And then there was one.
While the Liberals took pundits by surprise, securing another majority in Tuesday's provincial election, they lost a seat in Burnaby, leaving Richard Lee as the sole remaining Liberal in the city.
Three of Burnaby's four provincial seats are now held by New Democrats, after two incumbents in the south kept their ridings, and newcomer Jane Shin secured a win in Burnaby-Lougheed.
"(It's) a little bit lonely," Lee said, adding he hopes for more diversity on the local political landscape. "I think it's healthy to have opposition."
Gary Begin, a former TEAM Burnaby city councillor who worked on Lee's re-election campaign pointed out that Lee is the only Liberal out of 23 elected seats in Burnaby - all other posts, federal, provincial and municipal, are held by New Democrats. Lee's next term means he will have served a total of 16 years as a local MLA.
"I firmly believe that in the end, Richard's work in the community had paid off for him," Begin said. "A lot of it is he'll meet with community groups. He has a coffee meeting once a month in different parts of the riding. That's pretty much it."
Janet Routledge ran for the NDP against Lee, and while she also was out a lot in the community, it wasn't enough to secure her the seat. Lee edged her out by 833 votes in preliminary counts. Lee told the NOW he was expecting a thinner margin of roughly 200 votes.
While NDP incumbents Kathy Corrigan and Raj Chouhan held on to their seats in the south of the city, newcomer Shin squeaked out a victory in Burnaby-Lougheed, taking a seat that has been held by former Liberal MLA Harry Bloy since 2001. Prior to Bloy, the riding, which has changed shape over the years, tended to lean towards the New Democrats. According to preliminary counts, Shin beat first-time candidate Ken Kramer by just 523 votes in a riding that has been close in past elections.
Shin was missing in action for much of the campaign, after the Liberals began questioning her background and credentials, which Shin's campaign manager Sage Aaron said was tough on the new candidate.
Bob Davies, who has been working with the Burnaby-Lougheed Liberal riding association for about five or six years, said it was a pretty tight race, but first-time Liberal Ken Kramer was "pretty good."
"We ran a solid campaign," he said. "What (the NDP victory) shows was they were able to get their vote out a little better than we were."
Davies attributed Shin's absence to inexperience and questioned why her campaign team would not want her to comment. Davies also said campaigns are not won in the media; it's more a question of who's able to get their supporters to the polls.
"The candidate's background is an influence for the uncommitted voter, but I don't think it made a lot of impact on those committed," he said, adding that real issues in the community, like the economy, weren't paid much attention.
Marjorie Cohen, a political science professor at SFU and a local resident, was very surprised with Shin's win in Burnaby-Lougheed, given the controversy surrounding her campaign and surprised by the result in Burnaby North. She stated that the NDP had a strong presence on the ground.
While Burnaby has just one elected Liberal in public office, they don't hold power anywhere else in the country, she noted.
"If the NDP had won this election, that would be different, but they are still going to be in defensive mode," she said.
According to Cohen, it's possible Liberal leader Christy Clark will punish the city for swinging left.
"She can be vindictive. Whether or not she makes Burnaby a priority can be significant. So (Lee's) going to have hard work to do ... to improve infrastructure like hospitals and schools in Burnaby," Cohen said. "She may punish Burnaby, but on the other hand she's probably going to want to keep Burnaby in the future. (Lee's) going to have to be more active than he has in the past."
