Surrey."

The Now is not the only newspaper to have reported Watts lives in Cloverdale.

According to Surrey community planner Don Luymes, Cloverdale is contained within the boundaries of 160th Street east from 48th Avenue in the south to where 76th Avenue in the north would be.

From that point, the boundary then moves east to 172nd Street, north to 84th Avenue, east again to the Surrey-Langley border and then back down south to 48th.

"It's a bit of a jogging thing," Luymes said, adding that some residents tend to identify their community by the hill nearest to their house, or by some other landform.

"We do have official boundaries," he said, besides the "boundaries people consider themselves."

In his complaint to the press council, McMurtry noted that Watts lives south of the 48th Avenue demarcation line, rendering her claim to being a bona fide Cloverdale resident illegitimate.

Watts sounded gobsmacked by the controversy and dismissed it as "nonsense."

"If I'm a half a minute from 48th Avenue, so be it," Watts told the Now on Wednesday. "Is it really the big burning issue?"

Watts said she does her banking in Cloverdale. It's also where she gets her hair done, where she shops, where her veterinarian is located and where her husband graduated from high school. Her house is a four-minute drive from Cloverdale's town centre, she noted.

"I've always considered myself a Cloverdale resident."

tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com

twitter@tomzytaruk