Worse than Point Grey

This week's figures on HST petition signatures are out.

Burnaby-Deer Lake, an NDP held riding, has the lowest rate of petition signatures per capita of any riding in the province with only 1.7% of the registered voters in the riding. It is trailed by Vancouver-Point Grey which has 1.8% of the signatures in the riding.

In order for the petition to be approved, 10% of the registered voters in each of the 85 ridings need to sign the petition. With eight weeks to go, Fight HST claims it has hit its target in 56 ridings. As the days wind down, the focus will shift to about a dozen urban ridings, likely including at least Burnaby-Deer Lake and Burnaby-Lougheed which have some of the lowest response rates in the province. The high number of apartment buildings and the large English-as-a-second-language populations in many of these ridings appear to be significant hurdles to the Fight HST campaigners who have found incredible success in many other parts of B.C.

Canada at 150: Liberals in Montreal, Vancouver, not Burnaby

The Canada at 150 Liberal "thinkers conference" is on this weekend in Montreal. Liberals and Liberal-minded thinkers have gathered to hash out ideas for the future of Canada, or at least the future of the Liberal Party.

The exclusive event has 300 invited participants. For the many Liberal activists not involved, several ridings have scheduled local gatherings to look at the future.

While three Vancouver ridings have made the effort to put on events, neither Burnaby-Douglas nor Burnaby-New Westminster are putting on local gatherings to draw out Liberals interested in the party's future under the leadership of Michael Ignatieff and beyond.

Iggy comes to Burnaby

Burried in Barbara Yaffe's column is news that Michael Ignatieff is coming to Burnaby next Friday.

Ignatieff is in the process of redefining what it means to be a Liberal in Canada. His 150 conference later this month in Montreal hopes to follow in the footsteps of Pearson and Chretien. After their conferences they found their way to government within three years.

The Liberals have nominated Ken Lee in Burnaby-Douglas. They have yet to nominate a candidate in Burnaby-New Westminster.

Peacocks!

CKNW is reporting NBC's Matt Lauer and Bob Costas will be carrying the Olympic flame in Burnaby today.

Our Olympic moment

With one day to go, Burnaby will get its Olympic moment.

Instead of hosting the world for two weeks at the Speed Skating Oval on Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby will get two hours with the Olympic flame. The torch will be run for three stages across Burnaby Thursday morning.

As the torch relay descends into Gordon Campbell's personal photo op, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan must be smiling at the decision to cut the International Olympic Committee out of Burnaby. On the other hand, Burnaby has also passed up a one time opportunity to shine in front of a worldwide audience of a billion or more people.

Let's enjoy our moment in the spotlight, cause like a flame it will go out too quickly.

Mr. Davies goes to Burnaby

Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies is coming to Burnaby. Davies is having a fundraiser with Jack Layton on Saturday, January 23 at the Firefighters Banquet and Conference Centre.

Why is he holding an event in Peter Julian's riding with all the venues available in Vancouver Kingsway? Are the brothers at the firehall that big a part of the NDP coalition?

Politicial story of the year

The city's dominant political issue of the year was also the city's dominant politician. Mayor Derek Corrigan was everywhere.

According to Maclean's, he leads the best run city in Canada. That feat alone should be the top story, but Corrigan did other things this year.

He laid the groundwork in past years by standing up to VANOC and the province. He continued to build this year, overseeing a council that brought a new library to town and changed the way garbage pickup worked. He also continued to fight with the province and was a non-joiner as far as the Olympic love-in went.

With the NDP in solid control of the two federal seats, city hall and school board, Corrigan and the NDP team built on the city's left-wing dominance by electing the mayor's wife Kathy Corrigan as MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake, the city's safest Liberal seat on paper.

With the NDP-linked Burnaby Citizens in firm control, Corrigan has dominated the city in a way few politicians have. For that the mayor, despite the city's faults, is the political story of the year.