Friday, July 18, 2008

All candidate meetings set for two ridings

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Jan. 7, 2006



The lists are in, and the stage is set for the Jan. 23 election with the confirmation of exactly nine candidates nominated in the two Burnaby ridings.

In Burnaby-Douglas, a total of five hopefuls are vying for the seat, including Liberal Bill Cunningham, Conservative George Drazenovic, Communist George Gidora, Green Ray Power and NDP incumbent Bill Siksay.

In Burnaby-New Westminster, the candidates are Conservative Marc Dalton, Green Scott Janzen, rookie NDP MP Peter Julian and Liberal Mary Pynenburg.

Knowing which riding you live in is important, too. The Burnaby- Douglas riding includes all of North Burnaby and most of the central and western portions of the city as far south as Kingsway, Dover and Oakland, and east to Sperling Ave. (See the very good map on the Elections Canada website.)

The Burnaby-New Westminster riding includes everything south of Kingsway, plus a small portion of the city north to Dover, Grange and Oakland to Sperling and all of East Burnaby south of the No. 1 Highway.

For more specific information on which riding you live in, check the voter information card that was mailed out last week, or call Elections Canada at 1-800-463-6868.

ALL-CANDIDATE MEETINGS SET

Are you unsure of how to vote? Then come out to one of the many all-candidate meetings being held over the coming two weeks.

- The Dominion Institute is teaming up with students at Burnaby South secondary school to host a Democracy Project forum for the Burnaby-New Westminster candidates at the school, 5455 Rumble St., at 12 noon, Monday, Jan. 9.

- The Douglas College student union and faculty association will host a debate for the Burnaby-New Westminster riding in the concourse of the college, 700 Royal Ave., New Westminster, at 12 noon, Jan. 10.

- A Burnaby-Douglas event moderated by longtime political watcher Dick Harmon will take place at the Capitol Hill community hall, 361 Howard St., at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11.

- An all-Burnaby forum has invited the nine candidates from both city ridings to discuss issues of poverty, homelessness and other social concerns. Sponsored by the Burnaby Interagency Council, the meeting takes place at Edmonds community school, 7651 18th Ave. (near Canada Way and Edmonds), at 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 12.

- The New Westminster Chamber of Commerce will host a forum for the Burnaby-New Westminster riding at the Burr Theatre, 530 Columbia St., New Westminster, at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 17.

- The SFU student union is sponsoring a forum at the Burnaby Mountain campus at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 17. For details on who is invited and location, contact the student union at 604-291-3181.

- The Heights Neighbourhood Association will host a debate with the Burnaby-Douglas candidates at Gilmore community school, 50 South Gilmore Ave., at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 18.

- The East Burnaby Ratepayers Association will host an all- candidate debate featuring the Burnaby-New Westminster candidates at Second Street community school, 7502 Second St., at 7 p.m., Jan. 19.

RUMOURS FLY OVER TORY CAMPAIGN

Somebody is spreading some nasty rumours about Burnaby-Douglas Conservative George Drazenovic.

An unverified report on a Burnaby politics website that claims the local Tory's campaign office is about to be taken over by the party's national and provincial offices has been denied by the candidate and his supporters.

The allegation, first published on Wednesday night at www.burnabypolitics.blogspot.com, claims the "plug is about to be pulled" on the campaign management team led by Drazenovic's marathon-running mother, Zorica.

The vicious little snipe also claims that Drazenovic is friends with his Liberal rival Bill Cunningham and that his entire candidacy is part of an orchestrated campaign to elect the local Liberal.

Drazenovic called the allegations completely false and said he had no idea where the reports came from.

"This is news to me," said Drazenovic. "Actually I'm quite flattered that I'm getting all this attention."

While he admits that his mother is still working at her full-time job while managing his campaign, Drazenovic said things are getting done.

Drazenovic also dismisses claims that he is "friends" with Cunningham. "I wouldn't call him a friend, but we are longtime colleagues - political colleagues," he said. "I have met him a couple of times in the past year and a half.

"I'm not working with him on anything, I'm actually working against what his political party represents - corruption, arrogance and the culture of entitlement."

Conservative campaign spokesperson Colin Metcalfe also denied rumours that the Burnaby-Douglas campaign was going to be taken over by head office.

"Zorica Drazenovic is firmly in control and working to get George elected," he said.

The Burnaby politics website was first started last March in advance of the provincial election, and is run anonymously by a webmaster who goes by the apparently fictitious name of Robert Burnaby and whose favourite book is The Prince - presumably by Machiavelli.

NOT WANTED ON TV

Green party candidate Ray Power is not happy with the way Global TV is running its Calling All Candidates segment on the early morning news.

Despite the name of the piece, not all candidates are being invited to share their stories, said Power, who was not included the Burnaby-Douglas riding segment that was aired last month.

Power wants Global to either change the name of the segment to reflect that fact that it is not an "all candidates" forum or else allow the Greens and other small party candidates to attend.

And he said his concerns about being excluded are very similar to the issues raised last week by youth groups in Toronto when asked about the increase in gun violence in Canada.

"The leader of the youth group said the big problem is not with guns, it's with young people feeling that they're not included. That's why they join gangs," Power said. "There is a connection when we exclude people arbitrarily. Once you're excluded, it's a real frustrating thing."

"There's no legitimate reason for it, it's just an arbitrary decision."

OPENING THE CABINET?

The parade of cabinet minister into the Burnaby-Douglas riding continued unabated over the Christmas holiday, with labour minister Joe Fontana arriving on Dec. 21 and immigration minister Joe Volpe showing up the following day.

While the visits are clearly intended to raise the profile of Liberal poster boy Bill Cunningham, the past president of the B.C. wing of the party, they have also raised the ire of the opposition parties.

Burnaby-New West Tory Marc Dalton was first off the mark with a press release chastising Fontana for the Liberal's alleged inaction on the leaky condo issue over the past five years (see story on page xx).

NDP MP Bill Siksay joined the dog pile on Christmas Eve when he took aim at Volpe for his apparent refusal to investigate alleged abuses in the two-year-old Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants.

"Is it just me, or do other people get nervous when they hear federal Liberals refuse to address allegations of mismanagement and financial impropriety?" Siksay asked in the release. "There have been serious concerns raised by the Canadian Bar Association, amongst others, about the conduct of the board of directors, and Mr. Volpe's attempts to simply wash his hands of the issue and walk away just isn't good enough.

"Canadians are rightly tired of Liberals who will say anything during an election to get votes, but refuse to take responsibility for their actions."

LAYTON MISSES PHOTO OP

NDP leader Jack Layton may be putting a whole lot of effort into winning the two Burnaby ridings, as evidenced by his recent visits to the city, but someone in his office seems to have forgotten about the importance of staying in contact with the local press.

Staff at the Burnaby NOW were surprised to learn that Layton had already shown up at a press event at Byrne Creek secondary on Wednesday morning, by the time we received our first formal notice of the event - from another journalist.

Michelle Boudreau, the press liaison for Burnaby-New Westminster candidate Peter Julian, whose riding played host to the leader, said the oversight will definitely not happen again.

"We had nothing to do with it," Boudreau said Wednesday afternoon. "The national office controls all the media, and provincial office controls the local stuff. But next time, I will make absolutely hell-bent sure that you not only get the notice, but that you get it in time."

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