Guessing game

Burnaby Politics predicts the following orders of finish Monday night:

BURNABY-DOUGLAS
Bill Siksay, NDP
George Drazenovic, Conservative
Billy Cunningham, Liberal
Ray Power, Green
George Gidora, Communist

BURNABY-NEW WESTMINSTER
Marc Dalton, Conservative
Peter Julian, NDP
Mary Pynenburg, Liberal
Scott Janzen, Green

Nationally, there will be a Conservative minority government and the Bloc Quebecois will return to Official Opposition status. Locally, the two Greens will finish better than the provincial average for their party. The Communist will get more votes than the average Communist. Siksay's seat will be called for the NDP prior to 7:30pm. Third and first place in Burnaby-New Westminster will be separated by less than 1,200 votes and it will be one of the final races called early on Tuesday morning.

Campaign in a Nutshell: Burnaby-New Westminster

NDP incumbent MP Peter Julian campaigns on Jack Layton's budget, his work for people with disabilities, and his record.

Mary Pynenburg of the Liberals, no longer working at New West city hall, campaigns as a cancer survivor, promises to bring more cabinet ministers to the riding, and takes a week and a half long break in mid-campaign. To top it all off, she campaigns mainly on the issue of accountability.

Conservative school teacher Marc Dalton, despite an early visit from Stephen Harper, appears as a non-factor until the last two weeks of the campaign, when he becomes the focus of both his opponents' attacks as he surges on his party's popularity.

Green Scott Janzen, a young Power Smart employee, gets more signs up in the area than in any previous south Burnaby or New Westminster campaign as he develops into a credible alternative for voters sick of the three mainstream parties.

Campaign in a Nutshell: Burnaby-Douglas

Incumbent NDP MP Bill Siksay takes on two opponents from 2004, produces frightening campaign brochures with his face on them, and gets a fair deal of support from Jack Layton early in the campaign.

Liberal challenger and backroom pol Billy Cunningham trots a sizable portion of cabinet through his riding, including two visits from Paul Martin. Cunningham spends much of the campaign blogging about campaign and how he plans to bring about change to Burnaby.

Conservative George Drazenvoic struggles to begin the campaign. He has a late office opening and eventually his signs appear. He campaigns as a "Green" Tory and uses the campaign to promote his alternative energy company's plans for Canada's energy future.

Green Ray Power throws out some socially conscious, earth friendly ideas and admits he's probably not heading to Ottawa.

Communist George Gidora attended debates and appeared on CPAC, where he talked about Communism being in his bloodlines.

How'd he not understand?

Peter Julian has been bragging about his status as the top rookie MP and the top B.C. MP in the last Parliament using statistics from How'd They Vote?. When one looks more carefully at the website, the site emphasis is on whether someone voted for or against proposed legislation. Julian has been playing up the words spoken function of the site, where Julian ranks 301st out of all the MPs. Julian claims that his love for his own voice is a good quality in a Member of Parliament.

No one knows why none of his three opponents challenged him on this during the campaign.

Burger King (with 'stache)

The Simon Fraser University NDP are hyping Jack Layton's visit to Burger Heaven in the Burnaby-New Westminster riding tomorrow at 1:00pm. Currently Layton has a slim lead over Paul Martin in the unscientific burger poll. Stephen Harper has a slight lead on Gilles Duceppe for third place.

Better Burnaby picks again

The Better Burnaby Voters Coalition, a group of Burnaby residents concerned for the "economic and social well-being of the City of Burnaby" has sent out their endorsements once again:

BURNABY-DOUGLAS
Bill Siksay, New Democratic Party (incumbent)

BURNABY-NEW WESTMINSTER
Marc Dalton, Conservative Party
or
Peter Julian, New Democratic Party (incumbent)

Jack's Back!

Jack Layton is supposed to be back in Burnaby-New Westminster on Saturday afternoon at Crystal Mall.

This will be the NDP leader's fourth trip to the city of Burnaby during the campaign.

Stop bringing pols out to your riding and campaign, Billy!

The latest out of Camp Cunningham, which is trying to bring in some of the student vote at Simon Fraser University:

This is an intivitation to attend a reception with federal health minister, Ujjal Dosanjh on Friday, January 20th at 12PM in Applied Science Building 10900 (The IRMACS Theatre). Please feel free to come by and chat with the minister. Hope to see you there!

