The man who wants to topple the mayor

Profile of Andrew Stewart
By Dan Hilborn
Published Nov. 12, 2005


Who should get the top political job in Burnaby? In this year's civic election, long-standing incumbent Derek Corrigan has a challenger for the mayor's chair. Andrew Stewart heads the right-of-centre civic party Team. Reporter Dan Hilborn sat down with Stewart to delve a little deeper in the man who is challenging the status quo in the city. His interview is below.

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Andrew Stewart has one of the most unenviable tasks in the Lower Mainland this month. As the mayoral candidate for Team Burnaby, it is his job to try and knock a few chips off one of the most successful city councils in the Lower Mainland.

But Stewart believes Burnaby is ripe for a change and, despite the fact that there are currently only two Team Burnaby members among the 16 seats on city council and school board, he sees reason for optimism.

"I don't consider myself an underdog," he said during a wide-ranging interview with the Burnaby NOW on Monday afternoon. "I believe that the people want to see a change. I hear that people want a change. They're telling me they want a change. They're just as fed up as I am.

"There's a positive buzz out there that's really astounded me."

Stewart, the managing director of Donn Dean Collision who has shared in two Burnaby Business Excellence Awards over the past four years, is leading the Team Burnaby forces against the Burnaby Citizens Association, which has held an overwhelming majority on Burnaby city council and school board since the late 1980s.

And while Stewart talks with a soft and calmly moderated voice, he's been packing quite the punch on the campaign trail. With a new campaign announcement every few days, and a group of supporters with far more experience than his own neophyte political background, his Team Burnaby cohorts have been able to dictate much of the media coverage in the campaign.

He started the campaign by calling incumbent mayor Derek Corrigan "arrogant" and claiming that city council does not listen. And, as the weeks progressed, his party rolled out a series of announcements intended to take some steam away from the incumbents.

Stewart has made sure that Burnaby voters know they have two clearly different choices in the this election. If elected, Team Burnaby will hire 36 new police officers over the next three years, help build a permanent homeless shelter in the city and double city funding for social service agencies to $600,000 annually.

However, Stewart is not happy with the kind of response that his platform has elicited from the current mayor.

"One thing that I'm learning, in fact it's almost disturbing, is the lack of truthfulness from my opponent," Stewart said. "I have to sit there and listen to him say things, and I find it difficult to refute."

Call it tit-for-tat. Corrigan began his campaign by calling Stewart a liar on his policing promises.

At issue are statements by Stewart that Burnaby imposed a "hiring freeze" on the RCMP over the past decade, resulting in the city having a unchanging complement of 241 officers for the years 1998 to 2004. Corrigan claimed the city was unable to hire police officers for at least two of those years because the RCMP training facility in Regina was closed. Stewart, in turn, refutes Corrigan's claim.

"During the six-year period I'm talking about, our sources indicate that (Regina) was not closed and the RCMP were indeed filling all of the requests they had received," Stewart said.

To back up his claim, Stewart points to the increase of 64 officers at the Surrey RCMP detachment between the years 1998 and 2003 and another increase of 11 officers in Richmond over the same period.

Stewart also takes issue with his opponent's claim that the Team Burnaby's election plan - 36 new police officers, a homeless shelter and increased social service spending - cannot be accomplished without a tax increase.

"We're going to hold the line on taxes," he said. "We're not going to tax people any more than is fiscally responsible.

"Our opponents have brought in 2.95-per-cent tax increases for year after year and they continue to build the reserves rather than fund some of the areas of concern," he said. "But everything I've proposed would cost less than one per cent of the reserves."

Stewart also believes that his party's commitment to bringing a homeless shelter to the city has been misrepresented. "We will facilitate and help locate a shelter in a viable location that won't upset the neighbourhood," he said. "The opposition has suggested that we want it in Edmonds. We never said that."

If a Team Burnaby council is elected, Stewart said he would also work to speed up the process for the Local Improvement Project program - a longtime city program that sees the installation of sidewalks, lighting and other improvements to neighbourhoods, if requested by the taxpayers on the street.

"In many cases, people are waiting three to seven years for these improvements and they have to pay the extra taxes," Stewart said. "By the time the work gets done, many of these people have moved or their children have grown up and they're no longer going to the local school."

And while he is a neophyte politician, he points to lots of experience on Team Burnaby, such as longtime city councillor Lee Rankin, plus Gary Begin, who has served 20 years on both school board and council, and Barbara Spitz, who previously served two terms on school board.

"Look at the diversity of our group," he said. "They're all leaders. They all bring positive, down-to-earth solutions. They follow the issues and they know enough when to bring new issues forward."

Stewart also believes that the fact he does not have a political background may actually be a benefit. "Being in the service business like this, I know that people have an expectation that things will be done properly - that things will follow a due course and there will be no problems," he said. "Also, city hall is not my personal stepping stone. It is there to facilitate the needs of the people who go there," Stewart said. "If somebody takes the time to come to council, obviously they have a concern and they should be given their due, listened to and assisted."

Stewart, who was born on Vancouver Island, grew up north of Prince George and went to college in Kelowna before settling down in Burnaby 24 years ago, said he agreed to run in this election as an extension of his community service.

He currently serves as a director of the foundation for the Burnaby Metrotown Rotary Club and is a past director with the Automotive Retailers Association of B.C. His company has worked with the automotive apprenticeship program for more than 30 years.

"This company pays $28,000 in taxes each year and yet, when we have a break-in, I get a file number and not a police officer," he said. "These kinds of things drive me to that higher ideal, to get more involved. To just continually talk about it or to reach complacency, I didn't feel was the answer.

"I can commit to city and to bringing success to city hall. I will continue to stay involved to the best of my ability. I love Burnaby and I'm not going to give up on it, should I lose," he said.

A former rugby player, Stewart also likes to fish and fix cars in his spare time. Last year he won the Chevelle Club of B.C. Best of Show award for his restoration of a 1968 muscle car, which he proudly displayed at the Edmonds fall fair.