In 2009: Liberal Richard T. Lee beat BC NDP candidate Mondee Redman by 548 votes, 48-46%. 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, Canada Way, Deer Lake, Kensington, and Sperling. 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.
Basic Stats:
Population: 57945 (18th)
Size: 22.9 km (66th)
Density: 2530 people/km (20th)
Odds and Ends: This riding has the most people in the province with Croatian or Italian as their mother tongue.
Candidates
Liberals-Richard T. Lee: A Liberal MLA since 2001, Lee is Parliamentary Secretary for the Asia-Pacific Initiative. Prior to politics, Lee was a programmer analyst at TRIUMF, the famous particle accelerator at UBC.
NDP-Janet Routledge: An “Independent Non-Profit Organization Management Professional” on LinkedIn, Routledge’s website says she coordinated the Fight HST petition campaign in all four Burnaby constituencies. A past board member at Codevelopment Canada and Toxic Free Canada, Routledge’s thesis topic was “Why did the White Working Class Vote for Sarah Palin in the 2008 Presidential Election?”
Conservatives-Wayne Marklund: An entrepreneur, Marklund is the founder of Candu Glass, an auto glass shop that has locations in Burnaby and North Vancouver. A former professional soccer player in the 1980s, Marklund was regional director of the party before running for office.
Greens-Carrie McLaren: An accountant, McLaren sits on the board of a number of Burnaby non-profit organizations. She ran for Burnaby city council in 2011, federal office in Burnaby-New Westminster in 2011 and 2008, and provincial office in Burnaby-Edmonds in 2009, losing each time.
Comments