Former Burnaby candidate in Surrey?

Sean Holman reports today in 24 Hours (and on Public Eye Online) that Phil Eidsvik of the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition is among the names being mentioned to replace retiring MP Gurmant Grewal in Surrey area riding of Newton-North Delta.

Eidsvik, a South Burnaby resident, unsuccessful sought the Conservative nomination in his home riding of Burnaby-New Westminster in 2004. At the time, he told members of the riding that because of his commitment to his young family he could not guarantee that he would be able to do MP work on weekends. Although putting family first is a noble gesture in the world of politics, Eidsvik's commitment would probably not sit well with voters who believe they should be represented 24/7 rather than nine-to-five.

Eidsvik's work for the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, which advocates for the interests of recreational and commercial fishermen, has given him plenty of opportunity to interact with the Government of Canada (and First Nations), albeit in a confrontational legal setting. Eidsvik's penchant for confronation predates his BCFSC days. As a student at Simon Fraser University, Eidsvik confronted the Simon Fraser Student Society, the left-leaning campus student union over mandatory membership dues and was unsuccessful in his challenge.

Tip us off

The Burnaby Politics team would love get your tips from inside the political circus that is the federal election. Please send tips to RobertBurnabyTips at YAHOO dot ca.

Slighly short of Shintos shouting slogans...

And there they go!

The Liberals' challengers are out of the gates with brand new slogans for the the election of ought-six.

The NDP are going with "Getting results for people." The Conservatives are going with "Stand up for change. Stand up for Canada." The Bloc is going with a modified version of the provincial slogan "Je me souviens du scandale des commandites," which translates to "I remember the Sponsorship Scandal." The Green Party is going with the optimistic "Someday is Now!"

The Liberals have yet to release a slogan for the campaign but the joke in Grit circles tonight is that it could well be "Neo-Cons, Separatists, Communists... or us. You choose."

Out of the gates

Of the six known Burnaby candidates (Siksay, Cunningham, and Drazenovic in Douglas; Julian, Dalton, and Pynenburg in Burnaby-New West), only Marc Dalton has his campaign page up. Dalton's page has been up for several weeks, although it did disappear briefly last week for some pre-election tweaks.

Of the B.C. MPs up for re-election, Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam MP James Moore was one of the first out of the gate with his election page, which has been up according to the press release on the site since last Thursday.

One last municipal post

The Burnaby Citizens' Association has updated their website to reflect their worst municipal showing since party names were allowed on the civic ballot.

Defeated council and school board candidates, as well as the successful candidates, will likely be playing significant roles in the re-election campaigns of MPs Peter Julian and Bill Siksay.

January 23: Reuters

Reuters's report says Paul Martin will be asking the G.G. for the election to occur on Monday, January 23, 2006.

Feel free to make your predictions for Burnaby, B.C., and Canada.

Liberal Recycling

Billy Cunningham in Burnaby-Douglas's campaign is supposedly being managed yet again by Roy Bornman, who will be leaving the side of Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh to help out the former LPCBC president win the North Burnaby seat.

Liberal convention thread

The Liberal Party of Canada's B.C. wing held their convention in Richmond yesterday and today. Feel free to comment on Paul Martin, the Liberal's B.C. MPs, and the party's hopes for a fifth consecutive government in the comments section.

NDP convention thread

The NDP officially loosened its ties with big labour by making the party one member-one vote instead of the weighted preference for organized labour unions that was previously part of the party's formal structure.

Feel free to discuss the NDP Vancouver convention, Carole James, Jack Layton, and the NDP's fortunes in the upcoming election in the comments section.

Billy Boy

Somehow this was not made official yet.

