Election Prediction

The 2005/06 Federal Election is up at Election Prediction. All we know about the date is that it will be after the provincial date.

Candidates are already chomping at the bit for the Liberal and Conservative parties as they seek to unseat the two Burnaby NDP MPs.

Gone to Pot

The Marijuana Party is reporting that they have candidates in some of the Burnaby ridings. Brent Bibby is running in North, John Warren is running in Willingdon, and Peter Grin is in Burquitlam. Grin, who ran in Burquitlam in 2001, has a website with a mug-shot-like photo. The BC Marijuana Party tends to have quite a few interesting candidates even if it cannot always get off the couch to provide a serious threat to the more established parties.

Burnaby-Edmonds

Green Suzanne Deveau is making a fuss about the lack of response from the BC Liberals and the NDP over the big box store development in the south-east portion of the riding. Deveau is one of the few Greens this time around who is drawing any sort of media attention.

Raj Chouhan and Patty Sahota appear to be in a tight sign war, although Sahota's signs appear to be taking more on an onslaught from the elements than the NDP candidates. This is somewhat unusual as it has been sunny and not very windy for the first week and a half of the campaign.

Burnaby-Willingdon: The Buzz

NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu has had incredible trouble getting in the media. The Province had someone else as the NDP candidate when they first profiled the riding. Then 24 Hours profiled the riding today and spelt his name Yui all throughout the article.

This name problem is not exclusive to Yiu. Tony Kuo's name is often listed in some Chinese media sources as Guo, which will prove incredibly difficult for some less informed supporters who cannot find anyone named Guo on the ballot on May 17. Fortunately, this will not affect many people as DRBC is polling so low.

Still no word on a Green Party candidate in the riding.

Kuo (Guo) and Yiu (Yui) have been having heated debates whenever they appear together in the media. This riding so far has the most candidates of Chinese descent - independent Tom Tao is also running. Between that and the fact that a significant portion of the riding is from Hong Kong, Taiwan or the People's Republic of China, there is significant media attention from print, radio, and TV aimed at the Chinese market. Channel M has profiled the riding several times already and Fairchild AM radio is gearing up for an all-candidates debate in the last week of the campaign.

BC Liberal John Nuraney is the only candidate not of Chinese descent in the contest.

Burnaby North: The Buzz

Green Richard Brand is running a fairly decent Green campaign on what one has to assume is a shoestring budget.

Democratic Reform Party of BC candidate Matthew Laird has been running a series of newspaper ads but not much voter support is going to come out of those ads. Laird is featured on the DRBC website with his request for the Green Party and the NDP to boycott the leaders' debate unless all parties that are represented in the legislature are allowed to participate. Unfortunately for Laird, almost no one cares.

Real candidates Richard Lee and Pietro Calendino should be at the heart of this battle. Neither has stood out as of yet. Lee has been in a Chinese-language Channel M debate against two of the Chinese candidates from Willingdon and stood out because he was not bickering like the other parties' representatives.

Burquitlam: The Buzz

With this riding being in two cities, it is receiving a fair bit of attention from groups putting on all-candidates debates. BC Liberal Harry Bloy has a tendency to avoid debates in unfavourable settings. NDP challenger Bart Healey has caught on and appears to be taking a policy of only attending debates where he can meet Bloy head-to-head. Tonight's Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion Burnaby-wide debate is one good example of this approach. Neither candidate is expected to attend. However, there are more than a dozen debates for the Burquitlam riding, it is probably a good choice for both candidates who are skipping the city-wide one tonight.

The Challenger Has Dinner in Burnaby

Carole James, who is looking like a sure thing to win her Victoria seat on May 17, paid a visit to Burnaby last night as she continues her tour of the province in hopes of finding some more people to sit with her on the opposition side of the aisle.

Friday night's dinner was for controversial commentator Gabriel Yiu, who is best known for finger wagging towards Vancouver's Chinese community. The sparse crowd celebrated the NDP with Joy MacPhail, Jenny Kwan, and Burnaby's mayor, whose nice words about Yiu's BC Liberal opponent John Nuraney appeared in the Burnaby Now just last weekend.

Fortunately for the NDP, the situation is looking significantly better in other Burnaby ridings such as North and Edmonds.

The Premier's Visit

BurnabyPolitics was correct about the Premier appearance. It happened last night at the Burnaby 8 Rinks.

Campbell and a dozen of the BC Liberal candidates - including Burnaby hopefuls for re-election John Nuraney, Richard Lee, Harry Bloy, and Patty Sahota - were on hand for the rally.

Signs lining Sprott and Norland outside were mainly for the four Burnaby candidates and New West incumbent Joyce Murray. The lawn sign overkill was worst for Sahota and Bloy. Lee, in his own riding, along with Nuraney and Murray had more tasteful displays with signs far enough apart so that they could be read clearly by those driving past.

Burquitlam: The "Stick with Harry" Story

Unlike all the other BC Liberal signs out there, Harry Bloy's have a second sign on them saying "Stick with Harry." When passing by at night, the "Re-elect" portion of the sign shines, as it is a sticker on top of the sign. One must assume it used to say "Elect" when these very same signs were used in 2001. The "Stick with Harry" portion of the sign covers up a photo of a much younger Harry Bloy - oh how four years in Victoria ages someone. To see the exposed picture of Bloy, just take a trip a few feet into Coquitlam to see his campaign office.

Burnaby-Edmonds: NDP kickoff

Raj "Eyebrows" Chouhan opened his office recently, as these photos on his website show.

Campbell Country?

This tip just in: A major Burnaby event with Premier Gordon Campbell will be taking place in the next two and a half weeks at a venue within a couple of kilometers of the riding boundaries of Burnaby-Edmonds.

