Learn from Carr

The Green Party ridings in the Burnaby and New West area are going to learn about campaigning from former B.C. Green leader and current federal Green 2010 Olympics critic Adriane Carr later this week.

Last election the Greens won 3,067 votes in Burnaby-New Westminster and 2,822 votes in Burnaby-Douglas. Maybe with a little training they might be able to win a few hundred more votes.

Low and behold

It has been 35 years since a Liberal has been elected MP in north Burnaby. Ken Low, the Liberal candidate in Vancouver East last time, may be the candidate who will end that losing streak.

Low, a civil engineer who immigrated from Hong Kong, is being talked up in Liberal circles as their next candidate in Burnaby-Douglas. Low finished a distant second to the NDP's Libby Davies last October. Bill Cunningham lost as the Burnaby-Douglas Liberal candidate in 2004, 2006 and 2008 to New Democrat Bill Siksay.

The Liberals dropped into third place in Burnaby-Douglas last election, in part due to the unpopularity of then leader Stephane Dion with B.C. voters. Michael Ignatieff, who has already made several visits to the west coast, will likely strengthen the Liberal brand in the province. Last time, less than one in five British Columbian voters cast their ballot for the local Liberal candidate.

Yet again

To no one's surprise Burnaby remains shut out of the provincial Cabinet.

Despite the elevation of nine first time members of the executive council, Burnaby BC Liberal MLAs Richard Lee and Harry Bloy remain on the side. Of the nine new Ministers, two - John Yap and Randy Hawes - are veteran MLAs. The twenty five member cabinet has seven women, including four first term female MLAs.

Despite the lack of a cabinet post, Lee will play a key role in the government's outreach to the Chinese-language community. This role may lead him to Cabinet before the end of the current term if he continues to work at getting the government's accomplishments noticed in the Chinese media.

There is no solid word yet if Bloy plans to seek the Speaker's chair.

What the cabinet will hold

There has been plenty of cabinet speculation today over who is in and who is out of Gordon Campbell's cabinet as he begins his third term as Premier.

Burnaby will likely remain on the outside despite the need to shore up BC Liberal support in Burnaby after losing another seat to the NDP. If Burnaby is to sneak into cabinet, Richard T. Lee is the likely bet for a junior portfolio. In a long shot prediction, the Georgia Straight suggested Lee might be one to watch tomorrow.

Thusfar, Harry Bloy has not been the subject of any speculation.

Decimated

Only 31 of 308 members of Parliament have made every recorded vote so far this Parliament. In their ranks is Burnaby-Douglas NDP MP Bill Siksay. Congratulations, Mr. Bill!

Third time's a charm

NDP leader Carole James wants to take a third run at becoming Premier in 2013.

What does Derek Corrigan think about her trying a third time?

It’s a man’s legislature

A record number of women were elected on Tuesday. Twenty-three out of 85 is not a great record. Just over a quarter of the seats are now held by women. Except for a brief stretch from December 1999 to April 2001 this is the highest percentage of women ever.
This effort was hard fought. The NDP made a particular effort to run female candidates, running over 40 women. The BC Liberals ran two dozen women. Fourteen ridings had women for both the Liberals and NDP. That means only nine women won in the other 71 seats. Although both parties went out of their way to run female candidates in some of the safer seats, many female candidates were thrown to the wolves to drive up each party’s respective number of women. The BC Liberals ran several women in East Vancouver while the NDP did the same in the Okanagan.
That’s not to say there has not been progress. In 1986 there were only nine women elected to the then 69 seat legislature. Two more were elected in by-elections while another, Kim Campbell, resigned to seek federal office. In 1991 the NDP win saw 19 women elected across 75 ridings. Five years later 20 women were elected and two more won by-elections that term. In 2001, 19 women were elected in 79 seats. In 2005, 16 women were elected. One more was elected in a by-election. Carole Taylor resigned with less than five months left in her term.
We are also doing better than most other parts of the country. As a percentage of seats, B.C. has more women than all provinces except Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. Quebec Premier Jean Charest also has the distinction of having a cabinet whose membership is 50% women.
Electing more women than ever before is a good sign. B.C. has come a long way since making Mary Ellen Smith the first woman cabinet minister in the British Empire. There is still much more progress that is needed. The NDP’s quota system for running more women has now been tried. There was a slight improvement.
As the parties work towards the next election they should seek out women candidates not just for safe ridings and no hopers but do what the NDP did in Burnaby where three women were recruited in battleground ridings. A bit of support and a lot of hard work can lead to women winning close seats, much like how men win safe seats. Equality of opportunity might be all we need.