Not quite polygamy

Burnaby is experiencing a couple of tight three-ways according to the B.C. section of Thursday's The Globe and Mail. Burnaby-Douglas MP Bill Siksay who appeared to have a lock on his seat is now in a tighter race against George Drazenovic of the Conservatives and Billy Cunningham of the Liberals. Despite a slow start Drazenovic has an outside shot at winning the seat as a "Green" Tory, while Liberal backroomer Cunningham has brought Paul Martin to his riding twice during the campaign period.

In Burnaby-New Westminster, Mary Pynenburg of the Liberals is playing up her status as the only woman in the race against frontrunners Marc Dalton of the Conservatives and incumbent MP Peter Julian of the NDP.

Lucy!

First, the Conservatives start sending attack messaging towards Paul Martin called "Some Explaining to Do." Now Conservative supporter Erin King has launched I Heart Harper. The I Love Lucy references are abound.

Speaking of I Love Lucy references to this election, supposedly urban water systems experienced their greatest demand during I Love Lucy ad breaks as people used their toilets. Stephen Harper may be the one flushing the toilet on Paul Martin come Monday if things continue in the same direction.

Liberals ask bureaucrats for money again

Taking a page from the Mary Pynenburg playbook, the Liberal Party of Canada is hitting up bureaucrats at the Privy Council Office for money. The PCO is supposed to be non-political, but the Liberal Party does not always pay attention to such things.

Previously Burnaby-New Westminster Liberal candidate Mary Pynenburg found herself in hot water (and soon thereafter looked over a promotion and voluntarily out of a job) for asking city hall employees for donations to her campaign. Pynenburg asked for support using her work e-mail address and made at least one individual at New Westminster city hall feel uncomfortable by her politicization of city hall. Pynenburg also solicited the development community, because last election Pynenburg was the New Westminster city planner and it looked like a good idea for developers to give her money.

Youth vote up for grabs

Students at Simon Fraser University were popular targets for political campaign pitches today. Candidates from the Conservative, New Democratic, and Liberal parties were out in force on the university's Burnaby campus.

All three Burnaby-Douglas candidates, "Green" Tory George Drazenovic, Liberal Billy Cunningham, and NDPer Bill Siksay were looking for support. NDP MLA Raj Chouhan was out helping his federal colleagues. New Westminster-Coquitlam Conservative MP Paul Forseth was also out campaigning for votes from students from his riding who go up the hill every day.

The Advanced Vote

The first day of advanced voting had little of interest to Burnaby voters. In Douglas, Billy Cunningham sent word to the poll that he would be arriving with media to record his vote. When he arrived to vote only a campaign helper with a camera was there to capture the moment as the Liberal candidate decided what candidate deserved his vote.

In Burnaby-New Westminster, word is only Marc Dalton had scrutineers watching the first day of the vote.

Today, Peter Julian and Marc Dalton both had volunteers out waving signs in support of their candidacies. Julian's NDP crew of high schoolers were waving in front of his office on Kingsway near Gilley. Dalton was down in New Westminster with Paul Forseth near the Quay at the foot of 8th Street.

Yet Another Liberal Cabinet Minister Visits Douglas Once Again

The Young Liberals of Canada at Simon Fraser University are pushing a noon hour campus visit on Monday by Justice Minister and Attorney General Irwin Cotler. The Mount Royal MP's speech is titled "Charter of Rights and a Just Society." Cotler has been an MP since 1999 when he won a by-election and has long been associated with human right legal cases.

The Martin Liberals must be getting desperate if they are having cabinet minister campaign on the Charter of Rights and the Just Society after Paul Martin's debate assault on the Charter and the well-known generation old tensions between the Martin and Trudeau camps of the Liberal Party.

Billy Cunningham is the Liberal candidate in Burnaby-Douglas, the riding that contains SFU.

