Municipal election results: Burnaby’s BCA regains council majority

This story has been updated to reflect Burnaby’s latest election results.

The Burnaby Citizens’ Association (BCA) has regained a longstanding stronghold in Burnaby city council in Saturday night’s municipal election. The party, which has maintained a majority on council for much of its history—excluding the last two years, when three of its seven councillors resigned to sit as independents—managed to elect six members to the total of eight council seats.

Independent mayoral candidate and incumbent Mike Hurley was acclaimed to the mayoralty, as no one ran against him.

The BCA’s Alison Gu, had the largest number of votes of any candidate with 17,340—or 8.08% of the vote, according to unofficial numbers Saturday night. Gu was first elected in last June’s byelection and at 26, is the youngest city council member by far.

Gu told the Beacon Saturday night that she feels Burnaby residents have appreciated having a youth voice on council in the last year and a half.

She said in the years to come, she wants more of those opportunities for people from different communities.

“What I am really hoping is that we break this ‘glass ceiling’ for everybody, not just myself. Because there’s going to be a lot more people who come after me. We know that these challenges and these barriers are very real for women, [for] people of colour. For me, I think I had, you know, a bit of an incumbency advantage,” she said.

“I grew up in Burnaby. Going to public school here, elementary school, secondary school, and being involved in sports in Burnaby growing up—that has meant that I just have a bit of community here. And maybe that’s what helped me. But … I want this to be a hopeful beacon for anybody else who might be systemically marginalized or face these barriers. And I hope that this continues.”

Fellow BCA candidate James Wang was second in place with 13,024 votes or 6.07%.

Longtime BCA members Pietro Calendino and Sav Dhaliwal, who have sat on council since 2002, have been re-elected with 12,494 and 12,335 votes respectively.

Greens incumbent Joe Keithley, first elected in 2018, was the first non-BCA member to crack the top eight candidates. He has been re-elected with 11,383 votes or 5.3%.

The BCA elected two new councillors as well: Daniel Tetrault and Maita Santiago.

Meanwhile, One Burnaby frontman Mike Hillman lost his seat on council—he had been elected in last June’s byelection. He garnered 9,710 votes (4.52%), placing him 11th behind BCA candidates Reah Arora and Antara Deb.

Hillman did not return a phone request for comment by time of publication Saturday night.

However, One Burnaby candidate Richard T. Lee—a former Burnaby North MLA for the BC Liberals—has been elected to council with 11,231 votes or 5.23%.

No independent candidates were elected to Burnaby council.

Saturday’s results indicate that 32,249 out of Burnaby’s 163,076 registered voters cast their ballots, reflecting an 19.78% voter turnout—although this number is subject to change when results from the last two polls are published.

That is the lowest turnout in more than 10 years at least—in 2018, a contentious campaign between then-incumbent mayor Derek Corrigan and the ultimately victorious Mike Hurley drew 32% of registered voters in Burnaby to the polls.

In 2014, the turnout was 27.3%, and in 2011, it was 24.6%.

Gu told the Beacon that it’s always disappointing when elections see a low turnout.

“Of course, there’s a lot to follow—international politics, federal politics, provincial politics. And people have busy lives. … So it can be hard when you’ve got so much going on in your life to tune into local politics—especially if candidates and institutions don’t make it exciting and interesting and engaging, or easy to engage with,” she said.

“But I think what I take away is—I have never been in the business of shaming people for not turning out to vote or not caring. It says to me that I have some work to do to make sure that I’m communicating in an effective, engaging way with Burnaby residents, to make sure that I help get people interested and understand why it is important for them to come out next time around.”

Housing featured strongly in the BCA platform—to no surprise, as the issue has been top of mind for Burnaby residents. Rental prices in the city are regularly featured in the most expensive rental housing in the country.

The party has pledged to create a city-run housing authority that would build, own, and manage rental-only units in the city and accelerate the zoning and permitting process for new builds, especially developments like townhouses, fourplexes, and rowhomes.

Both rival parties, One Burnaby and the Burnaby Greens, had similar promises on the topic of housing as the BCA, pledging to ‘gently densify’ neighbourhoods that have typically been classified as low-density. All three parties promised to facilitate the creation of a Burnaby-run housing authority.

As for the school board, seven members have been declared as winners: Gary Wong, Jen Mezei, Kristin Schnider, Bill Brassington, Peter Cech, Mikelle Sasakamoose, and Larry Hayes. All seven are BCA members.

Mikelle Sasakamoose is the first Indigenous woman to run for public office in Burnaby’s history.