Rankin bets $100 on this race

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Feb. 26, 2005


Lee Rankin will definitely be in the running this spring - Sun Running, that is.

The veteran member of Burnaby city council has formally issued a challenge to Burnaby NOW news editor Julie MacLellan to compete in the upcoming Sun Run, with the loser donating $100 to a charity of the other's choice.

"She can't back down from an overweight 51-year-old," said Rankin, who first made the challenge to MacLellan during a recent city council meeting.

MacLellan confirmed her acceptance of the challenge recently.

"We could kick their butts," she said, while trying, unsuccessfully, to convince her newsroom colleagues to join a full- scale Burnaby NOW versus city council challenge.

Rankin made his challenge public after this reporter called him up to ask if the longtime council member had any future political ambitions on either the federal or provincial scene.

"No, I'm not running provincially and I'm not running federally," said the political vet who recently attended a federal Conservative Party 'meet and greet' event with Tory deputy leader Peter Mackay at the Overlynn Mansion in North Burnaby recently.

Also on hand for the occasion was B.C. Liberal MLA Harry Bloy, himself a former federal Tory candidate.

Rankin said he attended because he believes that municipal politics are done best when the players can roam freely around the field. Rankin also noted that his council colleague and NDP member Sav Dhaliwal was an official escort for federal Liberal cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh during at least one event over the holidays.

JULIAN GETS MORE WORK ON HIS PLATE

Good work will be rewarded - but only with even more work.

Peter Julian, the NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, was given the added responsibility of critic for natural resources this week.

The new portfolio is in addition to Julian's other responsibilities as the party's critic for international trade, said a press release from NDP leader Jack Layton.

DRBC FOR STV

The newest political leader in B.C. is accusing the provincial Liberals and NDP of trying to scuttle the Citizens' Assembly plan to change the way we vote.

"Both the NDP and Liberals have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo polarized political system," DRBC leader Tom Morino said in a press release Feb. 8. "Unofficially, premier Campbell is urging all of his supporters to vote no, and Carole James of the NDP is doing likewise."

Morino, whose fledgling party elected its new executive on a single transferable vote (STV) ballot similar to that proposed for B.C., said the new voting system will make "autocratic and unpopular governments," such as those led by Bill Vander Zalm, Glen Clark and Gordon Campbell, a thing of the past.

He said the NDP are particularly opposed to the plan because the party has twice formed government when they had less than 40 per cent of the popular vote - which would be impossible under the STV plan.

OPENING DOORS TO ASIA APPLAUDED

Burnaby's newest cabinet minister is glad to see the province make a determined effort to open more trade and cultural ties with Asia.

"As a member of British Columbia's growing South Asian community, I am ecstatic to see our government's commitment to implement the Asia-Pacific Gateway Strategy," said Patty Sahota, the Burnaby-Edmonds MLA and the new minister of state for resort development, in a press release.

"This means so much for for the Asian community. Closer ties to our countries of origin. More opportunities for our youth. Increased trade links. All this is recognition for our various communities."

Among other things, the strategy will establish an Asia-Pacific Trade Council to advise the government on the best way to target its resources, open a network of B.C. Trade and Cultural Centres to promote made-in-B.C. products in Asia, and allow an expansion of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control to work with governments and institutions in Singapore, China and India.

In terms of how the strategy relates to Sahota's official cabinet duties, the press release said it will develop new 'tourism products' to attract Chinese tourists after Canada was recently named an official 'approved destination' by the Chinese government.

A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK

What's happening with the billions of dollars that are tied up in government foundations?

That's the $9 billion question coming from Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian this week, after Auditor General Sheila Fraser's annual report pointed to the lack of scrutiny for government foundations as a major oversight.

"In essense, they're playing hide and seek with these funds," Julian said this week.

In her annual report, Fraser said that most of the 11 government foundations in question have never had a compliance audit, while others have contracts that don't even allow the government to inspect their books.

"Even if they've deliberately misused the funds there's no provision to terminate the agrement," said Julian, the NDP critic for the treasury branch. "This is a huge, huge danger here. ... The public interest is not being respected."

Julian noted that he beleives there is a need for a foundation, such as the Canada Millenium Scholarship Fund, however, he wants them to fall under the purview of the AG office.

LET THEM IN, SAYS SIKSAY

Burnaby Douglas MP Bill Siksay is calling on Ottawa to allow several hundred Vietnamese refugees currently living in the Phillipines to emigrate to Canada.

In a press release issued in mid-February, Siksay said that Australia, the United Kingdon, Norway and the United States have all opened their doors to some of the 2,000 former Vietnamese citizens who currently have no right to work, own property or gain access to public facilities in the Phillipines.

Many of the refugees have relaties living in Canada who are wiling to sponsor them, and Siksay noted that the federal government has still not met its announced target of accepting between 3,400 and 4,000 privately sponsored refugees last year.

BRENZINGER QUIT THE LIBERALS

A story in the Feb. 29 Burnaby NOW contained some erroneous information about the departure of MLA Elayne Brenzinger from the B.C. Liberal caucus.

Brenzinger quit the Liberals in disgust last year, citing differences with the leadership style of Premier Gordon Campbell. Her departure came several months after Brenzinger was suspended from the Liberals for an alleged assault on a legislative staff member.

While sitting as an independent MLA, Brenzinger then made allegations that she was physically assaulted by another member of the Liberal caucus, however, she retracted those claims and apologized after she was threatened with a lawsuit.

Last month, after briefly toying with the idea of crossing the floor to the NDP, Brenzinger became the first sitting MLA for B.C.'s newest political party, Democratic Reform B.C.