Liberals work behind the scenes at Team

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Nov. 12, 2005


There are deep connections between Team Burnaby and the B.C. Liberal party, as evidenced by the work histories of at least three staff people working out of the Team campaign office on Government Road.

Leading the B.C. Liberal charge is Team founder and former mayoral candidate Brian Bonney, who was a paid Liberal staffer as recently as September. Bonney's exact position with the campaign is unknown, but office staff do confirm that he is still a force to be reckoned with.

Other B.C. Liberal apparatchiks in the Team office are Mark Robertson, who was the campaign manager for former Burnaby Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota in last spring's election, and Patrick O'Connor, who was a constituency assistant to former New Westminster MLA and cabinet minister Joyce Murray.

In addition, community newspaper reporters across the Lower Mainland have noticed similarities between Team Burnaby and the election campaigns in their own communities.

Coquitlam First, which is fielding a slate that includes former B.C. Liberal MLA Richard Stewart, uses a phone messaging service that is just one digit off the main switchboard line for Team Burnaby. Some opponents believe the two campaigns may be pooling their resources.

And Delta First campaign manager Dan Baxter is a Burnaby resident who used to work for Burquitlam MLA Harry Bloy. Baxter recently confirmed for the Delta Optimist that he's still being paid by the provincial party while working on the municipal campaign south of the river.

Of course, getting help from outside organizations is nothing new in Burnaby civic politics. The NDP-aligned Burnaby Citizens Association has done it for years, as evidenced by their financial disclosure forms.

One of the busiest NDP helpers in this campaign is longtime labour organizer Gordie Larkin, who collects his paycheque from the Canadian Labour Congress.

Once again, I will be looking forward to the release of the two parties' campaign finance disclosure forms next summer.

TICKET TIME

There were a few embarrassed faces inside the BCA offices on Edmonds Street last month when two of their city council candidates got parking tickets after attending a Chinese-language press conference.

While my little birdies are refusing to name the culprits, one has to wonder if the BCA will soon take up the cause of free parking for the rest of us.

After all, this is the party that pushes the slogan, "What we want for ourselves, we want for all."

OUT OF TOWNERS

Team Burnaby is a little more diverse than its name suggests, with two of its candidates living outside of our fair city.

Team council candidate Mark Hilford is well known as a political activist in Coquitlam, while school board candidate Richard A.Y. Lee lives across Boundary Road in Vancouver.

Hilford told the folks at the Capitol Hill community hall that he lived in Burnaby for nine years and his wife lived here for 35 years before they moved to the Como Lake area of Coquitlam.

Hilford then tried to compare himself to former mayor Bill Copeland, a former Burnaby fire chief, who moved to North Delta shortly after he was first elected.

Meanwhile, Team school board candidate R.A.Y. Lee has made his political career by moving around - between a variety of political parties and locations.

The Vancouver resident first came onto Burnaby's political scene in 1996 as a member of Gordon Wilson's short-lived Progressive Democratic Alliance, when he ran against current B.C. Liberal MLA Richard T. Lee in Burnaby North and stole enough votes to allow Pietro Calendino to win that race. The Liberal Lee came back to win the next two elections.

In 1997, R.A.Y. Lee tried and failed to capture a Reform Party nomination in Coquitlam. In 1999, he ran to become both a Coquitlam city councillor and school trustee but lost both elections. And in 2002 he ran as an NPA school trustee in Vancouver and lost.

R.A.Y. Lee has had some electoral success in his life. He once served as both a school trustee and city councillor in the charming B.C. Interior town of Merritt, the home town of former Burnaby- Edmonds MLA Patty Sahota.

ANOTHER ELECTION?

With a municipal election only one week away, the folks who represent Burnaby in the nation's capital are wondering if there could be a snap federal election this winter.

Peter Julian, the rookie NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, called last week to say the Gomery report could well become the final nail in the coffin for the Paul Martin Liberals.

"It's a guilty verdict," Julian said of the first stage report that was released Nov. 1 by Justice John Gomery. "No question about it, the major findings are clear evidence of political involvement. Gomery talks about a veil of secrecy, deliberate actions to avoid compliance with the law, a complex web of transactions, kickbacks and illegal contributions.

"It's very clear and a biting indictment of the Liberal government," said Julian, who confirmed that the NDP is mulling over its options.

"What's in the public interest?" Julian asked. "Clearly, Paul Martin cannot take NDP support for granted."

Conservative MP Paul Forseth, who used to represent Burnaby but now serves in New Westminster-Coquitlam, said the time for debate is finished and he urged the NDP to help bring the government down.

"Canadians have to rise up and put the Liberal party out of business, period," Forseth said. "There has to be political accountability, and this is the most egregious offence against political democracy in Canadian history.

"They funnelled money through Via Rail, through Canada Post. They hid money and then they had all the cash in brown envelopes. That's crime and another regulation in a manual somewhere isn't going to fix it."

LOSING MOM'S VOTE

Which Team Burnaby city council candidate's mother has a Burnaby Citizen's Association sign in front of her home?

I'm not telling, out of respect for the 82-year-old woman who is a longtime supporter of former NDP MP Svend Robinson.

The woman, who has lived in Burnaby for most of her life, probably just said yes to the sign out of habit, said her child, who is a first-time Team candidate.