Mayor

Burnaby's mayor was re-elected with a majority of the votes:

x Derek CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens 17,662
Andrew STEWART, TEAM Burnaby 13,951
Tom TAO 1,120

City Council

Five of six city councilors seeking re-election were returned to a split council:

x Lee RANKIN, TEAM Burnaby 16,734
Gary BEGIN, TEAM Burnaby 15,738
x Pietro CALENDINO, Burnaby Citizens 15,032
x Dan JOHNSTON, Burnaby Citizens 14,523
x Colleen JORDAN, Burnaby Citizens 13,867
x Nick VOLKOW, Burnaby Citizens 13,601
Garth EVANS, TEAM Burnaby 13,485
Barbara SPITZ, TEAM Burnaby 13,367
x Sav DHALIWAL, Burnaby Citizens 13,366
Jeffrey CHIU, TEAM Burnaby 13,321
Ron CHURCHILL, TEAM Burnaby 13,317
Paul McDONELL, Burnaby Citizens 12,095
Leslie ROOSA, Burnaby Citizens 12,046
Gary EYRE, TEAM Burnaby 11,900
David MYLES, Burnaby Citizens 11,826
Mark HILFORD, TEAM Burnaby 11,529
Nancy HARRIS 5,075
Andrew CHISHOLM 4,287
Parvin CHAMI 2,642

School Board

Four of five Burnaby Citizens' Association school trustees seeking re-election were returned to office in Saturday's election. The new school board has five BCA trustees and two TEAM Burnaby trustees:

x Ron BURTON, Burnaby Citizens 15,959
x Kathy CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens 15,826
Richard Lee, TEAM Burnaby 15,033
x Diana MUMFORD, Burnaby Citizens 14,410
Helen CHANG, TEAM Burnaby 14,057
x Larry HAYES, Burnaby Citizens 13,989
Tony COCCIA, Burnaby Citizens 13,572
Trudy GORDON, TEAM Burnaby 13,372
Cathy CENA, TEAM Burnaby 13,310
x Mondee REDMAN, Burnaby Citizens 13,203
Rich BAERG, TEAM Burnaby 13,075
Elaine HASEK, TEAM Burnaby 12,889
Nancy von EUW, TEAM Burnaby 11,755
Baljinder NARANG, Burnaby Citizens 11,047
Manjeet SAHOTA 3,518
Rubin PRINCE 2,615

Ballot Questions

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. All five ballot questions were approved by the voters of Burnaby yesterday:

Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park
YES 26,185
NO 2,685

Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area
YES 26,503
NO 2,384

Bryne Creek Ravine Park
YES 25,464
NO 2,845

Capitol Hill Conservation Area
YES 25,215
NO 3,068

Squint Lake Park
YES 25,128
NO 2,985

Done in 12

In twelve hours, you can keep track live at the city's webpage. Here is the poll map.

Election Eve

Some final items:

• O'Ryans Neighbourhood Pub has used its outdoor signage for the past week to support Burnaby Citizens candidates Derek Corrigan, Kathy Corrigan, Nick Volkow, and Colleen Jordan.


• Jeffrey Chiu has done something new in Burnaby by putting up little additions to TEAM Burnaby bag signs that feature his name in Chinese.


• Jeffrey Chiu and Garth Evans of TEAM Burnaby fired off some last minute ads into Chinese papers including Sing Tao today. Left-wing interloper Gabriel Yiu, who suffered an upset defeat at the hands of BC Liberal John Nuraney in this spring's provincial election, has been stumping for Derek Corrigan and the BCA.


• Andrew Stewart got some very negative coverage in today's Vancouver Sun. In the final media cycle of the election, Stewart will have no opportunity to fight back against the drunk driving coverage, but it appears to have not picked up much traction. Weekend Burnaby papers will have more on this story but, thankfully for TEAM Burnaby, this will come too late in most neighbourhoods to make any impact on voting.

Horseshoes and hand grenades

In about 48 hours all the tempest in a teapot that is the 2005 Burnaby municipal election will be all said and all done. Here is this website's predicted order of finish for Saturday's elections:

MAYOR (1)
x Derek CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens (48%)
Andrew STEWART, TEAM Burnaby (45%)
Tom TAO (7%)

COUNCIL (8)
x Nick VOLKOW, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Sav DHALIWAL, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Lee RANKIN, TEAM Burnaby (incumbent)
x Pietro CALENDINO, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Colleen JORDAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Paul McDONELL, Burnaby Citizens
x Barbara SPITZ, TEAM Burnaby
x David MYLES, Burnaby Citizens
Dan JOHNSTON, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Gary BEGIN, TEAM Burnaby
Leslie ROOSA, Burnaby Citizens
Ron CHURCHILL, TEAM Burnaby
Mark HILFORD, TEAM Burnaby
Gary EYRE, TEAM Burnaby
Garth EVANS, TEAM Burnaby
Jeffrey CHIU, TEAM Burnaby
Andrew CHISHOLM
Nancy HARRIS
Parvin CHAMI