Xtra, xtra read all about Dalton

In this week's Xtra West, a paper targeted to the gay and lesbian community, Tom Sandborn goes on the offensive against Conservative candidates who happen to be Christians for their social policies that do not sit well with some "queer and queer-supportive" voters. Among the candidates mentioned is Burnaby-New Westminster's Marc Dalton, who used to be a pastor at a community church in Burnaby. Dalton is grouped with other Christian candidates including two Lower Mainland candidates formerly associated with Focus on the Family. The paragraph on Dalton failed to link him to Focus:

No evidence has surfaced tying Dalton or [West Vancouver candidate John] Weston directly to Focus On The Family, and a campaign spokesman for Dalton denied that his candidate had any connection at all with the organization, but both have been grouped with Silver and Reid in media accounts as social conservatives. A worker from the Dalton campaign denied that Dalton had any connection to Focus on the Family, but did confirm that Dalton would vote against same-sex marriage in a free vote in the House.

Ethics, Accountability Huge Challenges for Local Liberal Pynenburg

Mary Pynenburg, the Burnaby-New Westminster Liberal candidate, is under attack. Earlier this week, Pynenburg came out with her local accountability plan, which she reemphasized at a press conference. Now, Pynenburg is being challenged by a local, one-time Liberal supporter who has issued the following, lengthy essay which speaks directly to Pynenburg's personal accountability:

