Independent mayoral candidate Allen Hutton depicts himself as a back-room advisor of sorts. In the Burnaby NOW boardroom, the tall, 53-year-old father of six, dressed in suit and tie, describes how he's influenced civic decisions for decades.
"I've been advising mayors for the last 30 years," he says. Those mayors include Bill Lewarne, Bill Copeland, Doug Drummond, and Derek Corrigan.
"They like my ideas, and then they actually go off and pretend they came up with them," Hutton says, laughing. "I guess that's politics."
The list of ideas he takes credit for is long: community policing, protecting local green space, having town centres in Burnaby - even the Millennium line, he says, waving his hand towards the Production Way SkyTrain station outside the NOW office.
"Most people in city hall do what I've been saying for years," he says.
But instead of being a selfappointed back-room advisor, Hutton would like to take centre stage as mayor.
"I've been on the outside. I would like an opportunity to see what I can do on the inside," he says.
Hutton comes from a family with deep roots in Burnaby. His father and grandfather both lived here. (Hutton's advisory role seems to run in the family: "We've always been involved," he says, adding his family would talk to people when changes needed to be made. "We've been here for a long time. Everybody knows us.")
Hutton is not exactly clear on what he does for a living. He has a Saskatchewan farm and a trucking business, but his affairs are tied up in complicated legal problems. When asked how he lives day to day, he replies that he doesn't.
"I get a little bit of money off my farm, but that's about it," he says.
He spends his days making phone calls and writing letters. He doesn't have a campaign team behind him.
On the subject of experience, Hutton notes he was a volunteer chairman of the city's now defunct family court and youth justice committee. He's also done liaison work with the community advisory panel for the old Burnaby Justice Centre (which is now called the Burnaby/New Westminster Family Justice Centre) and the city's community policing committee and youth prostitution take force. He's a current board member of PLEA, a non-profit Vancouver group that offers services for youth and adults in the court system, and he's also on the board with the New Vista Society, a local non-profit that operates seniors' housing and care.
As for political views, Hutton describes himself as a "capitalistsocialist."
"One doesn't survive without the other," he says. "You have to have capitalism to collect the taxes and socialism to keep capitalism in check."
Hutton has been aligned with the Burnaby Citizens Association, the local civic party where membership requires that you are cardcarrying New Democrat. Hutton says he sought the BCA nomination in the last two elections but was rejected. There's also a longstanding conflict with the City of Burnaby involving some family property that Hutton says he was swindled out of.
"I was a member of the Burnaby Citizens Association, but there's people who don't want me in city hall," he says.
He's run as an independent councillor twice before. According to city archives, Hutton got 1,049 votes in 1993 and 2,735 in 1999.
He's running as an independent and is after the mayor's seat. According to Hutton, independent council candidates don't usually fare well. He thinks he has a better shot running for mayor.
"Personally, I think Mayor Corrigan has been there too long," Hutton says.
If elected, Hutton would focus on clean, quality parks and proper transit system that's more interconnected and includes light-rail transit. He wants Burnaby to be a pedestrian-friendly city with good schools and clean air and water.
"I'm running to make sure our city has a future, and it's not just a smoggy, blacktop mess."
Hutton also raises questions around development.
"There may come a point in time where we are not in a position to take on any more development," he says.
