Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published July 30, 2005
Former city councillor Gary Begin thinks the NDP in Burnaby has some soul-searching to do after veteran councillor Celeste Redman was unceremoniously voted off its list of council candidates during last weekend's surprising Burnaby Citizens' Association nominating meeting.
"I'm amazed and find it real strange that she was dropped," the president of the newly formed Team Burnaby Voters Association said last Tuesday morning. "She was the one who did all the work for Pietro Calendino. This is a woman who beat the pavement time and time again, civically as well as provincially. She worked as his assistant and, if his people suddenly abandoned her, that's not right."
But when it comes to pointing the finger of blame for Redman's surprising ninth-place finish at the BCA nominating meeting, Begin believes responsibility lies at the top - with Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan.
"Who's in charge here? Derek's in charge," said Begin.
But Corrigan, who served 15 years as a city councillor before being elected mayor in the NDP's near-sweep in 2002, said the allegation that he had something to do with Redman's sudden departure from civic politics is just plain hooey.
"Could he get more ridiculous? It's beyond belief," Corrigan said. "If you haven't learned yet, those people make up fabrications out of whole cloth. Apparently, if they're not libelling somebody, they're making up stories.
"This is absolutely ridiculous and absurd. It's really disappointing when someone like Gary Begin, who has considerable experience, would be so mischievous to make the suggestion he did," the mayor said. "Celeste and I have been friends for 25 years. We've continued to be friends and no one could have been more disappointed than I was. I expressed to her immediately how disappointed I was."
TOUGH TIME FOR TEAM?
Nobody is ringing any alarm bells just yet, but it appears that Team Burnaby is having a tough time finding a mayoral candidate who's willing to go head-to-head against incumbent Derek Corrigan this fall.
Gary Begin, the president of Team Burnaby who has 23 years of service on city council and school board, confirmed that he won't be running for the top spot when his party holds its nominating meeting in early September.
"No, I'll be running for one of the council spots," said Begin, who previously ran for the mayor's seat during the 1990s.
Brian Bonney, the Team Burnaby mayoralty candidate in 2002, also bowed out of the race this week, citing commitments to his wife and five children, a new business in Richmond and his organizing duties with the B.C. Liberal party.
Rumour has it that Gary Eyre, a well-known federal Conservative, provincial Liberal and civic volunteer, is also not interested in the top spot on the ballot.
So does that mean that Team Burnaby is conceding the top spot to Corrigan? "No, no, no, no, no," insisted Begin when we last spoke on Tuesday morning.
Both Begin and Bonney confirm that conversations are underway with "a number of people" to head the Team slate this fall.
That's not surprising, given the fact that Begin also confirmed this week that Team Burnaby would be willing to talk to former candidate Brian Joe, the chair of Burnaby's district parent advisory committee, about coming back into the fold.
For those who don't know, Joe took out an NDP membership sometime in the past three years but failed in his bid to win one of seven BCA school board nominations during their surprise-filled meeting last week.
And the last piece of the civic election puzzle will come when Burnaby Voters Non Partisan Association president Rana Dhatt returns from his summer holiday overseas and makes an announcement about the future of his group. The BVNPA has played the spoiler in the past two civic elections, and many people on the Team Burnaby slate believe the existence of a third party will only increase the NDP's chance of continuing to dominate city politics.
MLA OPENS OFFICE
It took more than two-and-a-half months, but the city's newest member of the legislative assembly, Raj Chouhan, expects to open his new constituency office this week.
Chouhan said the opening took so long, firstly, because he couldn't find a suitable place, and secondly, because the office he did find needed a whole lot of renovations.
The office, located at 7879 Edmonds St., near the corner of Sixth Street, should open on Monday, Aug. 2. The next hurdle will be getting a phone number assigned and having the lines installed. (With the ongoing job action at Telus, that could take a long time.)
Friday, July 4, 2008
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