Civic party splits

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 12, 2004


The oldest civic election party in Burnaby is on the verge of folding.

All but two members of the Burnaby Voters Non-Partisan Association board of directors have resigned, and they are urging their centre-right colleagues to support an amalgamation with TEAM Burnaby.

"There is just not enough support in the city of Burnaby for two non-NDP groups," outgoing BVNPA president Gary Begin said last week. "I resigned, as did almost all the other members of the executive."

The BVNPA is the incarnation of the once-powerful Burnaby Voters Association, which was unable to elect a single member to city council or school board in the last civic election.

Also quitting the board of directors were former school trustee Barbara Spitz, treasurer Peter Tamilin and secretary Paul Keenleyside, plus Mary Begin and Ernest Neumann.

"For me, I've been involved in every BVNPA campaign since the beginning, but if you're going to try and present an alternative, you can't do it with three civic groups," said Gary Begin. "But I also feel that something better is going to take place, and I'm looking forward to looking to the future and a finding a new political home."

His views were echoed by Der, who, along with Begin, lost her seat on city council in the 2002 civic election.

"It's a shame, but times have changed and the community has changed," Der said. "Most people don't recall the long history of the BVA, so it's time to kick into the 21st century and move forward. The way to do that is for the BVNPA and TEAM to come together and work out their differences and go forward."

Der also said that the centre-right voters were becoming increasingly upset with the way the BVNPA and TEAM split the vote in the past three elections, allowing the NDP-backed Burnaby Citizens' Association to win overwhelming majorities on city council and school board since the early 1990s.

"For these two parties to continue to run and split the vote is doing a disservice to the people of Burnaby," Der said. "We shouldn't be frustrating them (voters) by having a split vote."

But not everybody involved in the BVNPA wants to fold the organization and join forces with TEAM.

Gurdev Dhillon, who was visiting India when the resignations occurred, said he would prefer to see the party stay alive.

"We still have 600 members, and what I hear is that people are not happy with the deal they (the resigning board members) made with TEAM," Dhillon said. "But I'm not in favour of folding. I think it is the oldest group in Burnaby and it should be kept alive.

"I don't like the policies of TEAM, most of them are very right- wing for me," said Dhillon. "If Gary wants to join the TEAM, he can, but BVNPA is going to stay alive."

Rana Dhatt, past president of the BVNPA was the lone member of the party board to vote against the dissolution at the April 6 meeting, however, the Burnaby Now was unable to reach him by press time despite leaving repeated telephone messages over the past week.

And Jim Dixon, the Burnaby firefighter who ran for mayor under the BVNPA banner in the last election, said he quit the party several months ago when he saw the group leaning towards an amalgamation with TEAM. Dixon does not support an amalgamation with TEAM.

"I thought the BVNPA was truly non-partisan, but now the right- wing part of the party has taken over, and the middle to left has basically evaporated or gone," said Dixon.

When asked who he might support in the future, Dixon said he likes the person he ran against, current mayor and NDP member Derek Corrigan. "I think Derek's been doing a pretty good job. Actually I think he's been doing a great job - an awesome job," Dixon said.

Meanwhile, members of TEAM Burnaby contacted for this story seemed overjoyed with the idea of a possible reunion with the BVNPA.

"We've been having serious talks - not negotiations - with Gary Begin and some of the other people from the BVNPA for the past six to eight months," TEAM president Gary Eyre said last week. "We're very close to having a new organization formed."

"I think it's a great idea," Eyre said. "We agreed this (the centre-right split) was really silly. We're interested in the same issues and we need to work together."

That positive view of the impending merger is shared by Coun. Lee Rankin, a former NDP member who ran as an independent in 1999 and then joined TEAM Burnaby before becoming the only winning centre- right council candidate in the 2002 election.

"When you're not running as the civic wing of the NDP, you have to be respectful of building a broad-based coalition of disparate interests, and I think some members of the BVNPA were unwilling to do that," Rankin said. "That's what led to its lack of success and demise.

"You have to remember that a federal Conservative, a former Alliance member or a Green Party member has something to bring to the table, and you can't just say that you have to be in a particular faction of the federal Liberal party or your views don't count."

Rankin also said the BVNPA's inability to elect a single candidate in the last election was probably the main reason old- time members supported the merger, and he hopes that future TEAM campaigns are run on policy and not on personalities of the candidates.