SCHOOL TRUSTEE (7)
x Ron BURTON, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Larry HAYES, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Mondee REDMAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Kathy CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Diane MUMFORD, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
x Helen CHANG, TEAM Burnaby
x Trudy GORDON, TEAM Burnaby
Cathy CENA, TEAM Burnaby
Tony COCCIA, Burnaby Citizens
Baljinder NARANG, Burnaby Citizens
Rich BAERG, TEAM Burnaby
Richard LEE, TEAM Burnaby
Elaine HASEK, TEAM Burnaby
Nancy von EUW, TEAM Burnaby
Manjeet SAHOTA
Rubin PRICE

The Straight Slate for Burnaby

The Georgia Straight produced their pre-election Straight slate for Vancouver and surrounding municipalities. Here is the list of their recommended candidates:

MAYOR (1)
Derek CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)

COUNCIL (8)
Pavin CHAMI
Ron CHURCHILL, TEAM Burnaby
Sav DHALIWAL, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Dan JOHNSTON, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Colleen JORDAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
David MYLES, Burnaby Citizens
Lee RANKIN, TEAM Burnaby (incumbent)
Nick VOLKOW, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)

SCHOOL TRUSTEE (7)
Ron BURTON, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Tony COCCIA, Burnaby Citizens
Kathy CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Larry HAYES, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Diana MUMFORD, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Baljinder NARANG, Burnaby Citizens
Mondee REDMAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)

The list, except for three counicl candidates, is made up of BCA candidates. Lee Rankin is a former BCA candidate. Parvin Chami is an environmental activist. Ron Churchill's most recent political leanings have been green in colour. The Georgia Straight tends to support candidates who are very conscious of the environment in their decision making.

"Citizens" fight crime

The Burnaby Citizens are fighting crime or at least TEAM Burnaby's crime messaging. They describe the campaign as American-style attack ads. It looks like TEAM may have finally gotten to them.

TEAM's story in The Province

Yesterday, TEAM Burnaby had a press conference about home invasions being a problem in Burnaby, which as you might now know has a bigger crime problem than Surrey! Today's edition of The Province ran with the story of Sunny Jong, a victim of home invasion, and had a nice story about TEAM Burnaby.

This crime message that is not being used by the centre-right in other cities, such as Vancouver, may actually be working for TEAM and could produce big results on Saturday night.

Council and School Board Trends

Council:

Since 1990, the Burnaby Citizens have held at least five of the eight councilor seats in Burnaby. Odds are this trend will continue after Saturday. In 1990, the BCA held six seats while the Burnaby Voters’ Doreen Lawson and Egon Nikolai held the other two seats.

In 1993, the BCA again had six seats while the same two opposition councilors were re-elected.

In 1996, the BCA picked up another seat while the BVA’s Lawson represented the lone voice in opposition. Without a second opposition councilor, the BVA was unable to even move and second its motions that the BCA did not like. The Burnaby Non-Partisan Association, a new party in 1996, won no seats.

In 1999, the two factions had merged and put on their best campaign in recent years. The Burnaby Voters—Non-Partisan Association won three seats to the BCA’s five seats. Barbara Der and current candidates Gary Begin of TEAM Burnaby and independent Nancy Harris were elected at a time when the provincial NDP had been in power for eight years.

The chasm reopened in 2002, with the BV-NPA being shut out against a BCA council that had seven councilors joining Derek Corrigan. Only TEAM Burnaby’s Lee Rankin bucked the trend, being returned to council after a three year absence.

A unified opposition has usually guaranteed two, if not three, non-BCA councilors. This looks likely this year as well. Which TEAMster joins Lee Rankin on council is anyone’s guess.