Burnaby-Edmonds: The NDP Express

Rumour has it that the NDP campaign bus - running almost an hour behind schedule already on the first day - made a stop this afternoon at Raj Chouhan headquarters on Edmonds.

Carole James is stopping in a handful of Lower Mainland campaign offices today as she tries to beat Gordon Campbell out of the gates.

Burnaby-Willingdon: NDP Substitution

Not to say that The Province would make a mistake, but today's riding profile series featuring Charlie Wyse as the NDP candidate in Burnaby-Willingdon.
Some might speculate otherwise, but we'll leave that to these guys.

Burnaby Willingdon: Poor Attendance at Yiu Opening

Gabriel Yiu's office opening, featuring Mayor "I'm the 2009 Burnaby-Willingdon NDP candidate" Corrigan, was poorly attended. The usual crowd was there, including soon to be NDP candidate once again Peter Julian.

Defeat was in the air. Even some of the faithful told the campaign that they were undecided.

Burnaby North: Tirade

The Burnaby Now, which is slow to update on weekends, had a story on the former BC Liberal riding association president on Saturday. The fellow lashed out at Richard Lee, the BC Liberals and their regional organizer. He also went after Pietro Calendino, the NDP and Gordon "Flip" Wilson. The guy is helping DRBC now. Things should be interesting.

Burnaby North: The Buzz

Richard Lee has been out door knocking. No word yet on whether or not it is with his orange BC Liberal handouts or not.

Not much word yet on what the NDP camp is up to as it trys to reclaim Burnaby's bastion of socialism.

Burnaby-Willingdon: The Buzz

Gabriel "The Eunich" Yiu came under fire on Fairchild Radio yesterday as a guest on the show hosted by Ronald Leung and Winnie Fong. Callers pounded away at the NDP and Yiu, who has never been kind to his fellow members of Vancouver's Chinese community, blaming the NDP for all the problems the BC Liberals had to fix over the past four years.

Incumbent BC Liberal MLA John Nuraney has been seen out and about at various community events in Burnaby and he, his campaign phoners, and door knockers are reaching far into the community with the BC Liberals' message.

Burquitlam: The Buzz

Harry Bloy, BC Liberal candidate with false endorsers, has been out knocking on people's doors and getting a handful of people actually opening them.

His NDP challenger "Burquitlam Loves" Bart Healey is claiming he will knock every door in the riding. Unfortunately, several people are reporting that he is disorganized has he has repeatedly knocked at the same doors rather than trying to cover the other polls.

Looks like a battle of incompetence here.

Burnaby-Edmonds: The Buzz

Patty Sahota, the BC Liberal candidate, is well into the phoning of her supporters from her campaign office and rumour has it that her brochure has been received by people living in the riding.

Raj Chouhan, the NDP candidate, has not been heard from by phone or mail as far as we can tell here at Burnaby Politics.

Burquitlam: The curse of the endorsers

In Coquitlam's Now, Harry Bloy has been caught again with a questionable endorsement. A few months back he claimed support from the firefighters when in fact he was only supported by individuals who happened to be firefighters by profession.

Bloy: indecisive on STV

A few months back, Harry Bloy showed signs of indecision regarding the STV referendum:

And getting the politicians to support the plan could be difficult, too. Burquitlam MLA Harry Bloy said he supported the work of the Citizens' Assembly, but he stopped short of endorsing their STV proposal.

"I support the Citizens' Assembly 150 per cent," Bloy said Tuesday morning. "I applaud them for the work that they do, and their recommendation is what will go to the people of British Columbia and I support that recommendation."

When asked if that meant he'll vote 'Yes' on the referendum, Bloy said: "I support that recommendation and I look forward to it coming to government so I can review it."

For someone who likes campaigning so much, it is a big surprise that he doesn't have an opinion to express on the subject.

Campbell-town

Gordon Campbell has made two visits to Burnaby Mountain in the Burquitlam riding. It's looking like the BC Liberals are desperate to save Harry Bloy from "Burquitlam Hearts" Bart Healey.

Burnaby-Edmonds: Green, with envy

The Green Party website lists Suzanne Deveau as their candidate in Edmonds.

The election is about 5 weeks away

What's that you say? The provincial election is still over six weeks away. True enough.

The federal election, however, is fast approaching. Burnaby Conservatives and NDPers are having meetings today right under each other's noses in Burnaby-New Westminster.

If only the federal election happened after May 17th, the Conservatives and Liberals might have a better selection of candidates if any Richard T. Lee, Harry Bloy, Patty Sahota, or John Nuraney did not gain re-election (and it's nearly 100% certain that Burnaby will not return the same four MLAs on May 17th).

Old Pietro Calendino, the perpetual candidate du gauche, could hop into the race against Bill Siksay for the NDP nod if by some chance he doesn't steamroll Richard T. Lee. Bart "Burquitlam (hearts) Bart" Healey could possibly take a run at James Moore's Tri-Cities area seat if he wanted to continue to be a lamb to the slaughter. Raj Chouhan should not make plans to run federally (so at least Peter Julian is safe). Gabriel Yiu should turn his focus to municipal politics (preferably in a city where he actually lives or works).

Then there is Tony Kuo. He will likely find a new party after how the Liberal Party of Canada abused the democratic process to prop up Liberal boy Billy Cunningham. Perhaps Kuo will make a run with the Marijuana Party, which might explain his politics a bit better.

Or, the Liberals and Conservatives could go find other candidates and provide a serious challenge to Bill Siksay and Peter Julian on election day, whether if comes before, on or after May 17th.

No April Fools

Elections BC has some weird parties on the books - perhaps including the NDP, BC Liberals, and Greens. The latest party to join the crazy world of provincial politics is The Sex Party.

Perhaps they will help lubricate tense relations between the BC Liberals and the NDP with a bit of a different take on things.