NDP affiliation questioned

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published May 31, 2006


Rumours are circulating that the Burnaby Citizens' Association is considering a plan to divest itself of its formal affiliation with the New Democratic Party.

Mayor Derek Corrigan insists that he's heard nothing official about the move, however, he admits it's an old idea that's worth discussing.

"I'd be disappointed if people weren't discussing these things," Corrigan told the Burnaby NOW recently. "There are those who see the NDP card as a barrier, and others say that really we just want like-minded people in the organization."

The BCA was Burnaby's first civic electoral party, formed in 1955 by a group of "progressive-minded people" that included Laurence J. Peter, the author of best-selling novel The Peter Principle.

By the mid-1960s, the still-unaffiliated BCA found itself pitted against the Burnaby Voters Association, a self-professed non- partisan party that was informally connected to the B.C. Social Credit governments of the day.

It was in the mid-1980s, after several nasty nomination battles between the 'social democrats' in the NDP and 'more radical' elements in the BCA - at least that's the description of the spat given by its eventual winners - that current school board chair Ron Burton suggested a formal association with the NDP. The immediate result of the NDP alliance was a string of BCA victories under popular mayor Bill Copeland. But when Copeland retired in 1999, the internal spats began anew.

Undoubtedly, the fact that the Burnaby Citizens' Association came within one seat of losing control of city council in last November's election is the main reason why the topic has come up again.

Sav Dhaliwal, a BCA councillor who also serves on the executive of the B.C. NDP, said he'd be willing to serve with a formally independent civic organization, but that won't change his provincial or federal allegiances.

"I'll continue to be a member of the NDP," he said.

But Dhaliwal also believes there could be a large upside to the change.

"If the word went out that the BCA was a stand-alone organization, yet still in alignment with the NDP, I suspect there might be many more individuals in the city who would want to join."

Former city councillor Celeste Redman is a little more adamant in her beliefs about the idea of separating the BCA from the NDP.

"I think it's a dumb idea," she said. "It would certainly make it harder to run a campaign."

Redman said the party's formal affiliation with the NDP has prevented a repeat of those nasty nomination battles of long ago.

"The extreme left have this Don Quixote complex that they have to tilt at every windmill," she said.

Redman also said the affiliation helps the public choose between the two sides, and noted that Team Burnaby has clear connections - but no formal affiliation - with the B.C. Liberal party.

My guess is that nothing will change until after the 2008 municipal election, and only then if the BCA loses its majority on council.

TEAM ELECTS NEW BOARD

There's a new regime on the Team Burnaby Voters Association board of directors, and it's being led by one one of the best-known Asian businesspeople in the city.

Raymond Leung, vice-president and spokesperson for the Chinese Benevolent Association of Canada, was elected president of the official opposition party at city hall at its May 8 executive board meeting.

A top-selling realtor for Amex FraserRidge Realty, Leung said his top priority is to help the party elect more members to council and school board. "I believe I can make a different being their president," Leung said this week.

Leung first arrived in Canada in 1969 and became involved in local politics in the early 1980s when he was recruited into the former Burnaby Voters Association by then-mayor Bill Lewarne.

Joining him as vice-president of the board is Andrew Chisholm of the Dragonwood industrial park who received nearly 4,300 votes when he ran as an independent candidate for council in last year's civic election.

Chisholm said that one of the reasons he joined Team Burnaby is because city hall recently changed its sign bylaw, making it illegal to post election signs on public property in the next civic election, slated for November, 2008. "That will somewhat undermine the ability of an independent to run," he said.

Other newly elected Team Burnaby board members include past city council candidates Jeffrey Chiu and Ron Churchill, plus Robin Ross, a retired military man who served as a search and rescue worker at CFB Esquimalt.

The other Team Burnaby board members are Bob Davis, Trudy Gordon, Elaine Hasek, Barbara Spitz, Peter Tamilin and Zina Weston.

Andrew Stewart, Team's mayoral candidate last fall, was nursing a hockey injury and unable to attend the meeting, but said he is still interested in civic affairs and may consider getting involved again before the next election.

Other notable changes on the team board include the departure of Gary Eyre, and the resignation of policy chair E. Bruce Friesen, who is expected to stay involved in the group in a less formal capacity.

INCOME GAP IS GROWING

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and our federal government is doing precious little to stop the growing wage gap.

That was the word from Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian this week, after the NDP released statistics that show the average income of working Canadians has shrunk since the North American free trade agreement was signed in 1989.

"When I knock on doors, people are say it's harder and harder to make ends meet and that's not just an isolated perception," Julian said. "Sixty per cent of families say their income has actually gone down."

According to statistics compiled by the library of parliament on behalf of the NDP, the "income share after transfers" for the wealthiest 20 per cent of Canadians has rise more than 15 per cent since 1989, resulting in nearly half of all income going to the wealthiest one-fifth of the nation, Julian said.

By contrast, income for the poorest Canadians dropped by 12 per cent over the same period, while middle income earners saw their wages decline from zero to eight per cent, said the report.

"Even for the upper middle income bracket, their wages have only gone up two per cent, but for the wealthiest people, their income has skyrocketed," he said. "And the recent budget does nothing to deal with this income crisis.

Julian is one of the rising stars of the NDP caucus in Ottawa. Last weekend, during an open house in Metrotown, he and about 40 guests received a "surprise visit" from national party leader Jack Layton.

SECRET PLANS WITHDRAWN

Kudos to the B.C. Liberals for backing down on two contentious proposals that may have prevented the public from knowing the complete results of public inquiries, and kept secret many of the details of future public-private business partnerships.

Proposed changes to the Public Inquiry Act that were introduced in the legislation on April 24 have been withdrawn, and they will probably will not return in the same form, said Darrell Evans, executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

"It was pure political cynicism," Evans said about the two proposals that were retracted on May 10 by government House leader Mike De Jong.

The most alarming of the proposals would have seen the final report of all future public inquiries delivered to the minister who called the inquiry, instead of being presented to the legislature in general. "That would have taken the public out of public inquiry," Evans said.

The proposals also drew the ire of B.C. Information Commissioner David Loukidelis and Liberal MLA Blair Lekstrom. But in a brief conversation with the Burnaby NOW prior to the retraction of the proposals, Evans said that the public has yet to grasp the full implication of our freedom of information and privacy laws.

"It's not like the public is crying out for reform," he said. "For people who follow these things professionally, it's a different matter, but ... all I know is it's hard to get through."