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It's down to the wire for Burnaby hopefuls

With the election days away, it’ll be a toss-up in Burnaby’s four provincial ridings. Three of the four seats were previously held by the B.C. NDP, except for Burnaby North, which Liberal incumbent Richard Lee narrowly won by 668 votes.
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With the election days away, it’ll be a toss-up in Burnaby’s four provincial ridings.

Three of the four seats were previously held by the B.C. NDP, except for Burnaby North, which Liberal incumbent Richard Lee narrowly won by 668 votes. But it remains to be seen if it will remain as such.

With New Democrats Kathy Corrigan (Burnaby-Deer Lake) and Jane Shin (Burnaby-Lougheed) retiring from politics, it could be anyone’s game.

“It’s not been an easy one, and it’s going to be neck and neck,” said Burnaby school trustee Katrina Chen, running for the NDP in Burnaby-Lougheed.

It’s no surprise then that most of the MLA hopefuls will be spending this weekend knocking on doors and trying to get folks to the ballot box.

Rick McGowan, running for the Greens in Burnaby-Deer Lake, has been handing out postcards, waving signs on street corners and talking to commuters at SkyTrain stations.

“I have a small team of committed volunteers,” he said. “We’re punching above our weight.”

McGowan has no intention of running as a spoiler. He’s in it to win it in a riding that has been “ground zero” for the demovictions issue.

“There’s an appetite for change,” he said, noting voter turnout in Burnaby-Deer Lake has historically been low, which leaves it up for grabs.

Garrison Duke, running for the Liberals in Burnaby-Edmonds, told the NOW there’s “a lot of buzz” around the election, and only a handful of people have rejected him at the door.

“It’s just been very encouraging since Day 1,” he said. “We’re not taking anything for granted; we want to work hard. We want to push right through to the finish line. That’s our style. We are going to be totally all hands on deck.”

The campaign hasn’t been as easy for Neeraj Murarka, the B.C. Libertarian candidate in Burnaby-Lougheed. He said after spending “quite a bit of money” on printing lawn signs, he discovered Burnaby’s bylaws only allows signs to be on private property.

“I would literally have to go door to door and find private homeowners that would be willing to do it, which is a little bit difficult,” he said. “I’ve been limited to the people I did nominations with.”

Some people have confused the B.C. Liberals with the B.C. Libertarian Party, Murarka added.

“They immediately go, “Oh, I don’t like Christy Clark and your party.’ I’m like, ‘No, that’s a different party. We’re completely opposed to most of what those guys stand for,’” he said.

Independent Elias Ishak (Burnaby-Deer Lake) admitted when he first conceived the idea of running, he wouldn’t have given himself a shot. But now the culture has changed, he said, citing the examples of politicians

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, who have caught the public imagination by not being part of the establishment.

“People like an outsider,” he said. “People like someone who can say whatever they want.”

New Democrat Janet Routledge (Burnaby North) told the NOW “momentum is building” in her campaign.

“Every day, we seem to have bigger teams of people coming in to volunteer, so we’ve got lots of canvassers on the street,” she said. “We’ve talked to so many voters who are just fed up with the status quo, and we’re going to have conversations with them about what are the particular issues that they’re worried (about) and talk to them about how an NDP government will take some of the pressure off.”

Her NDP colleague Raj Chouhan, running in Burnaby-Edmonds, agreed.

“I’m very encouraged by the kind of support I’m getting from people at the doorsteps. ... Everywhere I go, people are stopping me and they’re telling me how frustrated they are with this government.”

Duke, meanwhile, reprised comments he made about Chouhan at a recent all-candidates meeting.

“I took it to Raj because what I’m hearing at the doorstep is that nothing’s being done for these people,” Duke said.

Chouhan took the shots in stride .

“He’s a new candidate, and he also doesn’t know how the politics in Burnaby work, so that’s fine. He wanted to take personal attacks and do that, but I’m more concerned about the changes that we want to bring to the citizens of B.C.”

During his campaign, Valentine Wu, running for the Greens in Burnaby-Edmonds, said he’s learned a lot about social issues he never knew about. On more than one occasion, he said he ran into kids staying home without child care because their parents were at work and couldn’t afford to pay someone to look after them.

“It’s a learning process. To me, everything’s new. There’s a lot of things the government should do,” he said.

Housing affordability continues to be top-of-mind for voters, according to some of the local candidates.

“(It’s) the most complex question you can come across and the hardest one,” said Green candidate Joe Keithley, hoping to win in Burnaby-Lougheed.

Murarka shared the sentiments.

“It’s a real big issue. There’s a lot of people I’ve run into at these debates, even colleagues of mine with science degrees, who have great jobs and nobody can buy a house. They can’t even imagine buying a house,” Murarka said.

Anne Kang, running for the NDP in Burnaby-Deer Lake, said her party’s promise to build 114,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years has been well received.

“That’s something that they’re very interested in,” she said.

For Lee, healthcare has been a topic that’s come up during door-knocking, specifically about the NDP’s promise to build a new hospital in Burnaby. He told the NOW he reassures voters about the Liberals’ plans to redevelop the hospital, that the provincial dollars have been approved.

Sylvia Gung, running as an independent in Burnaby-Lougheed, has been hearing concerns about job loss, the Kinder Morgan pipeline and, of course, housing.

Meanwhile, former TV anchorman Steve Darling, running for the Liberals in Burnaby-Lougheed, has noticed few people have gone out on a limb and called the election, given how the pollsters got it so wrong in 2013.

“That just shows it’s a close election, and the most important thing is we get people out to vote,” he said, adding he’ll be out campaigning with family and friends on Saturday afternoon.

Karen Wang, running for the Liberals in Burnaby-Deer Lake, said in an email her campaign has always expected this election to be very tight.

“In the last election, Burnaby-Deer Lake only had a 48 per cent voter turnout,” she said. “This is unfortunate, and we are encouraging more people to exercise their democratic right to vote in this election. If we can convince enough people that their vote can make a difference, we will be in an excellent position to win.”

Peter Hallschmid, running for the Green party in Burnaby North, like most of his running mates, expects to win on May 9.

“When you have two parties that are very close to each other, it actually doesn’t take very much from each one. If you take from those three groups – a little bit from the Liberals, a little bit from the NDP, a little bit from the undecided – all of a sudden, it’s a three-way race.”

Advance voting up

More voters in Burnaby cast an early ballot this time around when compared to the 2013 general election.

During the first two days of advance polls, 2,180 people marked a ballot in Burnaby-Deer Lake, compared to 1,355 four years ago.

Burnaby-Edmonds had 2,705 voters over the weekend versus 1,592 in 2013. The Burnaby-Lougheed riding had 2,817 voters compared to 1,612, and Burnaby North also saw a boost in voter participation, with 2,920 ballots cast compared to 1,809 in 2013.

Advance voting continues until Saturday. Polls are open today (May 5) and tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. To find an advance polling station, go to elections.bc.ca./wtv.