LIBERALS FAIL TO HEED ADSCAM LESSON IN BURNABY-NEW WESTMINSTER PICK
Paul Martin has tried hard to distance himself from "Adscam" and sees himself vindicated by the conclusions of Mr. Justice Gomery. Somehow Paul Martin would have you believe that he and his team are not capable of the kind of corruption that has been abundantly demonstrated in the scandal whereby Quebec advertising firms were awarded millions in fees and commissions for little or no tangible work, money was allegedly kicked-back to the federal Liberal Party in Quebec and there was evidence of political involvement in the awarding of sponsorship contracts.
And yet the Paul Martin Liberals have once again given their blessings to the now former New Westminster city planner Mary Pynenburg in Burnaby-New Westminster who has amply demonstrated by her past actions that she doesn't have the slightest regard for any boundaries of proper, ethical conduct as a senior civil servant. What does this say about the Martin Liberals' commitment to clean government?
A little background: Mary Pynenburg was the director of planning for the City of New Westminster when she unsuccessfully sought the federal Liberal nomination the former riding of New-Westminster-Coquitlam-Burnaby in 2000. She was still in her position when she announced in 2003 that she would seek the Liberal nod in the new riding of Burnaby-New Westminster. This time she was successful in her nomination but lost the election to NDP newcomer Peter Julian.
Prior to the nomination meeting in February 2004, rumors about Ms. Pynenburg's fundraising and campaigning tactics became public when the Royal City Record exposed in their February 11th edition that Mary had been soliciting donations and support from New Westminster architects and developers as well as soliciting funds from city employees via e-mail. The paper also reported that a resident who went to Mary's city hall office to talk about city business heard the bureaucrat wax on about her desire to become a member of parliament.
While some developers, residents and employees were prepared to state that they were distressed and uncomfortable with the city bureaucrat's politically-motivated arm-twisting, the Record, careful not to offend the New Westminster political establishment -- including the Mayor Wayne Wright and one councilor Bob Osterman -- who were foolish enough to endorse their erstwhile planner, titled their detailed expose of Mary's antics -- "Conflict or Not."
Ms. Pynenburg's response to the growing scandal was initially to stonewall - The Record reported on February 11 that 17 telephone and personal messages and an urgent e-mail to Pynenburg when unacknowledged before the paper broke the story. Pynenburg later sent a statement to the paper in which she claimed that she would take every step to ensure that there is "no real or perceived" conflict of interest in seeking a Liberal nomination while on the city of New Westminster's management payroll.
The paper reported in their Feb. 18, 2004 edition that her statement, Pynenburg did not respond to several issues arising from their special report including the ethics of sending her campaign support requests to city hall employees via their e-mail at city hall; why she had waited so long to take a leave of absence when she had been campaigning for many months while working in city hall; why, if she felt it was appropriate to take a leave during the 2003/2004 campaign, she did not take a leave during her 2000 campaign, and whether she was prepared to disclose her campaign contributors so the public could evaluate whether she was in a conflict of interest.
Incredibly, Pynenburg justified her actions by stating that since she was an "architect" and a planner, and she was friends with many of them, it should surprise no one that she would ask architects and planners to support her election campaign. Apparently it did come as a surprise to the architects and developers who felt improper pressure from the city planning director to fund her campaign.
(As an aside, it is interesting to note that the Architectural Institute of B.C. later wrote to the Record to advise that Mary Pynenburg was not an architect licensed to practice architecture in B.C. The institute noted that it was an offence under the Architects Act for an individual to misrepresent themselves as an architect. Pynenburg's defense was to claim that she had inadvertently omitted to say that she had been "trained" as an architect.)
In its main article on the scandal, the Record noted on Feb. 11, 2004 that "...in urban cities, the director of planning holds an influential position, affecting millions of dollars of developments. Although major developments generally require the approval of politicians, projects can get the green or red light depending on how a city planner presents them." The article then quoted a source that indicated that a number of architects he knew had received e-mails from Pynenburg asking for support and donations for her campaign and that this brazen form of solicitation from the person with the power to recommend or reject development projects made them extremely uncomfortable.
The article confirms the obvious: senior city planners, and in particular, planning department directors, enjoy considerable power and influence within the city bureaucracy, often reporting only to the city manager. They are exceedingly well-paid, usually receiving compensation packages that well exceed those received by mayors and councilors in most cities.
City bureaucracies in Canada operate for the most part in a similar fashion as provincial and federal bureaucracies - modeled on the advise and consent form of civil service. In other words, the civil servants do the work and provide their advice to the politicians who provide input and ultimately accept or reject the recommendations of their staff. Civic politicians, many of whom are part-time politicians, rely strongly on the professional advice and expertise given by their staff and expect that advice to be professional and diffident.
Well, this will be self-evident for most, except for the federal Liberals, Mary Pynenburg, and her supporters, most governments have codes of conduct that address appropriate standards for conduct for senior civil servants. For example, Ontario Crown restricted employees, including deputy ministers and senior managers are specifically enjoined from running for public office. If they do so, they must immediately resign from their positions to seek nomination, to be a candidate, hold a federally elected office or engage in any other political activity. (They are entitled, however, to vote in federal elections, contribute money to parties and candidates, join political parties and attend all-candidate meetings).
The principle that requires senior civil servants from foregoing political candidacy should be self-evident to all but the most obtuse. Senior civil servants who have important positions within public bureaucracies and ministries must be seen by the public they serve to act with fairness and impartiality to all. The public which includes people from all political stripes should expect that its highly-ranked civil service will perform their duties and implement policy with the utmost of objectivity and diffidence. Wading into the political arena could cause those of different political leanings to mistrust the machinery of government to act fairly and objectively.
What happens to a city planner who accepts donations from her friendly architects and developer? What happens the next time a hotly contested development application is brought before the city and the planner has to decide whether to recommend zoning changes, density bonuses or parking relaxation. What happens when Joe Citizen gets up at the public hearing, hopping mad about the proposed development, and tells council that he thinks the rezoning is going ahead because such-and-such developer gave money to the city planner during her election campaign?
Civic politicians are routinely accused of supporting developments because the applicant just happened to donate money to the council member's political campaign but there's a big difference when the accusation is leveled at the city planner. The politician who seems to be too much in favor of development by his campaign supporters (who must be disclosed) can be defeated at the next civic election. A city planner cannot be defeated.
For the 2004 election, candidates seeking nomination were required to report expenses and donations for nomination battles as well as the election campaign itself. But there was no requirements to report contributions to nomination battles in 2000, and to date, Pynenburg has never made public her nomination campaign contributors from 2000, despite telling the Record in their Feb. 24, 2004 that she was "seeking legal advice as to whether the release of the names of the donors and the amounts they contributed would breach any privacy legislation." In other words, she has hidden behind privacy legislation to not reveal her campaign contributors. The Record noted that she had not even take a leave of absence during her 2000 bid for nomination, and had not taken a leave of absence in the 2004 campaign until after the scandal broke in February, months and months after she had been campaign while wearing her city planner's hat full-time.
What this means is the people of New Westminster had no information between 2000 and 2004 about anyone who had funded her 2000 campaign, whether she recommended development projects advanced by her campaign contributors and supporters. In other words, she was allowed to carry on politics without disclosing anything about her 2000 fundraising and support. By contrast, her masters-the elected mayor and council-are required to report their financial contributions in detail after every civic election.
The only inkling of what she was really up to came when New Westminster resident Neil Gaudreault pointed out in a Feb. 14, 2004 letter published in the Record that a local architect Eric Pattison, who had helped Pynenburg out in her 2000 campaign and was on her Liberal riding association executive, was involved in a development proposal in the Queen's park area of New Westminster.
Mr. Gaudreault asked whether Pynenburg had ever declared this to be a potential conflict of interest and excuse herself from involvement in the project and any other projects involving Pattison. Incredibly, in a letter published in the Feb. 18, 2004 Record, Pynenburg claimed that the Queen's Park proposal referred to by Gaudreault was the responsibility of the assistant director of planning and that since she was on a leave of absence, she had no more knowledge of the project than most other Queen's Park residents. Perhaps New Westminster is uniquely structured, but in most cities, the assistant director of planning reports to the director of planner who reports to the city manager. According to Pynenburg, her friend and Liberal executive member Pattison did not receive preferential treatment from the city of New Westminster. And the tooth fairy really exists, we suppose.
Gaudreault's letter underscores the essential reason why ethical senior civil servants, including city planners are careful to avoid any and all political activism including seeking public office. Recommendations by senior civil servants carry weight and can have profound impact on communities. Recommendations acted on by civic politicians can and are often controversial, pitting neighbor against neighbor, or neighborhood against developer. While professional staff understands that individuals or groups may be unhappy about policy recommendations, no ethical civil servants would want it to be said that their recommendations were influenced by any private or personal consideration whatsoever. Senior civil servants recognize they occupy positions of great trust and take great care to ensure that their reputation for professional objectivity and fairness to all parties can never be called into question.
Sadly, these lessons are lost on the Pynenburgs of the world, and by the federal Liberal party who now has twice allowed her candidacy for parliament. In the aftermath of Gomery which exposed the Liberals penchant for subverting and corrupting the civil service in the interest of their own goals, Canadians might have hoped that the party would acknowledge in some small way the need to ensure their candidates adhere to some reasonable standards of propriety and ethical conduct. To put the seal of approval of Pynenburg sends a signal to all that breaking accepted standards of decent, ethical conduct as a senior civil servant is no barrier at all to acceptance by the Martin Liberals.

