Korean Cultural Heritage Festival shows that the B.C. election campaign is already underway in Burnaby

by Charlie Smith on August 7th, 2016 at 11:09 AM

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In recent years, the Korean Cultural Heritage Festival at Swangard Stadium has been mostly an NDP affair.

Supported by the New Democrats who control Burnaby council and Burnaby school board, the annual event didn't attract many B.C. Liberal politicians in 2014 and 2015.

I spotted one B.C. Liberal cabinet minister, Amrik Virk, in each of those years. Last year, real-estate agent Randy Rinaldo also appeared on behalf of the B.C. Liberals—and he was later nominated as the candidate in Burnaby-Lougheed before stepping down.

In those two years, there were tons of New Democrats at the event, led by their Korean-born MLA for Burnaby-Lougheed, Jane Shin.

This year, the NDP didn't ignore the festival, which took place on Saturday (August 6). It had a display highlighting new MLA Jodie Wickens as well as Shin and long-time Burnaby-Edmonds MLA Raj Chouhan.

https://twitter.com/rajchouhan/status/761984075687194624

However, a fleet of B.C. Liberal MLAs also showed up to crash the party, including Premier Christy Clark. She brought along cabinet ministers Virk, Andrew Wilkinson, and Peter Fassbender, as well as backbenchers Ralph Sultan, Doug Bing, Jane Thornthwaite, and Richard Lee.

The premier is making use of the B.C. government website to ensure that everybody knows about it. This morning, I counted more than two dozen photos of Clark at the Korean Cultural Heritage Festival.

The premier also greeted people outside the stadium.

All of this suggests that the B.C. Liberals aren't going to roll over in Burnaby-Lougheed in next year's election. In 2013, Shin won by only 741 votes.

Lee, who has represented Burnaby North for the B.C. Liberals since 2001, may also be in for a close race next year. He held his seat in 2013 by only 668 votes.