Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan's office is spacious and well lit, with jars half-full of colourful candies lining the edge of his desk.
He has just finished a meeting with a staff member, and adds some advice regarding her son as she leaves.
"I just can't resist sharing my opinion," he jokes as we sit down.
Corrigan is known throughout the region for his strong stances on issues from transit to homelessness.
He moved to Burnaby in 1977 and first got involved with his party, the Burnaby Citizens Association, in 1979.
"I was always interested in politics," he says.
Both he and his wife Kathy Corrigan - the NDP MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake - were finishing law school, and Corrigan was articling for former city councillor and MLA Jim Lorimer at his law practice.
Lorimer introduced Corrigan to the association. The party appealed to Corrigan as the best option for the community, he says.
"As a young couple setting up in Burnaby, we were looking at what the future of the community was, and how it was going to be for us to raise kids here," Corrigan says. "So you become engaged and you start to think about those kinds of issues for the first time."
Corrigan was first elected as a BCA councillor in 1987.
Being a councillor was his recreation after working at his law practice all day, he says.
"While other guys were going out to golf, or play racquetball, or maybe going off to a model airplane club, I was going off to politics," he says.
Corrigan was elected mayor in 2002, and is serving his third consecutive term.
"It was really a big thrill for me when I could do it full-time," he says. "The thing that you really love doing, you get to do it all day. That's pretty special."
Corrigan says he has never wanted to serve at any other level of government, though he has been asked to run.
"I always wanted to be close to my family, and the idea of going to Victoria or going away to Ottawa just never attracted me," he says.
Corrigan feels his experience, and that of his council, is what's best for the city. The association's motto this election is Trusted Leadership.
"People recognize that over the years the BCA has had a series of mayors and councillors," he says. "It's had a long line of very good people from the community that have proven over and over again that they have Burnaby's interests at heart."
While he says he's sympathetic to other parties who say there should be a more diverse council, with multiple parties represented, Corrigan adds that he'd be loath to lose any of his current councillors.
"When I reply to that, I say, who could we do without that is on council now?" he says. "Each of them in their own right contributes a lot to Burnaby."
He points to the experience of councillors such as Pietro Calendino, Dan Johnston, Nick Volkow, Colleen Jordan and Sav Dhaliwal.
Coun. Paul McDonell has been an active volunteer for years, he adds.
"I mean, people call him Mr. Burnaby because he's out there, everywhere, all the time," Corrigan says.
Coun. Anne Kang and Richard Chang are both important connections to the Chinese community in Burnaby, he adds.
And the current council has done a good job of running the city, while remaining transparent and accountable, according to Corrigan.
"There's never been any scandals or corruption associated with the BCA," he says.
"We've always been honest and straightforward about how we manage the government."
Overall, Corrigan wants a positive, cohesive council he can work with if he's elected for a fourth term, he says.
"What I want is that people in Burnaby elect positive people to council," he says.
"As mayor, I need to have people that I can work with that love our city and are interested in our city's future."
Burnaby residents will be electing one mayor, eight councillors and seven school board trustees in the election, which takes place on Saturday, Nov. 19.
Follow Janaya Fuller-Evans at twitter.com/janayafe
