B.C. election 2017: Burnaby North riding

Richard Lee has held this seat for the BC Liberals since 2001, yet few people outside the riding have likely heard of him. He usually wins squeakers by a few hundred votes. He boosted his vote by 625 while the NDP went up by 540. The Greens increased by 275.

In 2013: Liberal Richard Lee beat NDP candidate Janet Routledge by 668 votes, 46.8-43.9 per cent.

In 2009: Lee beat BC NDP candidate Mondee Redman by 548 votes, 48-46 per cent. The close result was nothing new for Lee, who beat NDP runner-up Pietro Calendino by just 65 votes in 2005.

History & Geography: A riding created in 1966, Burnaby North has become Burnaby Northwest over the years, and is now bordered by Boundary Road, Canada Way, Deer Lake Parkway, and Kensington and Sperling Avenues. Held by Eileen Daily—who banned corporal punishment and instituted mandatory Kindergarten as Education Minister—from 1966 to 1988, the seat has stayed in Liberal hands since 2001.

The Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project promises to be a big issue in the nothern Burnaby ridings.

Candidates

BC Liberals – Richard T. Lee: A Liberal MLA since 2001, Lee is Deputy House Speaker. Prior to politics, Lee was a programmer analyst at TRIUMF, the famous particle accelerator at UBC.

NDP – Janet Routledge: Routledge’s website says she’s a vocal opponent to the Kinder Morgan Pipeline expansion. She was involved in the Fight HST petition campaign in all four Burnaby constituencies. Routledge’s thesis topic was “Why did the White Working Class Vote for Sarah Palin in the 2008 Presidential Election?”

Greens – Peter Hallschmid: A professional engineer, entrepreneur, and academic who specializes in the research and development of engineering tools for the semiconductor industry. He is currently the CEO of a high-tech startup based out of Vancouver and teaches at Simon Fraser University. Hallschmid is opposed to the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project.

2017 Stats: Burnaby North

Population (2014): 58,159 (36th)
Population Deviation from Average: 9.5 per cent
Area: 23 sq km (69th)
Pop Density: 2,528.7 (19th)
Average Age: 40.1 years (51st)
English as Second Language: 50.46 per cent (15th)

Top 3 Second Languages:
Cantonese – 10.78 per cent
Chinese, n.o.s. – 7.10 per cent
Mandarin – 4.75 per cent