The NOW recently asked the Burnaby Citizens’ Association – which is in the middle of counting ballots from its nomination meeting – if the party that has ruled over council for multiple terms will be running a mayoral candidate to challenge Mayor Mike Hurley.
The response from the BCA is that the party hasn’t made up its mind yet.
This at a time when it’s finalizing its slate of candidates for school board and council. The BCA currently has four members on council after Couns. Colleen Jordan and Dan Johnston quit the party. (Things unravelled a bit after the iron hand of ex-mayor Derek Corrigan disappeared.)
There is a civic election this October (please tell me you knew this) and so far Hurley is the only mayoral candidate. My question to readers is would that be such a bad thing.
Someone might step forward for the BCA, or another party, or perhaps an independent. But it’s a daunting task. As I recall, more than $500,000 was spent by Hurley in the last election to get elected while the BCA spent a similar amount to try and re-elect Corrigan.
It takes some serious cash and an army of volunteers to elect a mayor. Not many people will be prepared to take on this challenge, especially when the prospects of winning are pretty thin.
Unseating an incumbent mayor is difficult. It usually takes a star candidate, or a situation in which the incumbent is wildly unpopular over a central polarizing issue.
Hurley doesn’t have one of those issues hanging around his neck. He campaigned on a housing platform and has implemented plenty of policies on that file, including a bold tenant assistance policy that even some of the most ardent city critics applauded.
You can argue about if those policies have been effective or if it’s too early to even measure them, especially considering that COVID-19 slowed the pace of funding approvals by the province and the feds.
Hurley has also been effective at bringing together a coalition of councillors that include most of the BCA members on council in order to get these things done.
It’s not impossible that someone will step forward to run for mayor, but I’d be shocked if it was a serious candidate. The odds just seem so stacked against anyone succeeding unless there’s some sort of scandal that magically appears.
But we shall see. There’s still time.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
