Alison Gu and Mike Hillman are Burnaby's latest council members, but few people turned out to vote and one candidate wasn't given a warm welcome by a Burnaby NDP MLA on social media.
On June 26, voters headed to the polls to cast their ballot to fill two vacant seats on council and had 14 candidates to choose from. The number of voters was extremely poor, seeing just 13,518 voters cast a ballot out of a registered 161,772 voters which equates to an extremely low percentage of 8.36%.
When all was said and done, Burnaby Citizens Association candidate Alison Gu was the overall winner by a large margin, receiving 4,994 voters (19.36 per cent).
Independent Mike Hillman would finish with 3,227 votes (12.51%) and claim the second open seat.
But it was extremely close for Hillman, who only beat out Gu's running mate Baljinder Narang by 0.48% (12.03%).
Former councillor Lee Rankin also came close to Hillman, receiving 11.87% of the vote (3,061).
"I actually didn't really notice my lead," Gu told the NOW.
"I kept on calculating the margin of vote difference between my running partner Baljinder Narang and Mike Hillman. Really, most of the night was focused on that and refreshing the page and recalculating.
"I don't think it was really until late that night that I realized that I had such a big margin. There were a lot of questions like 'Is this a big margin? I don't know, I'm not sure.'"
Thank you. Thank you to the countless volunteers, organizers, and donors. This was your work—this was your victory.
— Alison Gu (@go4gu) June 27, 2021
And to Burnaby, thank you for entrusting me with the honour of being your representative at City Hall. I will fight for you, for justice, and for *us*.
It wasn't all joy for Gu watching for the results come in. She said it was "disheartening" to not succeed alongside a running mate.
"It's a little bit disheartening to not succeed alongside somebody else who has the progressive values that you have and who would represent the bigger breakthrough in terms of representation and just being for the first time ever in modern council history, probably in all of Burnaby council history, having a record-breaking three women at the table. I think that was the primary reaction."
Gu initially thought she would be the one to just get through and wouldn't win with such a large lead ahead of the second-place candidate.
"It was this really big surprise to win my first time running, as a 24-year-old woman of colour as well as the margin."
Mike Hillman said that as the results rolled in, he was concerned more with the low voting numbers and hoping to see an upswing in numbers that didn't quite show up.
"The first thing that was running through my head was that the turnout was a touch lower than what we thought it would be so that was one of the things 'when is going to start showing a little bit differently'"
"The other thing for me that was there was just the thankfulness of everybody who was part of the team. It's a very awkward campaign in byelections, especially with a low turnout.
"How do you take the energy of your team and get them to reach out and get people out to vote? So there was a great deal of thankfulness on my part for the work they had done."
Shortly after the results rolled in, Burnaby-Lougheed MLA Katrina Chen tweeted she was disappointed in the low turnout and that Baljinder Narang had not been elected.
"So disappointed with the low turnout of the #Burnaby By-election and not having @Narang4Burnaby elected to Council," Chen's tweet said.
"Happy for @go4gubut we can do better. Seriously. Our Council should better reflect the diversity of our community. Honesty and track records are also important."
Katrina Chen tweeted after the Burnaby byelection. . By Screenshot/TwitterThe next day, Chen sent out another tweet directly mentioning Hillman and claiming he has ties to the Conservatives while adding she was "personally concerned about some of his claims and tactics."
"Reflecting on yesterday - we have not had a right wing rep on Council since 2008. Hillman has ties to the Conservatives. I’m also personally concerned about some of his claims and tactics."
"#Burnaby is often proud of how progressive we are as a community. We can do better."
Katrina Chen tweeted after the Burnaby byelection, particularly about Mike Hillman. . By Screenshot/TwitterThe tweet didn't sit well with many, who voiced their displeasure saying things such as "This is an extraordinarily shallow comment" and "People can elect who they want in a democracy. To say their choice was wrong is dangerous and has no place in a free society."
Chen added a photo and tweet from former British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, who congratulated Hillman, adding his 1984 federal campaign was her first political adventure after graduating from Burnaby South High School.
Mike Hillman's 1984 campaign was my first political adventure after grad from Bby South HS. Just delighted to see him get elected in the #burnabybyelection No one cares about my hometown of #Burnaby more than he does. Congrats my friend! pic.twitter.com/vFLW0vR5sU
— Christy Clark (@christyclarkbc) June 27, 2021
Hillman said when he heard about the comments from Chen, it was more on the unfortunate side.
"People mentioned to me. I haven't actually seen it directly," Hillman told the NOW.
"They said there's also a picture there of me shaking hands with John Turner and that was when I was a candidate for the federal Liberal party and that was back in 1984 and John was the leader of the party.
"So I don't know where the Conservative ties fit into that side but look, there's no question, I mean I think it's a little bit of an unfortunate comment that came out in the heat of the moment.
"I'm going to take the opportunity to reach out to her. Those relationships as a councilman, a council-person, we need to put the barriers behind us, the definitions behind us and say we're all here to work for the better of all citizens in Burnaby and that means working together."
Burnaby's next city council meeting is scheduled for July 12 at 5 p.m.
