Map of Burnaby - New Westminster

Key demographic indicators (2006 census)

Population: 118,715
English as a mother tongue only: 51,745
Lived at the same address five years ago: 53,345
Number of immigrants: 59,565
Visible minority population: 64,075
Chinese descent: 29,430
South Asian descent: 12,285
Filipino descent: 6,970
Korean descent: 4,205
Aboriginal descent: 2,400
African descent: 2,335
Median age: 38.4
Percentage living in single detached houses: 22.7 %
Number of owned dwellings: 26,875
Number of rented dwellings: 20,050
Median income (2005 all families): $55,294
Median income (2005 married couples): $59,960
Median income (2005 common-law couples): $60,906
Median income (2005 lone-parent families): $33,088

Peter Julian
Gerry Lenoski
Carrie-Ann McLaren
Sam Rakhra

Burnaby-New Westminster includes South Burnaby and a fair portion of the City of New Westminster. In the last two elections, it has featured relatively close three-way races between NDP, Liberal, and Conservative candidates. Both times, the parties finished in that order.

Peter Julian, the NDP critic for international trade and the 2010 Olympics, has held the seat since 2004. He has previously been executive director of the Council of Canadians and executive director of the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Julian has sometimes focused on left-wing causes often overlooked by other MPs, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the possibility that it could lead to bulk-water exports to the United States.

Gerry Lenoski, a director of the Burnaby Multicultural Society and a tenor opera singer, is running for the Liberals. He was the B.C. communications chair of Michael Ignatieff's Liberal leadership campaign. After being nominated, Lenoski issued a news release calling for windfall taxes on oil companies.

Capilano College business student Carrie-Ann McLaren is the Green candidate. She has a BCIT grad in the television broadcasting program. Sam Rakhra, a veteran real-estate agent, will carry the flag for the Conservatives.

Rakhra has been disciplined three times by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia. Last December as managing broker of Tapestry Realty, Rakhra "failed to be actively engaged in the management of the related brokerage and failed to ensure that the business of the brokerage was carried out competently and in accordance with the [Real Estate Services] Act, regulations, rules and bylaws", according to a consent order. Rakhra was suspended for 180 days for professional misconduct and ordered to complete several disciplinary education assignments.

In 2005, the Real Estate Council of B.C. ordered Rakhra to pay enforcement expenses of $3,800 after being reprimanded for failing to "be in active charge of five real estate transactions handled by a licensee of Royal Group Tapestry in that he failed to properly document the deficiencies in the exclusive listing contracts and Contracts and Purchase and Sale so that these deficiencies could be brought to the licensee's attention in writing".

In a 2004 decision, the council determined that Rakhra permitted commissions to be withdrawn from the trust account of the agent three days prior to the complete date without an express agreement in writing by the parties", which contravened the Real Estate Act. This ruling cited other violations of the act, and Rakhra and Royal Group Tapestry Realty were jointly and severally liable for $5,028.95 in costs.