Burnaby­New Westminster: Peter Julian (NDP)

From: Georgia Straight - Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada - Jun 24, 2004

Julian, the 42-year-old executive director of the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, is one of the best NDP candidates in the Lower Mainland.

Julian has worked with budgets his entire career, making him one of the most financially literate NDP candidates in the region. He led the fight to try to save St. Mary's Hospital, which the B.C. Liberals closed.

At an all-candidates meeting on June 17, he cleverly pointed out why the new Conservative Party incorporates the worst of both of its predecessors: it has the socially conservative values of the old Reform Party and the fiscal foolishness of the Mulroney-led Progressive Conservative government.

A former national executive director of the Council of Canadians, Julian has extensive knowledge of public policy and a history of advocacy.

The Liberal candidate, New Westminster planning director Mary Pynenburg, in her late 40s, is also very knowledgeable about public policies and strongly defended the Liberal government's decision not to send troops to Iraq.

However, in 1999 the Georgia Straight reported that a citizen won a $10,000 libel suit against the City of New Westminster in B.C. Supreme Court after Pynenburg maliciously defamed him in a planning report and refused to issue an apology.

Conservative Mike Redmond, a 51-year-old lawyer, has a solid grasp of international issues and is not as dogmatic as others in his party. He has promised not to vote to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to override court rulings on abortion and same-sex marriage.

However, Redmond's Conservative party platform offers little for cities. The Greens' Revel Kunz, 33, lives in Vancouver where she operates a bed-and-breakfast business.

©2004 Vancouver Free Press