Cunningham takes a hit on Bourque

Over at Bourque, there is a link to Allan Rock Liberal Jonathan Ross's TDH Strategies' blog that attacks Burnaby-Douglas Liberal Billy Cunningham for trying to buy off his Tory opponent George Drazenovic. Drazenovic, who is finally campaigning hard after a slow start, is working to towards beating Cunningham and current NDP MP Bill Siksay on January 23. Cunningham, who is linked to Paul Martin svengali Mark Marisen, has been under much attack from the anti-Martin wing of the Liberal Party.

Let's have at it!

All nine Burnaby candidates, from both ridings, have been invited to debate poverty and social issues at Edmonds Community School tonight. No word yet as to which candidates will be attending.

Memo, from PM PM, to MP, BC, and 305 others

For our local Burnaby Liberal candidates, the Western Standard's Shotgun blog has found an advance copy of the 2006 Liberal "Red Book V," entitled "Securing Canada's Success." Billy Cunningham and Mary Pynenburg can thank publisher Ezra Levant for drawing this important document to their attention.

The Liberal Party will not be pulling this one anytime soon.

My Buddy and Me, Billy C.

"Navel Gazing," Burnaby-Douglas Liberal candidate Billy Cunningham's inane, official campaign blog has reached new depths. His January 6 post includes the following paragraph:

My buddy Scott is coming out for a community event and to do some door-knocking with me tomorrow. Outside of an election, I would have to call him Minister Scott Brison, but at this particular moment, we are both candidates looking to earn every vote we can. Scott was through Burnaby earlier this summer at an event we had at Burnaby Lake and he promised then that he would come out again to help us during the election. The one big thing Scott and I have in common, is our outlook on politics: we are both young, progressive, and lean heavily to the fiscal side of the Liberal spectrum. (I also hear that he is willing to Karaoke from time to time, but I'm quite certain that I would put him to shame on that front)

Not bothering the mention that he forgot to end the paragraph with a period, or an exclamation mark, the "Liberal insider" candidate provides an excellent opportunity to link to a page about a toy the youngsters used to play with awhile back, My Buddy. (Do you have the "My Buddy and Me" jingle stuck in your head yet?)

