Nominations officially closed last week for the 2020 B.C. election, and the authority overseeing the vote has published its final list of candidates for each riding.
Of B.C.’s total 87 ridings, four are divided between Burnaby’s more than 230,000 residents. Despite the snap election call, both the Liberals and NDP have put together a full roster of candidates throughout B.C., while the Greens rounded up 74 candidates.
They’re not the only players in this party, however, with the Libertarian Party, which has fielded a candidate in one local riding, putting forth 25 candidates, the Conservatives putting forward 19 candidates and the Communist and Christian Heritage parties each nominating five candidates.
There are also 24 independents running for a seat in this election.
But in Burnaby’s four ridings, the three main parties are dominating the tickets, with only one fourth party candidate in one riding.
Here are the candidates running for your votes:
Burnaby-Lougheed
In the riding of Burnaby-Lougheed, there is a total of four candidates listed by Elections BC, running for the three main parties – the BC Liberals, the BC NDP and the BC Greens – along with a Libertarian Party candidate.
Here’s who’s in the running:
Katrina Chen - BC NDP (incumbent)
Chen was first elected to the legislature in the 2017 provincial election, and she immediately took on the role of minister of state for child care. She has worked as an organizer with tenants’ rights advocacy group ACORN and served on the executive of several local non-profit organizations, according to her legislature profile.
Tariq Malik - BC Liberals
Malik is an entrepreneur working in construction, development, property management and real estate. He’s described in his party profile as a “devoted community advocate” with “a proven track record of community service and engagement.” In 2018, he was elected president of the Greater Vancouver Bangladesh Cultural Association, in which he founded the Vancouver Bangla School.
Andrew Williamson - BC Greens
Williamson is a filmmaker and activist who says he decided to combine those roles to run for public office in this election, according to a LinkedIn post. He is a producer with Cedar Island Films, which most recently put out The Magnitude of All Things, a film about grief and hope in the climate crisis.
Dominique Paynter - Libertarian
In her professional life, Paynter works in children’s programming and has a bachelor degree in traditional animation. In a profile of Paynter, the party notes she hasn’t always been interested in politics, but “recent events have catalyzed her to take a stand” and enter politics.
Burnaby North
Only the three main parties are running in Burnaby North, with the BC Greens and BC Liberals seeking to unseat the BC NDP incumbent.
The candidates in this riding are:
Norine Shim - BC Greens
Shim is the former executive assistant to the chief financial officer at the City of Vancouver, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to her two years in that position, she worked as an executive assistant to the managing director of First Capital, a real estate investment trust. She has also been a travel consultant and a hotel sales manager.
Dr. Raymond Dong - BC Liberals
Perhaps no Burnaby candidate understands the hearts of local constituents better than Dong. Mind you, that’s speaking quite literally of the cardiologist, whose practice is located in Surrey. Dong also has volunteer experience with advisory councils for Diabetes Canada and the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation, as well as working on the board of the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Janet Routledge - BC NDP (incumbent)
Routledge was first elected as MLA for Burnaby North in spring 2017 and currently serves as the NDP’s deputy whip. Prior to her time in government, she spent more than 30 years working for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a union representing 200,000 federal government employees. She has also represented workers at the federal Employment Insurance Appeals Board and been involved in several non-profits.
Burnaby-Edmonds
In Burnaby-Edmonds, only the three main parties are fielding candidates in this election. BC Liberal candidate Tripat Atwal and BC Green candidate Iqbal Parekh are looking to unseat three-term NDP incumbent Raj Chouhan.
Here’s a quick look at each of the candidates:
Tripat Atwal - BC Liberal
Atwal, a Surrey Realtor who taught high school English and social sciences in her native India, has lived in Canada since 2008. This is her first foray into Canadian politics, but her father, lawyer Charanjit Singh Atwal, is the former speaker of Punjab Legislative Assembly and the former deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha, the parliament of India.
Raj Chouhan - BC NDP (incumbent)
Chouhan, who most recently served as the deputy speaker of the legislative assembly, was the founding president of the Canadian Farmworkers Union and the BC Organization to Fight Racism. He first took the seat in 2005 by a mere 738 votes over Liberal Patty Sahota but has increased his margin in subsequent elections.
Iqbal Parekh - BC Greens
Parekh has lived in the Burnaby Edmonds area since 1991. He has been working in admissions and recruitment at public post-secondary and independent high schools in B.C. and other parts of Canada for 10 years.
He currently sits on the board of directors at Edmonds Community Center’s 55+ group and clubs and also acts as treasurer.
Burnaby-Deer Lake
In Burnaby-Deer Lake, BC Liberal candidate Glynnis Hoi Sum Chan and BC Green candidate Mehreen Chaudry are hoping to unseat BC NPD incumbent Anne Kang.
Anne Kang - BC NDP (incumbent)
Kang, most recently the minister of citizens’ services in the NDP government, served nearly three terms as a Burnaby city councillor before stepping down to run for provincial office in 2017. She secured nearly 9,000 votes, beating out Liberal Karen Wang by nearly 2,500 votes and Green candidate Rick McGowan by nearly 6,800 votes.
Glynnis Hoi Sum Chan - BC Liberals
Chan, a Burnaby resident who owns Happy Times Travel in Vancouver and Richmond, ran for Vancouver city council in 2018 under Hector Bremner’s Yes Vancouver banner. She garnered just over 13,000 votes and came in 36th of 71 candidates.
Mehreen Chaudry - BC Greens
Chaudry, a project manager and business analyst, also ran for municipal office in 2018, but for the Greens in Burnaby. She got 12,600 votes and came in 13th out of 23 candidates.
