Happy Anniversary!

The Basi-Virk raids took place three years ago today. The story continues to unfold... very slowly.

Some people even blog about it exclusively. Things might even move closer to resolution in 2007.

This province sure has interesting political scandals.

Political Figure of the Year

In a year that saw Burnaby's two NDP MPs re-elected and its civic and provincial politicians go toe-to-toe over Burnaby Hospital and homelessness, none of that really made a difference to Burnaby and its residents. Then again, neither did Burnaby's poltical figure of the year - unless you count an American political firestorm.

Burnaby-raised actor Michael J. Fox was Burnaby's political figure of the year. Despite being unelected the news coverage he received for his endorsement of some pro-stem cell research Democratic mid-term election candidates was the most high profile political move anyone associated with Burnaby made in 2006.

Accusations about Fox overemphasizing his tremors and the fight he had with the right wing talk media was one of the major political battles of the year south of the 49th parallel. In some small part Michael J. Fox's endorsements and subsequent trial by media contributed to the political shift to the Democratic Party in November 2006.

Even though Burnaby council wrote a letter to American news outlets asking for people to not be so hard on the actor who was Spin City's deputy mayor, Burnaby council - not to mention its MLAs and MPs - was a far cry from gaining nearly the amount of coverage the Canadian-born actor garnered in just a few short days this fall.

The Canadian Immigrant

The Canadian Immigrant Magazine's current December issue has a profile of Burnaby MLA and immigrant success story John Nuraney.

Government Open Houses

The Government Liberal MLAs in Burnaby are in the festive mood. Open houses occur for the three Burnaby MLAs on Thursday (Burquitlam's Harry Bloy) and Friday (Richard Lee, John Nuraney). Check with your MLA's office for more information.

Two Steves beat a Jack; Billy on the comeback trail?

Stephane Dion joins Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe, and Elizabeth May as the leaders who will fight the 40th Canadian general election, whenever that may be. The Mark Marissen machine that took Paul Martin to the top of the mountain is back after a horrible 2005. Now the question local is can Billy Cunningham get a third crack at Burnaby-Douglas?

Round One: Fight!

So the action has begun in Montreal to pick the new Stornoway house guest, who probably wants to move out pretty soon thereafter. The first ballot results:

Ignatieff - 1,412
Rae - 977
Dion - 856
Kennedy - 854
Dryden - 238
Brison - 192
Volpe - 156
Hall Findlay - 130

Martha Hall Findlay had ex-officios rally to her aid to keep her on the ballot for another round. It was not enough, but she nearly picked up 100 extra supporters on top of her Super Weekend support.

Joe Volpe came very close to Hall Findlay partly due to his own campaign's problems and partly due to his early jump to Bob Rae. He chooses to leave before round two, so that leaves six.

Scott Brison has a lot of work ahead of him if he is to stay for rounds two and three. Talking about the environment will not win him the nearly fifty extra supporters to move into fifth.

Ken Dryden could have been a joke, but he's rallied people around him as the anti-Harper guy. His support could mean something when he does eventually throw it.

Gerard Kennedy had the worst night as he was the only candidate who finished below where he should have. Could he be the kingmaker or will he bleed too much in the morning to matter?

Stephane Dion knocked their socks off. His speech was cut short and may have been the weakest of the night but somehow he came out of the blue to overtake the other outside shot candidate to be the guy who could overtake one of the big two and win the whole thing Saturday night. Maybe a Jean Chretien endorsement could make him the new little guy.

Bob Rae needs 1,400-plus votes to be the new leader of the Liberal Party and the guy who'll bring down his second federal Tory government. It was all about the Liberal Party's history for him because not even Bob wants to talk about Rae Days, at least until he's back in the top job.

Michael Ignatieff has been the guy since before Paul Martin was faltering. This project of Rainmaker Davey Jr. needs 1,000 more votes but has a sizable lead that he has a decent chance of holding on to in order to win it all.

It all resumes at 6am or something awful. Maybe the results will be known by the time we flick on the BCTV News on Global.