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BCA council monopoly broken as Greens elect Joe Keithley

The Burnaby Citizens Association finally had its monopoly on city council broken Saturday night – but not by much. The BCA elected seven members of its slate – the seven incumbents.
Joe Keithley
D.O.A. founder Joe Keithley will try to unseat Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan in October's municipal election.

The Burnaby Citizens Association finally had its monopoly on city council broken Saturday night – but not by much.

The BCA elected seven members of its slate – the seven incumbents.

But according to the City of Burnaby website, with all polls reporting, the Burnaby Green Party’s Joe Keithley - the lead singer of punk bank DOA - looks to have captured the eighth and final spot by a narrow margin – 15,745 votes to 15,530 votes for BCA candidate Baljinder K. Narang.

When the NOW reached Burnaby’s first-ever Green council member, Keithley was cracking open a beer to celebrate.

“I’m feeling good and I’m really happy,” he said. “I think people realized the Greens have a collaborative approach. It’s part of being a Green. You’ve got to work with whoever you can and try and change things.”

Keithley credited his party’s dogged advocacy on housing affordability and their willingness to commit to a moratorium on demovictions in Burnaby. He said that moratorium – which new mayor Mike Hurley is in favour of – will be his top priority.

“I think the BCA councillors have got to get around to what Mike has laid out,” he said. “We’ve got to work with whoever’s there.”These are the results according to the City of Burnaby’s website:

Dan Johnston, BCA – 19,930

Pietro Calendino, BCA – 19,707

Sav Dhaliwal, BCA – 19,625

Colleen Jordan, BCA – 18.787

James Wang, BCA – 17,839

Paul McDonell, BCA – 16,760

Nick Volkow, BCA – 16,008

Joe Keithley, Greens – 15,745

Baljinder K. Narang, BCA – 15,530

Joel Gibbs, Greens – 14,815

Rick McGowan, Greens – 13,700

Lee Rankin, Independent – 13,310

Mehreen Chaudrey, Greens – 12,600

Heather Leung, Burnaby First Coalition – 12,510

Janice Beecroft, Indepdendent – 11,553

Francesca Zumpano, Burnaby First Coalition – 11,508

Linda Hancott, Burnaby First Coalition – 11,338

Charter Lau, Burnaby First Coalition – 10,702

Erika Schinzel, Greens – 10,580

Carrie McLaren, Greens – 10,019

John Templeton, Burnaby First Coalition – 9,855

Claire Preston, Independent – 9,805

Alain Deng, Burnaby First Coalition – 9,362