 | Friday, April 16, 2021
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Burnaby byelection candidates mirror city's diversity | | |  | | | In Vancouver, three middle-aged men are currently running to replace another middle-aged man as the city’s mayor, 18 months before an election.
One municipality over, the demographics are a bit different for a much more imminent election.
“Burnaby is one of the most diverse cities in B.C., and when we look at the city council, we don't see that representation there,” said Mehreen Chaudry.
Chaudry is one of the candidates in Burnaby’s byelection to elect two councillors. It was officially scheduled this week for June 26, a year after former councillors Nick Volkow and Paul McDonell passed away.
There are four candidates currently running, two from the Green Party (Chaudry and Teresa Rossiello), and two from the historically dominant Burnaby Citizens Association (former school board chair Baljinder Narang and Alison Gu). All four are women, three are people of colour, and three are significantly younger than the median age on council.
“As Burnaby gets younger and becomes more of an attractive place to live for young families and students, we need to have better reflection of the needs of different generations,” said Gu, the youngest of the candidates at 24.
But while each of the candidates promise to be a fresh voice at council, there isn’t a lot of criticism of Mayor Mike Hurley, who upset longtime leader Derek Corrigan two years ago.
“I think the majority of the policies that are coming through are very acceptable. Whether we could do more? Yes, of course, we could,” said Narang.
While each candidate talked about the need for affordable housing (and Gu a lot about climate policy), there was general praise for the city’s new housing strategy, which includes some of the most favourable policies to renters in Metro Vancouver.
The dynamic in Burnaby politics is a bit of a surprise, given Hurley was elected as an independent and seven of the eight councillors came from Corrigan’s BCA party.
However, aside from two long-time councillors regularly criticizing Hurley for pushing policy they believe goes outside traditional municipal jurisdiction, the soft-spoken Northern Irishman has avoided animosity in council, media controversies or the types fireworks at public hearing seen in other municipalities big and small.
In other words, Burnaby continues to be Burnaby, and will likely continue doing so, regardless of who gets elected in June. | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | One political party was officially launched this week and another person who helped run a political party last election announced he was running for mayor. Whether people particularly want an 18-month campaign, it seems that’s what we’re going to get … at least among the right side of the political spectrum. At this point, it seems the left is content to see how things sift out for many months to come.
Read more | | | | |  | | | 2. Richmond | We’ll try not to focus too much on things more than 500 days away. But we will bring attention to byelections like Burnaby and Richmond’s, where five candidates have now declared in the race to replace Kelly Greene, now an NDP MLA. The city has moved to the left in the last municipal and provincial elections — will the trend continue?
Read more in the Richmond News | | | |  | | | 3. Surrey | Remember last week when we talked about the senior person hired for Surrey’s new police force that had recently got a DUI? Very suddenly, he’s no longer part of the police force, for unexplained reasons. Funny how that happens. In other news, the city continues to approve tall towers at a much faster rate than the rest of the region.
Read more in the Surrey Now-Leader | | | | | |  | | | 4. New Wesminster | Elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, another municipality has jumped on the bandwagon of allowing drinking in six parks, as cities contend with the reality that this summer may look an awful lot like the last one when it comes to gatherings, and adjusting accordingly. Meanwhile, Vancouver continues to wait on the province, 29 months after starting to study the idea.
Read more in the New Westminster Record | | | |  | | | 5. Ucluelet | Finally, the small community on the western edge of Vancouver Island is launching a six-month pilot project allowing seasonal workers to live in mobile homes on certain properties. It’s in response to the housing shortage that happens every summer in the tourism town, and municipalities that face similar summer conundrums are no doubt watching.
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