A few days earlier, the blog shows a photo of a bus ride. That picture shows a great action shot of former BC Liberal riding association president Ib Petersen looking into Billy Cunningham's mouth in search of his uvula (yes, boys have uvulas too). There has not been a rumour as of yet that Cunningham's uvula had worn away from all his fast talk, but again this provides an opportunity to make reference to former Liberal candidate Kwangyul Peck of missing fingerprints fame.

Young Socialists Unite (Behind the Moribund Canucks)

Burnaby-Douglas NDP MP Bill Siksay's re-election campaign is having an event Tuesday night at Simon Fraser University (a.k.a. Red Hill). The event is the Vancouver Canucks' game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Simon Fraser Student Society's Highland Pub. Former student society president and one-time university chancellor hopeful Chris Giacomantonio will be DJing at the event.

On January 17, the student society is hosting a Burnaby-Douglas all-candidates' debate on the university's campus.

Power Smart, Janzen Smarter

Blogging Green candidate Scott Janzen made use of his equal billing on CPAC's Burnaby-New Westminster riding profile this weekend, explaining what led to him running as a Green, where he stands on the issues, and what it is like running for a party that many people count out of the race before things begin. Janzen, a BC Hydro employee, explained his contradictory job working for BC Hydro's Power Smart program, which encourages customers to be wiser about their use of energy. In a nutshell, Janzen's job is to encourage people to use less of his company's product. Janzen was able to explain how this was not only good for the customer and the environment but also for BC Hydro, as less energy being used means less dams having to be build, which keeps costs down for the power company.

Along with Janzen in Burnaby-New Westminster, the Green Party is running flower-shop owner and former PC and mayoralty candidate Ray Power in Burnaby-Douglas.

So it begins... about five weeks after the fact

George Drazenovic's campaign held an open house up in North Burnaby yesterday. The alternative energy rising star had a sizable, ethnically diverse crowd out to his event. Fellow candidate Kanman Wong, from Vancouver-Kingsway, joined Drazenovic at his opening.

Drazenovic's brochure was also available for the taking. The picture on the front features Drazenovic standing in front of an alternative energy windmill. On the back, the soccer-loving candidate is shown in the stands of an outdoor sporting event, which one can only assume is a soccer match. Inside the brochure, the "Green" Tory talks about the environment and alternative energy sources, including a whole section on the Kyoto Accord! Drazenovic's biography almost acts as a warning label as that is where he admits his connection to the alternative energy industry. The brochure also makes reference to taxes.

The Wright Stuff

Much speculation has been made in the comments section of various posts about Burnaby-New Westminster Liberal candidate Mary Pynenburg's endorsements' page on her website. A quote once attributed to Wayne Wright, Mayor of New Westminster, is now being credited to New West city councilor Bob Osterman.

In 2004, Pynenburg was endorsed by Mayor Wright with the quote, "I believe Paul Martin will be good for our community and that Mary is the best person to represent us on his team. I hope the entire community will unite behind her." The same quote is not attributed to Councilor Osterman.

In 2002, when Wright first sought the Mayor's office, his opponent incumbent Helen Sparkes had Pynenburg, then New Westminster's city planner, on her campaign team. Wright narrowly defeated Sparkes after a heated contest yet still endorsed Pynenburg, who later left City Hall at the peak of her earning power.

In 2005, Casey Cook tried to move up to the Mayor's chair but failed to defeat Wayne Wright. Cook's campaign team also had Pynenburg on board. Maybe that was the last straw for Wright, as in 2006, his endorsement is missing from Pynenburg's campaign website.

Pynenburg, who has been featured in Royal City Record articles for potential conflict of interest and e-mail ethics, has not commented publicly on the lone change to her endorsements' page from 2004 to 2006.