School Board:

For the last decade and a half, the anti-BCA forces have fared just as poorly at the school board level. A limited BVA opposition emerged to oppose the BCA majority in 1990. In 1993, the BCA shut the BVA out completely and took all seven school trustee spots. Barbara Fisher of the BVA was elected to oppose six BCA trustees in 1996. In 1999, running for the merged BV-NPA, Fisher was joined by Barbara Spitz against five BCA trustees. In 2002, only Deborah Christie of TEAM Burnaby was elected against six of the BCA’s finest. Unified or divided, the centre-right struggles at the school board level in Burnaby. Zero, one, or two are the likely number of TEAMsters elected to school board on Saturday.

Election roulette

January 3, 9, or 16 are the latest rumoured dates coming out of NDP, Bloc, and Tory circles for election day. The latest panic suggests the election will be forced on one of the following dates: tomorrow, next week, or November 28.

Maybe a crap shoot rather than roulette describes what is going on in Ottawa.

Better Burnaby Voters Coalition endorsements

A group calling itself the Better Burnaby Voters Coalition, which seems to be a new ad hoc organization working solely by e-mail, has been e-mailing around a list of its endorsements for this Saturday's civic election. The list of endorsements is below:

Mayor (1)
Andrew STEWART, TEAM Burnaby

COUNCIL (8)
Gary BEGIN, TEAM Burnaby
Andrew CHISHOLM
Jeffrey CHIU, TEAM Burnaby
Sav DHALIWAL, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Mark HILFORD, TEAM Burnaby
Paul McDONELL, Burnaby Citizens
Lee RANKIN, TEAM Burnaby (incumbent)
Barbara SPITZ, TEAM Burnaby

SCHOOL TRUSTEE (7)
Ron BURTON, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Helen CHANG, TEAM Burnaby
Kathy CORRIGAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Trudy GORDON, TEAM Burnaby
Larry HAYES, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)
Baljinder NARANG, Burnaby Citizens
Mondee REDMAN, Burnaby Citizens (incumbent)

The e-mails have been sent from the Hotmail address BetterBurnaby.

Cunning pol

Burnaby-Douglas Liberal candidate Billy Cunningham knows how to nurture his supporters. Employed at the Ministers' Regional Office in the downtown library government office building, Cunningham has invited the Simon Fraser University Young Liberals of Canada down to his digs for a tour.

In the last campaign, not only was Cunningham the youngest Liberal running in British Columbia, but he also had one of the most youthful squads of helpers. Much of this was due to the old guard walking away on him after the fiasco involving Tony "Mr. Democracy" Kuo and his cries of discrimination towards to Liberals and the Paul Martin machine.

Cunningham is making a wise move inviting the YLC into his lair - much like the spider did with the fly so many years ago in that children's tale.

Everybody Hates Tom

Independent mayoral candidate Tom Tao is making hay of all the hate mail he is getting over at his blog. He seems to be serious about his bid for mayor as he is laying out a full and complete platform but he is struggling to coverage in all areas but the Chinese language press.

Tory, Tory, Tory

Rumours are circulating in Conservative circles that the two Burnaby ridings, along with the New Westminster-Coquitlam riding, will be running a joint campaign in the pending federal general election.

With resources stretched to the limit, because of both there having already been two B.C. elections in 2005 and the 2004 election being less than a year and a half ago, local riding election campaigns are looking for ways to keep costs down so they can get the most bang for their buck.

The Burnaby/New Westminster/Coquitlam Tories are not the only group considering this option. Among other places where a joint campaign will take place will be in Surrey for the federal Liberals who will run four campaigns in a co-ordinated effort.

Talk about overcompensating for something that is too small

First it was the Andrew Stewart Corvette with huge signage on it. That was somewhat of a cool trick. Now to accompany to fast car is the big sign. TEAM Burnaby has a three sign display at locations around Burnaby. The signs tell voters that Burnaby's issue is crime, Burnaby's crime problem rivals Surrey's infamous crime problem, and TEAM Burnaby will fight crime.

Huge signs at prominent locations throughout Burnaby began promoting this message on Sunday. At a debate last week, TEAM's crime message, which was on display in a large pamplet format, was harshly criticized by Derek Corrigan's BCA for being based on questionable facts. This story, like the Corvette one, was picked up by Saturday's Burnaby Now.

