Harper visit pleases Tories

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Apr. 29, 2006


Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Burnaby last week, where he announced that his $1,200 per child per year child-care plan will become a confidence issue for his minority Conservative government.

In a press release issued after the event, Harper said the Tory child-care plan is better than the Liberals' plan because it requires no federal-provincial negotiations, offers no funding for academics, researchers or special interest groups and cuts out the political and bureaucratic middlemen. By contrast, the former Liberal government promised a child-care plan that was universal, free and accessible, but they were unable to deliver despite 13 years in government.

"Where did all the money go?" Harper asked.

The event, which was held at the Heights Resource Centre on Willingdon Avenue, made the front page of virtually every newspaper in Canada, thanks largely to a marvellous picture of the prime minister and a six-month-old child taken by Canadian Press photographer Chuck Stoody.

Ariane Eckardt, president of the Burnaby-Douglas Conservative riding association, was ecstatic about the visit and its resultant media coverage and said Harper's appearance proves that the Tories still see Burnaby as fertile ground. Despite seeing her candidate, George Drazenovic, finish in third spot after the Jan. 23 election, Eckardt said the Tories could have won if they had increased their vote by just seven percentage points.

SIKSAY BUILDS SCHOLARSHIP FUND

Burnaby-Douglas MP Bill Siksay is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Svend Robinson, by donating all of a recent $3,400 pay increase towards scholarships for graduating high school students in Burnaby.

"MP salaries are always a very controversial issue," Siksay said in a press release. "I believe that MPs were already well paid for the work we do, and that's why I'm putting the most recent increase directly back into the community.

"I know that given the high cost of post-secondary education that every dollar helps students fund their studies."

The money will go towards the Tommy Douglas Memorial Scholarship, which offers a $500 award to one graduate at each of the city's five public secondary school plus the Bill Siksay Award as part of the Eagle Feather incentive program for aboriginal students in the city.

Tommy Douglas is best known as a former federal NDP leader and one-time Burnaby MP who was voted the Greatest Canadian by CBC viewers.

LIBERALS LOOK FOR NEW LEADER

Burnaby's best-known federal Liberal, Bill Cunningham, has jumped aboard the campaign team for Stephane Dion, the former environment minister who visited Burnaby Lake last summer.

Cunningham, the 35-year-old Burnaby-Douglas candidate and former executive director of the federal cabinet offices in Vancouver, said he was pleased to say yes when he was asked to help.

"I know from firsthand experience that he has B.C.'s and Burnaby's issues close to his heart," Cunningham said. "When he approached me to help. That made it much easier."

Cunningham's comments echo Burnaby's NDP Mayor Derek Corrigan, who said that Dion "took the lake home in his heart."

As of earlier this week, the other official candidates in the race were Carolyn Bennett, Maurizio Bevilacqua, former Tory MP Scott Brison, lawyer Martha Hall Findlay, Michael Ignatieff, former Ontario education minister Gerard Kennedy, former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae and Joe Volpe.

MP Ken Dryden was expected to join the race on Friday.

One of the best local sources for news on the Liberal leadership race is the website operated by local Grit Johnathan Ross, www.tdhstrategies.com.

FIREFIGHTERS RECOGNIZE MP

Peter Julian, the NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, has received an award of recognition from the International Association of Fire Fighters for his work to provide formal recognition and better death benefits for the families of fallen or injured firefighters.

"It is a tremendous honour to be recognized by these hardworking courageous Canadians who literally put their lives on the line for our community," said the two-term MP.

While motion M-153 passed through Parliament last November, Julian said the Conservative government still needs to finalize the implementation of the improved compensation package. Julian's private member's motion also called for the construction of a national firefighters' monument.

BONNEY GETS BUMPED UP

Brian Bonney has a new shingle hanging outside his office, according to PublicEyeOnline, the muckraking website operated by 24 Hours political columnist Sean Holman.

The former Burnaby mayoral candidate has been named the B.C. Liberal party's operations director responsible for constituency development, according to a "confirmed" posting that appeared on the website April 19.

The promotion - he was previously listed as an organizer - follows confirmation from Elections B.C. that Bonney and the Coquitlam First civic election group do not have to reveal where $100,000 in campaign financing came from. The debacle caused a minor stir in the legislature last month, when NDP House Leader and Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth called for new rules to disclose all contributions to civic campaigns.