For many people from as far away as the Fraser Valley, North Burnaby is the gateway to Vancouver. It is also a thoroughfare for the oil industry - the Chevron refinery is based in North Burnaby, and the riding also has a feeder pipeline connected to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which has its end point - Westridge Marine Terminal - in the riding next door.
All this traffic through the neighbourhood has the residents nervous that the needs of the community are undermined by transportation needs in the Lower Mainland and as far away as Asia.
Residents' worries are heightened by memories of the 2007 oil pipeline rupture, when Cusano Contracting, a city-hired contractor, broke the pipeline while digging along Inlet Drive nearby in the Burnaby-Lougheed riding. A 20metre geyser of oil sprayed for 25 minutes, coating nearby homes in crude oil.
Concerns have increased since Kinder Morgan announced plans to nearly triple the pipeline's capacity. A group formed to fight the expansion - Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion, or BROKE.
In the lead-up to the May 14 election, this has been a major issue for Burnaby North candidates, who have tried to explain to voters how they would handle the project, if they were elected.
Kinder Morgan has not yet submitted an application to the National Energy Board for the expansion. Once an application is made, public hearings and input from the province are expected to be part of the process.
But, as B.C. Liberal candidate Richard Lee pointed out at an all-candidates meeting, the pipeline isn't the only environmental issue for residents - the Chevron refinery has had its share of problems, including oil seeping off-site.
He also mentioned his party's five-point criteria for the proposed Enbridge pipeline as an example of how the party would handle the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
All of the four candidates for the riding have expressed concerns about the proposed expansion and increase in tanker traffic, including B.C. Conservative candidate Wayne Marklund. However, Marklund has also made it clear his party supports pipeline projects as a way to increase jobs and boost the economy in B.C.
B.C. NDP candidate Janet Routledge has pointed to party leader Adrian Dix's recent statement on the proposed expansion as an indication of how her party would handle the issue. Dix said he did not want Vancouver turned into a major oil export facility and an NDP government would take back decision-making authority from the federal government, likely over the environmental assessment process.
And B.C. Green Party candidate Carrie McLaren has emphasized her party's priority is to stop the proposed expansion and to focus on renewable energy options.
On the pipeline issue alone, Routledge or McLaren might seem the most likely choice for residents who want to halt the project, though it remains to be seen what influence an MLA representing the neighbourhood would have once elected.
But BROKE members and supporters aren't the only people voting in Burnaby North. Lee has held the riding since 2001, though he has been on the periphery of some of his party's recent woes - he was vice-chair of the Burnaby Hospital community consultation committee, which was embroiled in controversy last year when emails between committee members and Liberal insiders surfaced, indicating the consultation was politically driven.
Lee's name also popped up as one of the positive points in the B.C. Liberals' "ethnic vote" outreach plan document.
Those behind the plan were later found to have used government resources to promote the Liberals' agenda of reaching out to "ethnic" voters.
"Caucus has only a few ethnic MLAs, and only one (Richard Lee) who is fluent in a target language other than English," the document reads.
Despite being on the fringe of two party scandals, and his party's tenuous position in the polls, Lee has had community support for more than a decade, in part due to his understanding of the demographics in his riding.
As Lee himself points out, about 30 per cent of riding residents speak Cantonese or Mandarin, which gives him an advantage - he can represent people who may not be able to express their needs and concerns to an MLA who literally doesn't speak their language.
Routledge has made an effort to connect with Chinese-language speakers in the riding with her election signs and pamphlets, which include information in Chinese, as well as English. But it remains to be seen if that is enough to draw support away from Lee.
And business owners in the area also have concerns of their own, including the introduction and reversal of the harmonized sales tax. That was a bitter pill for many small business owners, who either benefited from the HST or simply suffered from the back-and-forth of one complicated taxation system to another. Marklund, who supported the HST, is promoting himself as the voice of small businesses in the city.
On the other hand, Routledge spearheaded the anti-HST campaign, which proved quite popular with voters, leading to the referendum that ended the tax.
Overall, it is a close race in Burnaby North between the Liberals and the NDP. But the unique characteristics of the area - the diverse population, environmental concerns and the number of small businesses located there - mean the strengths of any of the four candidates could be pivotal in the riding.