Unlike previous TEAM signage, the new red and white signs can be read while passing by in a moving car.

Another Indy entrant

Independent Manjeet Sahota for school board has joined the ranks of those with signs up. They are very small signs but they are up.

Full "budget"

The economic update the federal government is working on will be a full length budget according to government staff in Ottawa. However, this economic update will not be an official budget, merely a pre-election tuneup. Expect Liberal candidates across the nation to campaign on this pro-Canada "budget," arguing that the NDP and Conservatives will destroy all their plans for Liberal Canada if they do not get a fifth mandate.

Hating Hilford on the Hill

Word in from the Cap Hill debate last night is that it was a calm affair (at least by their standards). The most controversial figure appeared to be TEAM Burnaby council candidate Mark Hilford. Hilford, who resides in Coquitlam, took quite a beating both from Burnaby Citizens' Association candidate Nick Volkow and members of the capacity crowd because of his city of residence. Hilford also struggled with the debate rules as, on more than one occasion, he tried to get a word in on a question after one of his fellow TEAMsters responded. Derek Corrigan of the BCA was quite critical of this move.

Independents Tom Tao and Andrew Chisholm figured out the system fairly quickly and did their best to maximize their turns at the microphone. Nancy Harris, the other independent in the debate, did not speak as frequently. Tao and his mayoral opponents Andrew Stewart and Derek Corrigan fielded the most questions.

This must be a boring campaign if that is the best that could be offered at that venue.

Hot Wheels

TEAM Burnaby mayoral candidate Andrew Stewart has an elaborate promotion system. Not only is he getting sole billing on the TEAM Burnaby lawn signs and top billing on both sizes of the huge signs, but he is also getting some fast coverage in a red Corvette featuring his name in prominent positions. Some might say the car is as difficult to read as the big blue signs, but given that it is an election campaign that car will most likely not be speeding too much through the streets of Burnaby between now and Saturday of next week.

Happy 18th Birthday, BCA in the mayor's chair

In 1987 Bill Copeland of the Burnaby Citizens’ Association began what is now an 18-year hold on that job for the BCA. Copeland defeated incumbent mayor Bill Lewarne by a slight 400-odd vote margin. In their rematch in 1990, during the first synchronized province-wide triennial elections, Copeland beat the Burnaby Voters’ Association’s Lewarne again winning more than 21,000 votes. Copeland won his third and final term in 1993 with 18,335 votes to 6,060 from his challenger, BVAer Elizabeth Elwood. Elwood was a last minute replacement candidate when former Burnaby-Willingdon Social Credit MLA Elwood Veitch, who was scheduled to run, passed away suddenly.

In 1996, Copeland passed the torch to BCA councilor Doug Drummond who win 13,138 in a time of declining voter turnout against a split non-BCA/NDP vote. Current TEAM Burnaby council candidate Gary Begin then of the BVA won half as many votes as Drummond. Current Burquitlam MLA and alleged TEAM fundraiser Harry Bloy of the upstart Burnaby Non-Partisan Association won just approximately 2000 votes. Drummond was re-elected in 1999 with 11,877 votes, less than his next two rivals combined. The merged Burnaby Voters—Non-Partisan Association won 6,622 votes with Ray Power, currently an independent candidate for mayor of Vancouver. Former BCA councilor and lone TEAM incumbent Lee Rankin as an independent won 5,570 votes.

After Drummond, began the era of Derek Corrigan who won the mayor’s chair in 2002 with a 14,402 vote plurality against another split non-BCA/NDP vote. TEAM finished second with 9,172 votes for Brian Bonney. Jim Dixon of the BV-NPA was third with 7,090 votes. Corrigan is seeking re-election this year against TEAM candidate Andrew Stewart and independent Tom Tao.

TEAM Burnaby is saying 2005 is their year to take the mayor’s chair in Burnaby. In the past two elections the BCA has held on to the job but has not won fifty percent of the vote. With the first unified centre-right opposition (if post the 1999 post-BCA/NDP Lee Rankin can be considered as such at that time) to the BCA in over a decade.

