Burnaby First Coalition announced Thursday it will not be running a mayoral candidate in the Oct. 20 election to challenge incumbent Derek Corrigan and the other declared candidate, Mike Hurley.
And the civic party stopped short of endorsing anyone for mayor.
The BFC recently announced four candidates, including Charter Lau, Heather Leung, Linda Hancott and John Templeton, and was looking at adding more council candidates to make up a full slate, plus a mayoral candidate.
But a BFC news release said the party had decided to not run anyone for mayor.
The BFC used a consulting company and spoke to people in the community, the party said, concluding that “by running a strong mayoral candidate, the likely outcome would be a tight three-way race. Regardless of who prevailed, they would not have a strong mandate, contrary to the BFC's agenda for change.”
“The consultants found that BFC supporters are very loyal and this election would be determined by how many new voters Hurley could attract in addition to the number of past BCA supporters going to the Hurley camp, which is very noticeable even at this stage of the election,” the news release said. “BFC encourages everyone to compare the track record of the current mayor, both the good and the bad, against the value of change offered by Mike Hurley, along with his long community service. The key point is that the community weighs status quo vs. the need for a change. A decisive two-way race is in everyone’s best interest.”
