A pizza poll for the taste buds

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Dec. 10, 2005


This could be the tastiest federal election Burnaby has seen in a very long time, thanks to the Siormanolakis family at the Romana Restaurant in the Heights.

The restaurant will be running a pizza poll during the campaign, and will donate $1 to the Burnaby Christmas Bureau for each of the four political pizzas sold between now and Jan. 23.

Voters will have their choice of:

- Cunning-Ham and Pineapple for Liberal candidate Bill Cunningham;

- Classic George with pepperoni, mushroom and green peppers for Conservative candidate George Drazenovic;

- Green Piece of the Pie vegetarian for the Green Party candidate, still to be announced; and the

- Leaner Left pizza with artichokes, eggplant, sun-dried tomato, feta and olives for NDP incumbent Bill Siksay.

"We wanted to add some cheer and humour to this election, particularly during a time when most will be worried about holiday stresses and not the election issues," said Jenny Siormanolakis, the go-getter daughter of the family that has operated the restaurant for the past 33 years.

"It's also a great way that Romana's can yet again donate to a community organization," she said.

Romana restaurant is located at 4660 Hastings Street.

KUO STAYS OUT

The man who calls himself Mr. Democracy is under doctor's orders not to enter the 2006 federal election, but that doesn't mean he'll be sitting quietly on the sidelines.

Tony Kuo, who made national headlines in 2004 when he claimed Prime Minister Paul Martin was 'racist,' is in physiotherapy after suffering through a car accident about three months ago.

"No, I'm not running for office this time," Kuo told the Burnaby NOW just minutes after sending out another press release that takes direct aim at Martin.

This time, Kuo's wrath was directed at Martin's appointment of parachute candidate Michael Ignatieff into the Ontario riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore against the wishes of a large group of new party members in the riding.

"Put it this way, this is further proof that Paul Martin is arrogant. He thinks he is the king of Canada," Kuo said when contacted by the Burnaby NOW. "He just keeps on doing it. The Liberal Party of Canada is corrupt and it's undemocratic."

Kuo made similar complaints last year when his nomination papers were ignored and Martin appointed longtime party loyalist and former B.C. wing president Bill Cunningham as the candidate in Burnaby- Douglas.

But don't count Kuo completely out of local politics, yet. The Taiwanese-born entrepreneur may not be running in this federal election, but he still has an active website, and continues to call himself the deputy leader of Democratic Reform B.C.

OUT-OF-TOWNERS

Two more federal election candidates with roots in this city are running outside of Burnaby.

The most notable of the pair is longtime former Burnaby MP Svend Robinson, who was recently acclaimed as the NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre, where he'll face off against Liberal cabinet minister Hedy Fry.

Robinson stepped out of politics early last year after admitting to 'pocketing' a very expensive ring. He did not run in last year's election and has subsequently undergone treatment for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

The other local candidate who isn't running in Burnaby is Conservative firebrand Phil Eidsvik, who will run in the Newton- North Delta riding that was coveted by former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum.

Eidsvik, executive director of the Fisheries Survival Coalition, is an outspoken critic of Ottawa's fishery policies, and has landed himself in hot water more than once for trying to uphold the rights of non-Native fishers in B.C.

CLOSE RACES

And just in case anyone was thinking this might be a boring election, the two Burnaby ridings were among the six closest races in B.C. in the June 2004 election.

Burnaby-New Westminster was the second closest race in the province last time, with New Democrat Peter Julian defeating Liberal Mary Pynenburg by a mere 329 votes, or a margin of only 0.79 per cent.

The sixth closest race in the province was Burnaby-Douglas, where NDPer Bill Siksay downed Liberal Bill Cunningham by 934 votes, or 2.06 per cent of the vote.

The tightest race in B.C. was neighbouring New Westminster-Coquitlam where longtime Conservative MP Paul Forseth defeated virtually unknown NDP candidate Steve McClurg by 113 votes, or a mere 0.23 per cent of the vote. Forseth, a four-term MP who once represented southeast Burnaby, could be in for his toughest race yet this time, because he'll be up against former NDP MP Dawn Black.