The best defense the BCA and Derek Corrigan have against the unified centre-right alternative are the Tom Tao factor and the provincial NDP having been out of power for more than four years now. Former council and MLA candidate Tom Tao may draw some of the ethnic vote that may have previously sympathized with the anti-left party currently represented by TEAM. Tao, on the other hand, could be a non-entity like he was in this year’s Burnaby-Willingdon MLA race. In 1996 and 1999 the BCA bottomed out as their provincial-level wing, the B.C. NDP, bottomed out in the 11,000-plus range. No, non-BCA candidate has broken 10,000 votes in a decade and a half.

Jack's Back

NDP leader and soon to be 38th Parliament killer Jack Layton is in Burnaby tomorrow. Layton will be addressing a group of students at Simon Fraser University. Two weeks later, local NDP MP Bill Siksay will be back at SFU to speak to students again. It is clear how important the (small) youth vote is to the NDP if that much attention is being paid to universities.

Accentuate the positive

Andy "We call him 'Drew' on occasion but that irked an anonymous commenter who wants him to be called 'Andrew' so we will just call him 'Andy' today" Stewart got a negative headline in today's Westcoast section of The Vancouver Sun, but the article did show how TEAM Burnaby is willing to spend their way to making Burnaby a better city. The article also pointed out how crazy the city is where the left wants to cut while the right wants to put money into social programs. Derek Corrigan and the BCA claim that TEAM's spending will cause Burnaby council to force another tax hike on property owners.

In their defense, Stewart and his TEAM have been churning out the press releases over the past couple of days. They have been getting quite a bit of coverage (compared to the other GVRD suburbs) in Vancouver's big two papers. Yesterday, Stewart was pitching how TEAM plans to care for Burnaby's seniors. Today, TEAM's school trustees, with former council candidate Rich Baerg getting the quotes in the press release, launched their plan for a school drug dealer tip line.

Past challenges to the BCA have been mostly negative with little emphasis on what the alternative could do for Burnaby. Despite the criticism the have been receiving in this site's comments and in some of the letters to the local press, this time around TEAM Burnaby is providing voters with a choice that, despite being critical of Corrigan and company, is putting out a well-developed platform for the city. By rolling it out bit-by-bit, TEAM is also maximizing their coverage in the local press. That must really be getting the BCA's goat.

Poppygate

The Remembrance Day Royal Canadian Legion poppy is taking some serious hits this November. First Bourque got into a dispute with the Legion and dropped the Canadian poppy for the British one. Then Stephen Harper criticizes the poppy's inability to stay on the lapel and came up with a quick fix with one of those Canadian flag pins in place of the standard-issue pin. Even the picture of TEAM mayor hopeful Andrew Stewart in today's Westcoast section of The Vancouver Sun has a foreign object holding his poppy in place as well.

Something has to be done about those pins, even if it involves something as simple as distributing the poppies with pre-bent pins.

Old news

The left in B.C. sticks together. A few weeks back, before the campaign got into full swing, Derek Corrigan was out in Surrey supporting his fellow municipal NDP slate, the Surrey Civic Coalition.

Whack-a-Mole

TEAM Burnaby-Coquitlam First BC Liberals are just making it too obvious. The latest coincidence to follow in the footsteps of Burnaby Ideas/Coquitlam Ideas is the two neighbouring civic slate's phone numbers. Dare to compare:

Contact TEAM Burnaby
Tel: 604 628 1500
Fax: 604 628 1501

and

Call our office at (604) 628-1502

(Ed. Note: No need to make new comments, you can simply paste the same tired, old criticisms of TEAM Burnaby's management into the comments section of this post.)

One more link

It is no secret that Derek Corrigan and the BC Liberals are not the best of friends. However, the efforts of BC Liberal supporters may be blurring the lines between their party and the municipal slate being put forward by TEAM Burnaby. An e-mail sent to UBC BC Liberals by the club president, using that title at the end of his e-mail, which encouraged people to come out and savage the vote for TEAM Burnaby on November 19:

Hi Everyone,
As you are all probably aware, Municipal Elections are being held on Nov 19 and we are calling on all of you to help out for this exciting event. The Burnaby Team (sic) is looking to recruit 200+ people to go out with mayoral candidates (sic) to flyer houses and knock on people's doors to get people out to vote!!
Don't worry, you will be fed and there will be a huge party that night as we wait for the election results to come in. So don't wait, get invovled and be a part of the process!!
I look forward to hitting the streets with you all!

