The Burnaby First Coalition is confident it will elect a “swath” of candidates to city council and school board this fall despite not being first to enter the race.
The party will hold a vote in mid-August where members will choose its mayor, councillor and trustee candidates, according to spokesperson John Smith.
Smith said the party will provide a “moderate choice” to Burnaby voters.
“We like to position ourselves as the middle-ground, common-sense party,” he said.
Following the nominations, Smith said, the party will gradually release its platform, which will be an updated and expanded version of the one it put forward in 2014.
Smith said the platform will focus on tax cuts, supporting business and addressing housing and homelessness.
He said affordable housing is being “eliminated at far too high of a rate” in Metrotown and called demovictions there “probably the most serious issue that our community is facing.”
A BFC council would engage in more consultation and limit the amount of new developments in Metrotown, Smith said.
“We’re not necessarily anti-development, per se, but we can very, very blatantly and obviously recognize that the rate of development and the destruction of affordable housing has been far too great,” he said.
Last election, the BFC failed to elect any of its eight council candidates, as the Burnaby Citizens Association swept all seats for the third consecutive election. The top BFC council candidate, Helen Ward, came nearly 5,000 votes short of a seat, while the party’s mayoral candidate, Darren Hancott, received 22 per cent of the vote to BCA incumbent Derek Corrigan’s 69 per cent.
Smith said those results were not bad for a party participating in its first election.
He said some of the BFc candidates received the most votes at individual polling stations.
“If we were to just nominally expand on our previous results, then we would fully expect to have members elected, … We have to do exactly what we did last time and try a little bit harder.”
Smith said that that effort would include more consulting, door-knocking and campaigning.
“We have to keep ensuring that we bring a vision and a value to the community,” he said.
The BFC is still inviting members of the public to stand for its mayoral, council and school nominations. So far, Smith said, three candidates from the last election have already signalled they will stand for a nomination, as will existing party members. He said the party was not yet ready to name those individuals.
Once they begin campaigning, they will join a partial slate of Green Party council and school board candidates, at least one independent running for council and independent mayoral candidate Mike Hurley – all vying to unseat the BCA.
Smith said the BFC will be ready to hit the ground running once it has completed its nomination process.
“I don’t agree that we’re behind,” he said.
Municipalities across B.C. will vote on Oct. 20.
