Pipeline plays a part in Liberal Terry Beech holding Burnaby North—Seymour
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 13:31:53 +0000
Liberal Terry Beech hung onto his Burnaby North—Seymour riding on Monday night, defeating former long-term NDP MP Svend Robinson in one of the last ridings to be decided.
“I didn’t win by as much as I did last time, it was a close race,” Beech said. “That means my work starts (Tuesday).”
A crowd of about 80 gathered at a North Burnaby restaurant and chanted the names of Beech, and then his wife Ravi. The couple has a 10-month-old daughter, Nova.
“We’ll be out, knocking on doors, talking to people, make sure we’re representing the good people of Burnaby, the good people of North Vancouver.”
Beech had been in the awkward position of having to defend the Trans Mountain pipeline, despite being against the $4.5-billion expansion project and the Liberals’ purchase of it.
He voted against the project in the House of Commons — one of only two Liberals to do so — saying a majority of his constituents opposed it.
The campaign, which was watched closely because the terminus of the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline is in the riding, was focused on issues but lacked personal attacks, said a Simon Fraser University lecturer.
“There wasn’t much interest in (Robinson’s) past,” said Sanjay Jeram, a senior lecturer in political science.
“The issues dominated. There just wasn’t much made of his personal past. Probably the issue we look back on will be the pipeline.”
Robinson was returning to politics after a 15-year-hiatus. He’d represented Burnaby in Ottawa for 25 years but stepped away from politics in 2004 after he pleaded guilty to stealing a diamond engagement ring valued at $64,500.
At 18, Beech became B.C.’s youngest-ever elected official when he won a city council seat in Nanaimo. Maclean’s magazine named him the 2018 Parliamentarian of the Year for civic outreach, a nod to his claim he has visited every house in his riding at least three times.
Beech has been Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Science, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport.
He thanked all his opponents, but had special words of gratitude for Robinson.
“A lot of people don’t know this,” Beech said. “He sat down with me twice after I was first elected. He talked to me about some tricks and tips about how he used to run the office to be a good constituency MP.”
The Conservatives finished a strong third in 2015, but the party turfed its candidate Heather Leung this year over comments she’d made in the past about lesbian, gay and transgender people. Her name remained on the ballot as a Conservative, however, because ballots had already been printed.
Despite being dumped by the Tories, Leung came third in the riding, followed by the Green party’s Amita Kuttner. Fourth was Rocky Dong of the People’s Party.
It will be Beech’s first experience with a minority government and the Trans Mountain pipeline will continue to divide the riding.
“There are people on my campaign team who want to see the Trans Mountain pipeline be built, there are people on my campaign team who don’t want to see the Trans Mountain pipeline built,” he said.
“Just as I’ve been there every day for my constituents for the last four years, I’ll continue doing that.”
The NDP’s Robinson, 67 and the first openly gay MP, campaigned on issues of climate change and affordable housing. Svend bucked NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s support for the provincial LNG project with the slogan “No new oil and gas.”
Robinson’s environmentalism goes back to at least 1985, when he took part in peaceful civil disobedience in an effort to stop old-growth trees in Haida Gwaii from being logged.
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