Four potential swing ridings all turn orange
Region home to Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion project
The B.C. NDP painted Burnaby orange Tuesday night, holding on to three of the city’s ridings and swinging the fourth its way.
Burnaby was home to three potential swing ridings — all won by less than 1,000 votes last election — where education, housing and the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion were key concerns for voters.
At the Firefighters’ Public House near Metrotown in Burnaby, NDP supporters cheered and hollered each time their candidates’ names and faces appeared on a CBC broadcast of the election results and as it became apparent they would take all four seats in the city.
The NDP took two of those seats by a narrow margin in 2013, when the party’s Jane Shin won Burnaby Lougheed by 743 votes and Kathy Corrigan won Burnaby-Deer Lake by 903 votes. Neither NDP candidate sought re-election Tuesday for those precarious seats.
This time, Burnaby-Lougheed went to the NDP’s newcomer Katrina Chen, a Burnaby school trustee.
Steve Darling, a newcomer to provincial politics and former longtime Global B.C. news anchor, failed to swing the seat to the Liberals despite his high profile in the riding, where Global’s studio is located. He replaced Randy Rinaldo as candidate after controversial comments Rinaldo made on social media surfaced last year.
The riding is home to the $7.4-billion Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion project, which the B.C. Liberals approved after it met five provincially-imposed conditions, including enhanced marine safety and a revenue-sharing deal. The B.C. NDP oppose the project, which the party contends will increase oil tanker traffic seven-fold and put B.C.’s environment and economy at risk.
Joe Keithley, legendary punk rocker from DOA and community activist, ran in Burnaby-Lougheed for the B.C. Greens.
Meanwhile, Burnaby North — a longtime Liberal riding and also a close call in the 2013 election — swung to the NDP, which ran Janet Routledge, who before retiring was political action director for the B.C. Federation of Labour.
In 2013, Richard T. Lee won the riding for the Liberals by just 668 votes. Lee failed to get his fifth term Tuesday in after a rematch against Routledge.
The Green party’s Peter Hallschmid, CEO of a high-tech Vancouver startup, also ran.
Burnaby-Deer Lake went to the NDP’s Anne Kang, a Burnaby city councillor, who the party put forth when Corrigan retired after two terms. Kang beat the Liberals’ Karen Xiao Bao Wang, who operates daycare centres in Burnaby and works with non-profit organizations.
Also running in the riding were the Greens’ Rick McGowan, the Conservatives’ Graham Bowers and independent Elias Ishak.
Raj Chouhan, who won Burnaby Edmonds by 2,303 votes in 2013, will again be NDP MLA for the riding, his fourth time in that seat. He beat the Liberals’ Garrison Duke, a career coach who worked in the employment sector. Valentine Wu, an IT consultant, ran for the Greens.
“I’m feeling very excited, very optimistic. Our volunteers, our team — all candidates — worked so well,” said Chouhan, as it became apparent the NDP had leads in all four Burnaby ridings.
“Last time, we had three NDP (MLAs) and one Liberal. This time it will be all orange.”
Last time, we had three NDP (MLAs) and one Liberal. This time it will be all orange.