Abbotsford West.
3 candidates, one seat.

BC Geographical Names records that the name Matsqui comes from the Halq'eméylem language and belongs to a Salish people who lived on the lower Fraser River and near Sumas Lake. The record names two villages, Ma'mak'ume on the south side of the Fraser and Kokoae'uk near Sumas Lake, and gives the population in 1911 as 40. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the word means "easy portage" or "easy travelling". It explains this as the ease with which people could go up creeks from the Fraser and drag canoes over the height of land to the former Sumas Lake.

The Stó:lō Service Agency Society lists Matsqui (Màthxwi) among its eleven communities and names S'ólh Téméxw as its territory, with a reach from Yale to Langley. In 2021 Abbotsford's Máthxwi Elementary School took its present name at 5730 Riverside Road. The school district's page says Mathxwí comes from Halq'eméylem and gives several readings, among them a root plant that grew in marshes and the words easy travelling and easy portage.

Canada's 2024 release on a Matsqui claim names two reserves of the Matsqui First Nation: Sahhacum Indian Reserve 1 and Matsqui Main Indian Reserve 2. The commission's report draws the eastern boundary of this district so that it includes the Sahhacum 1 Reserve.

Heritage Abbotsford Society says settlement at Mount Lehman began in the 1860s with land clearing for farming and grazing. People came by a landing on the Fraser River, and a trail led south toward Peardonville and the United States border. The society records that Samuel and Isaac Lehman occupied the bluff above the river in 1875, and that a general store was running at the landing by 1883. BC Geographical Names says the place takes its name from Isaac Lehman, who pre-empted land there in 1875, and that the post office opened on 1 May 1884.

The society says a one-room school was built in 1884 on land donated by James Bangs and served as church and community centre as well. Mount Lehman United Church opened on 15 March 1894 as a union church of Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Anglicans. It became Presbyterian in 1904 and joined the United Church of Canada in 1925. The Mount Lehman Community Hall dates from 1904 and stands at 6418 Mount Lehman Road. The present school building went up in 1912.

BC Geographical Names records that the District of Matsqui was incorporated on 26 November 1892 as The Corporation of the District of Matsqui, with 54,145 acres. The record gives 6418 Mt Lehman Rd as the address of the original municipal hall. The hall moved to 32383 South Fraser Way in 1951 and to 32315 South Fraser Way in 1982.

The same office records that the Village of Abbotsford was incorporated on 22 February 1924 and joined the Sumas district to form the District of Abbotsford on 17 November 1972. On 1 January 1995 the district of Abbotsford and the District of Matsqui were joined as the City of Abbotsford under Letters Patent. The record says the Matsqui municipal name was rescinded at that point, and the building on South Fraser Way became the city's municipal hall.

The Abbotsford School District says many early immigrants to Matsqui Village came from Scandinavia, and that St. Olaf Street is named for the patron saint of Norway. Matsqui Evangelical Lutheran Church says it was founded in 1903 by Scandinavian settler families, who met in farm homes with a travelling pastor. In 1904 the Halvorson family gave land for a church building. Heritage Abbotsford Society calls it the first of three churches built in Matsqui Village. It stands at 5781 Riverside Street.

The Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society says the British Columbia Electric Railway's Fraser Valley line was completed in 1910 and began passenger service on 3 October 1910, running from downtown Vancouver to Chilliwack. Heritage Abbotsford Society says the commercial centre of Mount Lehman moved to the railway crossing after the line opened. It adds that the Canadian Northern Railway opened its south-bank line in 1915, and that a freight and passenger shelter opened at the landing in 1916 and was removed in 1960. KnowBC records that Gifford was a station on the interurban line 7 kilometres northwest of Abbotsford, probably named for Thomas Gifford, the New Westminster member of the Legislative Assembly in 1910. The place was earlier called Glenmore, and its post office ran from 1912 to 1948.

Canada's release of 21 February 2024 says Canada granted the Vancouver Power Company rights of way for a tramway across Sahhacum Indian Reserve 1 and Matsqui Main Indian Reserve 2 in 1908. The release says reserve land was taken without adequate compensation, and that Canada did not build and maintain crossings, which cut the Matsqui First Nation off from parts of its reserve lands. Canada agreed to pay more than $59 million to settle the claim.

The Province's page on the Matsqui First Nation says it is one of five of eleven Stó:lō Nation bands negotiating land and resource issues outside the British Columbia treaty process. The page lists the Í:xel Sq'eq'ó (Together We Paddle) Agreement of 2021 and the Leq'á:mel-Matsqui Strategic Engagement Agreement of 2022. It also lists forest consultation and revenue sharing agreements dating from 2008, the latest signed in 2025.

The Chilliwack Museum says the Fraser River reached 24.08 feet at the Mission gauge at the end of May 1948, and the Matsqui dike collapsed. The river peaked in early June at 24.73 feet, which the museum describes as one foot below the 1894 flood. The Abbotsford News reported in 2018 that at 7:40 a.m. on 31 May 1948 the dike failed near the north end of Gladwin Road, leaving a gap 50 feet wide with water moving at 12 miles an hour.

The same article says the water in Matsqui Village stood as deep as 8 feet and took 6 weeks to go down. The people who left their homes were sheltered at the Abbotsford Airport. Matsqui Evangelical Lutheran Church records that the flood damaged its building, which was repaired and moved to its present site. The Chilliwack Museum says the dikes were widened and raised with gravel, silt and dirt after 1948.

The Agricultural Land Commission says the Legislative Assembly gave royal assent to the Land Commission Act on 18 April 1973, the first law of its kind in Canada for protecting farmland. It gives the Agricultural Land Reserve as 4,612,526 hectares, which is 4.9% of British Columbia's land.

The City of Abbotsford gives these figures for the whole city, not for this district alone. Of 27,413 hectares of reserve land in the city, 17,213 hectares (63%) were farmed in 2012. The city reported more than 1,300 farms in 2015 and total farm receipts of $853,000,000. Berries made up 28% of crop acreage, and the city's page says 55% of the table eggs and 45% of the chicken produced in British Columbia come from Abbotsford.

The Abbotsford News reported in 2011 that the first Sikhs arrived in the Fraser Valley from Punjab in 1905 and worked on farms and in the forest industry. The Abbotsford Lumber Company, owned by the Trethewey family, employed many of them. The Gur Sikh Temple was established in 1911, and Parks Canada says the Abbotsford Sikh Temple at 33089 South Fraser Way was designated a national historic site in 2002. South Fraser Way is part of the southern boundary of this district.

The 2021 census counted Punjabi as the first language of 34.8% of people in Abbotsford West, and English for 48.1%. It counted 14,855 residents born in India and found that 35.7% of residents are immigrants, against 29% for British Columbia.