Provincial election hopefuls who bailed at the last minute angered Burnaby parents who organized an all-candidates meeting focused on local education issues this week.
The district parent advisory council, the voice of parents at local public schools, hosted the meeting Tuesday at Burnaby Central Secondary.
The event drew about 30 audience members and only four candidates running for seats in this month's provincial election: NDP incumbents Anne Kang (Burnaby Centre) and Janet Routledge (Burnaby North), and Green Party candidates Carrie McLaren (Burnaby South-Metrotown) and Tara Shushtarian (Burnaby East).
DPAC chair Harinder Parmar said she had invited all the Burnaby candidates listed on the Elections BC website on Aug. 12, and nine said they'd be there, but five pulled out.
Conservative Party of BC candidate Deepak Suri (Burnaby-New Westminster) waited until less than two hours before the event before telling organizers he wouldn't be there, Parmar said.
Fellow Conservatives Han Lee (Burnaby South-Metrotown) and Dharam Kajal (Burnaby Centre) cancelled the day before.
Conservative Michael Wu (Burnaby North) pulled out 10 days before because of an "an unforeseen scheduling conflict."
And Conservative Simon Chandler (Burnaby East) simply never responded to the invite.
Two NDP candidates also pulled out after confirming: incumbent Raj Chouhan (Burnaby-New Westminster) and Reah Arora (Burnaby East), whose campaign manager said her schedule had "shifted."
NDP candidate Paul Choi (Burnaby South-Metrotown) didn't bother to respond to the invitation.
Parmar said parents had volunteered countless hours to organize the event and were disappointed.
"To cancel at the last minute sometimes feels like a little bit of a callous disregard for all the work and thought that went into it," Parmar told the audience. "If you see them knocking on your door, telling you how important education is, you can ask them 'Why didn't you come to the event?' or 'Why did you cancel at the last minute?'"
You can find Burnaby-specific coverage of the provincial election online, including more details on the all-candidates meeting.
The election will be held Saturday, Oct. 19.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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