It's official. Elections B.C. has approved in principle a recall petition for Burnaby North MLA Richard Lee.
Elections B.C. approved the recall Tuesday, and Loren Letourneau, a Burnaby resident, is the proponent.
"The petition will be issued on April 15, 2015, and at that time, registered canvassers may begin collecting signatures," said Chief Electoral Officer Keith Archer in a press release. "The petition must be returned to this office no later than June 15, 2015."
Jennifer Heighton, a Burnaby teacher and Coquitlam resident who has been leading the campaign, was pleased with the news.
"I feel like it is a good step towards democracy," she said. "It's a positive sign for people that this is an empowering process that gives people their voice back."
In order to successfully recall Lee, the campaign organizers have to collect 16,494 signatures from Burnaby North's 41,233 registered voters.
Once the signatures are collected, Elections B.C. has 42 days to verify the signatures are eligible. If the recall is successful, there will be a by-election for the Burnaby North seat, and Lee could run again.
Letourneau's statement, submitted to Elections B.C., said he could not sit by with Lee as his MLA.
"I believe in a political system where the will and needs of a large group of people are represented in government by an elected official. In this, I feel (Lee) has failed. Our hospital is under-funded and overdue for seismic upgrading. He has been silent on the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion proposal, other than to echo Victoria's talking points. And he has continued, since 2001, to be paid for the privilege of being our voice in the Legislature," Letourneau's statement reads.
Lee was in Victoria in the legislature Tuesday and unavailable for comment, but in a previous interview with the NOW, he said he had the support of voters in the last election.
"We just had an election and another election is two years away, so it will take away energy and time for me, of course. I try my best to address all the constituents' concerns," he said.
Lee has been MLA in Burnaby North for 14 years. He was working as a programmer analyst at TRIUMF, UBC's particle and nuclear physics lab, before he was voted in during the Liberal landslide of 2001. In previous elections, Lee has held onto his seat by several hundred votes, but in 2005 it was as close as 65.
Lee is now the only Liberal politician left in Burnaby; all other federal, provincial and municipal politicians are NDP members.
Recall rules are covered by the Recall and Initiative Act, which came into effect in 1995. Since then, Elections B.C. has approved 26 recall petitions (including this latest one), but only five made it to the signature stage. Four failed due to lack of valid signatures, and in the fifth campaign, there were more than enough signatures, but the MLA in question resigned.
