Burnaby, British Columbia

Burnaby, British Columbia, is a city immediately east of Vancouver. It was incorporated in 1892 and achieved City status in 1992, one hundred years after incorporation. It is the seat of the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

People and Politics

While Burnaby occupies about 4 percent of the land area of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, it accounted for about 10% of the Region's population in 2001. It is the third most populated urban centre in British Columbia (after Vancouver and Surrey) with an estimated population of 205,261. Like much of Greater Vancouver, Burnaby has always had large ethnic and immigrant communities: to cite two examples, North Burnaby near Hastings Street has long played host to many Italian restaurants and recreational bocce games, while Metrotown's ever-sprouting condominium towers in the south have been fueled in part by more recent arrivals from China, Hong Kong, and the former Yugoslavia.

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Politically, Burnaby has maintained a centre-left city council (which recently completely eliminated the City's debt) and school board for many years, while sometimes electing more conservative legislators provincially (for the Social Credit and BC Liberal parties) and federally (for the Reform, Alliance, and Conservative parties). Its longest-serving politician had been Svend Robinson of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada's first openly homosexual member of Parliament, but after 25 years and seven elections he resigned his post in early 2004 after stealing and then returning an expensive ring. Burnaby voters endorsed his assistant, Bill Siksay, as his replacement in the spring 2004 Canadian federal election. In the May 2005 provincial election, residents of the city sent a mix of BC Liberal and NDP representatives to the British Columbia legislature.

Related Topics:
Social Credit - BC Liberal - Reform - Alliance - Conservative - Svend Robinson - New Democratic Party - Homosexual - Bill Siksay

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