BC Liberals from Burquitlam and Burnaby-Edmonds also have been actively involved in helping to elect TEAM Burnaby candidates.

The Burnaby Indy

Check out the article on independent candidates from the NewsLeader. It is difficult to explain how no hopers, especially those who do not have an interesting angle (like the small-business owning Communist Party candidate in Burnaby-New Westminster in the last federal election), get so much media coverage during elections.

Roy G. Biv

Election season is officially underway. The signs are up and soon will be cluttering the medians on major roads throughout the Lower Mainland. Burnaby's colourful signs are black on yellow for the governing BCA and white, blue, green, and red for TEAM Burnaby. An independent candidate has red and white signs.

BCA's signs promote mayoral incumbent Derek Corrigan along with a selection of council and school board candidates on each bag sign. Their larger signs promote a full list.

TEAM Burnaby's huge signs have all 16 names on them and all that stands out is the smaller font "VON" in school trustee candidate Nancy von Euw's name. Those signs sure are colourful, if not a tad crowded with all the names and links to both of TEAM Burnaby's websites.

Conservative endorses Gary Eyre

Muckraking blogger Ryan Warawa, who sought the Conservative nomination this past spring in Burnaby-New Westminster, has weighed in with a suggestion for Burnaby voters to "please consider supporting" Gary Eyre, a TEAM Burnaby candidate. Warawa, the son of former Abbotsford city councilor and current Langley MP Mark Warawa has also recommended candidates in Vancouver, New Westminster, Richmond, Delta, Langley City and Township, Abbotsford, Vernon, and Enderby.

STV just won't die

Demochoice BC's City Vote 2005 includes an alternative ballot for Burnaby, which allows voters to elect an at-large council using a STV ballot. The voter education organization, wishes to inform voters about what they believe to be an effective way of providing a more representative sample of the electorate's choice. The site provides detailed instructions.

As of the time of this posting, candidates elected by those participating in the poll are, in order of election, Gary Begin (TEAM), Pietro Calendino (BCA), Gary Eyre (TEAM), Nancy Harris (Ind.), Dan Johnston (BCA), Lee Rankin (TEAM), Leslie Roosa (BCA), and Nick Volkow (BCA). This is likely to change as candidates and their supporters ramp up their efforts to stack the results.

Currently ballots are also available for Coquitlam (at-large) and Vancouver (at-large and in three wards). Future cities to be added include Delta, Nelson/Creston, North Vancouver (unclear if it is city or district), Richmond, Victoria, and West Vancouver.

The Burnaby-New Westminster Report

Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian's latest mailing has arrived. Canada Post must love this guy. Julian plays up Remembrance Day and war hero Smokey Smith's passing on the front and then fills the rest of the newsletter with NDP promo materials. MP Bill Siksay, Jack Latyon times five, MLA Raj Chouhan, aspiring BCA councilor Paul McDonnell, and the federal NDP caucus all appear in photos. Julian also lays out plans for gas prices, the NDP budget, and financial advice.

In the opposite corner, Mary Pynenburg, who when not attending NPA fundraisers in Vancouver, is bringing Minister of State (Public Health) Dr. Carolyn Bennett into the riding for a pre-election fundraiser at the Westminster Club. Recently a Pynenburg supporter said of Julian, "he comes into the riding picks up some garbage and then heads back to Ottawa," when describing his community clean-up initiatives.

Conservative candidate Marc Dalton has been keeping out of the spotlight since his recent appearance in both The Burnaby Now and The Royal City Record, although he was sighted at the Rotary Wine and Cheese event last Friday.

Gimme Shelter

Drew Stewart, TEAM Burnaby's pick for mayor, landed big coverage in today's Vancouver Sun discussing Burnaby's problems with the homeless. That pretty much hurls the ball into the BCA's court and forces the socially conscious NDPers to defend their running of the city for the past two decades.

It looks like Stewart may finally be the one to throw the BCA out. The way things are going, a few of the TEAM council candidates may even ride in on his coattails.