TV coverage of Burnaby-New Westminster

Green candidate Scott Janzen's blog is reporting that Shaw cable will be running a multi-riding all candidate debate on Sunday night at 8:00pm and CPAC will be profiling the four candidates in the riding over the weekend.

The Shaw debate is put on by the Vancouver Community TV Association and featured Green, Conservative and NDP candidates. No Liberal candidate showed up.

CPAC was taping local candidates today. Marc Dalton was taped on Monday at Kingsway and Boundary Road.

Better late than never?

George Drazenovic's campaign is looking at having an open house this Saturday. This comes only 16 days before the vote.

Drazenovic's campaign has had many problems in the early going and has only gotten moving in the new year.

D-Day

Word is circulating that the plug is about to be pulled on the management of George Drazenovic's incompetent campaign. Local and national Conservative operatives are about to move in to stablize the Burnaby-Douglas Tory campaign, which has been bleeding votes to longtime Drazenovic friend and Liberal candidate Billy Cunningham. (Some Conservatives are even believing that Drazenovic's campaign is part of a conspiracy orchestrated by Cunningham and his associates to elect Cunningham to the job he so badly desires.) In a close race, allowing Douglas to slip from NDP hands to the Liberals might just determine who holds power when Parliament resumes after the election.

Drazenovic's campaign takeover is expected to be in progress by the end of the weekend.

Show me the Money

Harry Bloy, MLA for Burquitlam, is putting on a seminar about accessing gaming funds for non-profit organizations on January 11 at Coquitlam City Hall. In an e-mail to their contacts it was promoted, saying, "Last year we put on a successful seminar for non-profit groups to help with securing gaming funds. We received rave reviews!" The e-mail quotes Heather Jack of the Burnaby infomration and Community Services Society who praises the event saying, “Last year’s seminar gave me the tools to file a successful application with less work or time than holding a fundraiser!”

No word as of yet if any of the bingo experts from the NDP regime of the early 1990s will be on hand for a do's and don't's session.

Go fish!

The Centre for Coastal Studies at Simon Fraser University is hosting a lecture by Newfoundland and Labrador deputy minister Dr. Doug House on Wednesday, January 11. House, an Order of Canada receipient, will be talking about "Oil, Fish and Social Change in Newfoundland and Labrador: Lessons for British Columbia" at 4:00pm at the university's Halpern Centre.

Perhaps this will be what it takes for the B.C. government to finally justify its longstanding plans to begin drilling offshore.

Burnaby-New Westminster candidates

Your Burnaby-New Westminster candidates are:

Marc Dalton, Conservative
Scott Henry Janzen, Green
Peter Julian, NDP
Mary Pynenburg, Liberal

Feel at liberty to comment on these four people's decision to see elected office.

Burnaby-Douglas candidates

Your Burnaby-Douglas candidates are:

Bill Cunningham, Liberal
Bill Siksay, NDP
George Drazenovic, Conservative
Ray Power, Green
Timothy George Gidora, Communist

Feel at liberty to comment on these five men's decision to see elected office.

Carol Calling

Provincial NDP leader Carole James is being used for an automated voice message to Burnaby area voters encouraging them to contact their local NDP campaigns in the important upcoming federal election.

The Martins are coming, the Martins are coming!

Prime Minister Paul Martin, who hopes he has more than just 23 more days on the job, is coming back to B.C. this week. At the moment, our Liberal sources in B.C. are saying the Liberal top dog (and dog may just be the appropriate term given the canine references by Liberals lately) is going to be hitting the Lower Mainland about Wednesday. That visit will likely fall between two trips to Vancouver Island, a place that has not seen much Liberal activity so far this campaign.

No word yet on whether Billy (bring another pol to my campaign office to show off how important I am in the party) Cunningham will be hosting the Prime Minister during his mid-week visit.

Aw, shucks!

Billy Cunningham's campaign blog is actually worse than those of controversial provincial Liberal executives following in his footsteps in recent days. Cunningham's December 30th post talking about his iPod, sign theives and a new Canadian voter is just plain dull.

It is almost as bad as a post commenting on his bland blog. Where are the comments about Chow-Chows, dog-faced party leaders, or separatism? Even a comment about the current MP's former boss or the Tory's campaign manager would spice things up a bit. Try harder, Billy.