Two slates vie for city voters' support

By Dan Hilborn
Published Oct. 19, 2005


Two complete slates and six independents are running for the 16 positions open on Burnaby council and school board in the civic election taking place on Nov. 19.

The Burnaby Citizens Association, led by incumbent mayor Derek Corrigan, and Team Burnaby, which recently noninated local businessman Andrew Stewart as its mayoral candidate, will lead the two slates of eight council and seven school board candidates.

Former council candidate Tom Tao followed through on his plan to run for mayor, and one-time councillor Nancy Harris will run as an independent. The other independents in the council race are environmental activist Parvin Chami and Dragonwood industrial park chief operations manager Andrew Chisholm.

On the school board list, the two independent candidates are repeat runner Rubin Prince and newcomer Manjeet Sahota.

Contacted at home, Chami said her three main issues are crime prevention, protection of the environment and tax cuts for "ordinary working citizens."

Chisholm, the son of former MLA Robert Chisholm, said his main concerns include tax cuts for both business and people, and bringing a new perspective to council.

Sahota, a UBC computer science grad who works for Lexmark, said his main concerns include obesity among children and providing educational alternatives. "If we can meet the goals of keeping students fit, active and healthier, then they can study more," he said.

Prince, who first ran for trustee in the same year he graduated from high school, is running again after a six-year hiatus. Now married with his first child on the way, the 27-year-old Hudson's Bay Co. employee said the entrenched interests of the two political parties are causing more harm than good.

For the record, the two party slates are as follows:

BCA: mayor, Derek Corrigan; council, Pietro Calendino, Sav Dhaliwal, Dan Johnston, Colleen Jordan, Paul McDonell, David Myles, Leslie Roosa and Nick Volkow; school board, Ron Burton, Tony Coccia, Kathy Corrigan, Larry Hayes, Diana Mumford, Baljinder Narang and Mondee Redman.

Team: mayor, Andrew Stewart; council, Gary Begin, Jeffrey Chiu, Ron Churchill, Garth Evans, Gary Eyre, Mark Hilford, Lee Rankin and Barbara Spitz; school board, Rich Baerg, Cathy Cena, Helen Chang, Trudy Gordon, Elaine Hasek, Richard Lee and Nancy von Euw.