Judge sides with BCA on vote count

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Nov. 30, 2005


Some time later today (Wednesday), the results of the court-ordered judicial recount of ballots for the eighth and final position on Burnaby city council will be announced.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge sided with the Burnaby Citizens' Association in allowing a recount the ballots for the spot won by Team Burnaby candidate Barbara Spitz on election night.

Spitz was originally declared the winner by a single vote but increased her margin to three votes when the first machine recount was held last week.

The judge agreed with BCA arguments that some of the ballots may have had only partial markings that the machine could not read but which would otherwise clearly indicated the voter's intention.

So, in the interest of making sure every possible vote gets counted, the judge has agreed to come to the Burnaby council chambers on Tuesday morning to personally inspect any ballot that is marked for either of the two candidates but is unable to be read by the machines.

Debbie Comis, chief returning officer for the City of Burnaby, expects the recount to take two days, meaning the official results of the election should be known by Thursday morning.

WATCH THE COMMITTEES

Will it be rancorous or cooperative? That's the big question facing the new-look Burnaby city council that begins work next Monday night.

Coun. Lee Rankin, the Team Burnaby candidate who topped the polls in last week's election, said Mayor Derek Corrigan's disparaging comments about the opposition do not bode well for a cooperative future.

"He's a bitter winner," Rankin said of the mayor. "And we'll be putting him to the test."

Rankin was particularly disappointed by Corrigan's statements about the "credibility" of the Team Burnaby winners - a comment Rankin called "extraordinary," considering the fact that he, Gary Begin and Barbara Spitz have each given more than two decades' worth of service to the community.

"He's setting it up," Rankin said. "I think he intends to be as extremely partisan as he has been and then blame it on the opposition."

Rankin said the first real test of the mayor's mettle will come when the new council committee appointments are made. While Corrigan has stated that he won't let a person's standing in the polls determine the amount of committee work they receive, Rankin notes that he has had lots of experience both serving on and leading some of the most influential committees at city hall.

Rankin, a former BCA member, was chair of the powerful executive committee of council from 1994 to '96 and chair of the finance and economic development committee in 1999, and he headed both the environment and housing committees.

Begin, who previously served one term on city council, is a former chair of the SFU liaison committee and was co-chair, alongside Corrigan, of the extraordinary committee on Burnaby Hospital that was credited with helping to keep the city's hospital open during the first term of the B.C. Liberal government.

"We have a mayor who divides people up as either friends or bitter rivals," Rankin said. "This is really unique in the recent history of Burnaby. And if he chooses to suppress the Team members of council in terms of committees, then he's showing himself to be a narrow partisan."

We'll find out how the mayor feels on this issue when the new committee appointments are announced in the next few weeks.

THE RETURN OF YIU

A regular guest at the Burnaby Citizens' Association press conferences during the campaign was former Burnaby-Willingdon NDP candidate, and Vancouver resident, Gabriel Yiu.

Mayor Derek Corrigan publicly asked Yiu when he was going to move into Burnaby on at least two occasions during the campaign - once at the Nov. 16 press conference at the southeast Burnaby community police office and again during the campaign 'victory party' at the Alan Emmott Centre.

Yiu, who lives just across Boundary Road, had previously expressed concern about his daughter changing schools and now adds the high cost of buying a house as one of the main obstacles to the mayor's plan of moving him into the city.

It is a request Yiu will seriously consider over the coming months as the forces of the left try to increase their profile in the city's large and growing Asian community.

UNIONS FOR TEAM

Believe it or not, one of the losing Team Burnaby school board candidates had the support of one of the largest and most successful labour unions in the province.

Elaine Hasek, who is a unionized employee of Save-On Foods Metrotown, was the recipient of a $500 cheque from her own union, local 1518 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Although this is the second time Hasek has run for school board, it is the first time she has received support from her union. Hasek applied for the funding after receiving a letter from union president Brooke Sundin saying the money was available to any local member "regardless of their party affiliation, platform or policies."

While Hasek notes that she earned more votes than in her 2002 run at school board, she's not sure if she will run again in 2008, the next time city voters go to the polls.

"It was interesting, fun and nerve-racking," she said. "I am an involved citizen, and if I don't like the calibre of candidates, I'll certainly jump in there again."

One thing she might do differently, if she runs again, is attempt to get an endorsement from the powerful New Westminster and District Labour Council, which has a tradition of giving its blanket support to the entire BCA slate.

DEBATES NOT IMPORTANT?

Mayor Derek Corrigan was not happy with the fact that Coun. Lee Rankin was the top vote-getter in the recent election, despite the fact that he never attended a single all-candidates' debate during the campaign.

"It just goes to show, why should you put yourself in front of the public to be scrutinized when you can be successful by avoiding the public?" Corrigan said. "I think it's a bad lesson.

"He never showed up at a single debate. Come on, if you're fair, you have to point that out," the mayor said during our first post-election interview last Tuesday morning.

Rankin, however, was having none of the criticism and said his absences were due to two reasons: his committee work at city hall and the fact that he wanted to share the limelight with his lesser- known Team Burnaby colleagues.

"That's just the kind of personal attack that one can expect from a man that's too small for the job," Rankin said in a telephone interview last Friday afternoon. "Obviously my record counted for something, since I topped the polls."