For a decade, the Burnaby Citizens Association has had a monopoly on power in the city.
Three elections in a row, voters elected eight councillors and a mayor from the NDP-affiliated slate to city hall.
On Saturday, a small crack opened in the party’s grip on power – independent Mike Hurley toppled Mayor Derek Corrigan, while the Green Party’s Joe Keithley beat out the BCA’s Baljinder Narang for the final council seat.
The newcomers were elected on promises to bring change to municipal governance – but with just two of nine votes on council their ability to follow through on their bold promises could be limited.
Hurley will likely have an ally in Keithley, the DOA rocker who dropped out of the mayor’s race to endorse him, but getting along with the BCA councillors may prove a tougher challenge, predicts SFU political scientist Paddy Smith.
“They’re going to have to work something out,” he said.
It won’t serve the BCA councillors – James Wang, Pietro Calendino, Colleen Jordan, Nick Volkow, Paul McDonell, Sav Dhaliwal and Dan Johnston – to fight Hurley on every issue, Smith said.
“I think they’re going to have to lick their own wounds and figure out their own take,” he said. “I don’t think it serves them in the long term, meaning four years out, to be nothing but pissed off.”
Johnston, who wrote an email two days before the election calling Hurley a “say anything candidate,” acknowledged he would have to work with the new mayor.
“I hope we can [get along],” he said on election night. “I think that the fact it looks like a BCA majority, I think our plans are going to continue to go forward.
Volkow was also optimistic about the new dynamic on council.
“I think most of us that have been re-elected to council have worked with Mike over the past in his role as the president of the Burnaby Firefighters Association,” he said, adding that Hurley is a fellow “progressive.”
Volkow also struck a positive tone about the prospect of working the Keithley on council.
“Joey S***head’s on council? Alright! Oh, I can work with Joey,” Volkow said, referring to Keithley’s stage name. “I’ve attended many of DOA’s concerts. They’re a fine, fine band. I think it will be a dynamic council. You’ll see a lot of mano a mano when it comes to issues and things like that.”
Both Keithley and Hurley have made housing, particularly in Metrotown, a focus during the campaign and both have said it will remain at the top of the agenda after they’re sworn in Nov. 5.
A moratorium on demovictions will require BCA support, but Keithley said the councillors who passed the controversial Metrotown Downtown Plan and upzoned many low-rise apartments and paved the way for demolitions will have to come around on the issue.
“I think the BCA councillors have got to get around to what Mike has laid out,” he said “It is what it is and we’ve got to work with whoever’s there.”
Hurley could not be reached by phone before deadline, but on election night he said he was confident he could work productively with his new colleagues.
“I don’t think it will be an issue,” he said. “I’ve worked with most of people on that slate and I look forward to sitting down and getting to work.”
Writing on Facebook, re-elected councillor Jordan said she was disappointed that her “friend/mentor/colleague” Corrigan and the BCA’s Narang both fell short of being elected.
“Mayor-elect Hurley and councillor-elect Keithley were elected on platforms to bring change to city hall, but we will all need to work towards finding the balance that the citizens seem to have desired through their choices,” Jordan wrote. “We have a lot of work to do together.”
-With files from Cornelia Naylor
