2005 Candidates (as received from Elections B.C.):
- Raj Chouhan, New Democratic Party of B.C.
- Suzanne Deveau, Green Party of BC
- Patty Sahota, BC Liberal Party
District Profile:
With Vancouver's city limits as its westernmost boundary, Burnaby-Edmonds is bordered on the south by the Fraser River and 10th Avenue, on the east by Coquitlam, and on the north by Highway 1. This area's central location has made it an attractive spot for industrial development, wholesalers, educational facilities and a variety of residential subdivisions. The Burnaby Lake area is also extensively developed, with warehousing, trucking and manufacturing plants. The average family income is $60,451 – somewhat below the provincial average – and the unemployment rate is a slightly above average 9 per cent. The suburbs here are rapidly changing, with ethnically diverse populations of both working- and upper-middle-class residents. At 49 per cent, Burnaby-Edmonds has the eighth-highest immigrant proportion in the province. Around 52 per cent of residents are visible minorities – the 10th-highest such proportion. Among them, people of Chinese descent are common (31.5 per cent), as are South Asians (12.3 per cent, B.C.'s ninth-largest South Asian population).
Political History:
The incumbent in Burnaby-Edmonds is Liberal Patty Sahota, the minister of state for resort development. Sahota gained office with a 2001 win (by a 2-to-1 margin) over Sav Dahliwal of the NDP. For the prior half-century the Social Credit and New Democrat parties had traded control here. New Democrat Gordon Dowding served here from 1956-75, when the Social Credit's Ray Loewen defeated him. Then, in 1979, Rosemary Brown of the NDP beat W.A. Lewarne of the Social Credit Party. Brown won again in 1983. In 1986 the Social Credit's Dave Mercier took control here. Five years later Fred Randall of the New Democrats beat a Liberal, Carlos Brito, by just over 3,000 votes. Randall's 1996 win over Liberal Judy St-Denis was by fewer than 1,200 votes.
In 2001, voter turnout in Burnaby-Edmonds was 69.9 per cent – just under the provincial average.
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