Know your riding: Burnaby North-Seymour

The federal election is taking place on September 20 and Burnaby Beacon is providing a snapshot of the 3 ridings in the city. Here is a look at who is running in Burnaby North-Seymour.

If there’s a battle to be won in Burnaby, it’ll take place in Burnaby North-Seymour.

With one foot in Burnaby and the other in North Vancouver, Liberal incumbent Terry Beech won the seat in 2019 by just over 1,500 votes. He’s held Burnaby North-Seymour since the riding’s creation in 2015.

The only Liberal holding in the city, it’s also the epicenter of the debate around the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Beech was one of only 1 Liberal MPs not to toe the party line on the project, voting against the expansion and explaining that his opposition was based in his confidence that Burnaby North-Seymour constituents do not support it.

Former NDP opponent and prominent politician Svend Robinson is not running this year, leaving the NDP candidacy to former District of North Vancouver councillor Jim Hanson.

Hanson’s website claims his ties to North Vancouver will allow him to “close the gap in Seymour,” thanks to his “strong support across party lines in the exact areas the NDP needs to grow our support to win.”

Conservative candidate Kelsey Shein is a member of the Metis Nation of BC, and a biography on her website says she spent years working with her family business and advocated for the development of the Shipyards District in North Vancouver.

The Green Party candidate is environmental consultant Peter Dolling and the People’s Party of Canada candidate is Bradley Nickerson.