Burnaby Central

Burnaby Central is a new federal riding created under the 2022 redistribution, replacing the former Burnaby South. The riding covers the central portion of the City of Burnaby, including the densely populated Metrotown neighbourhood—one of Metro Vancouver’s largest urban centres outside downtown Vancouver—as well as the Deer Lake, Maywood, and Edmonds areas. The riding gained Sullivan Heights from the former Burnaby North—Seymour and parts of Burnaby west of Canada Way from the former New Westminster—Burnaby, while losing the southernmost sections to the new Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby riding. The district is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country, with large Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and South Asian communities.

Candidates

Wade Chang (Liberal) is a Taiwanese-born Canadian lawyer who was raised in Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne and an MBA with distinction from Oxford University, where he studied social entrepreneurship. Chang has worked as a legal consultant specializing in cross-border transactions across the Asia-Pacific region.

James Yan (Conservative) is a technology professional with a Stanford MBA who works in the streaming industry. He has advised the Conservative shadow minister for Innovation and lives in Burnaby’s Brentwood neighbourhood.

Jagmeet Singh (NDP) served as leader of the New Democratic Party from 2017 to 2025 and represented the former Burnaby South riding from 2019 onward, having first won the seat in a by-election. A criminal defence lawyer by training and former Ontario MPP for Bramalea—Gore—Malton, Singh was the first non-white leader of a major federal political party in Canada. He ran in 2025 in the redrawn Burnaby Central riding.

Richard Farbridge (People’s Party) ran on the PPC platform.

About the Riding

Burnaby Central is defined by the Metrotown hub, where clusters of residential towers, a major regional shopping centre, and SkyTrain rapid transit converge to create one of the densest urban nodes in British Columbia. The neighbourhood has undergone dramatic transformation over the past decade as older low-rise apartment buildings and single-family homes gave way to high-rise condominium and rental towers, reshaping both the skyline and the community’s demographic composition.

Housing affordability and the displacement of long-term renters have been persistent local concerns. The rapid pace of redevelopment around Metrotown displaced hundreds of tenants from older rental buildings, prompting the City of Burnaby to adopt tenant-protection policies. Transit-oriented development along the SkyTrain corridor has attracted young professionals and new immigrants, but rising rents have pushed lower-income residents further from the city centre.

The 2025 race drew national attention because it was the home riding of the federal NDP leader. The redistribution subtly altered the riding’s composition, and the broader national decline in NDP support made the seat competitive. The campaign unfolded against a backdrop of US trade tensions and cost-of-living concerns, with housing costs, grocery prices, and healthcare access dominating local debates. The riding’s dense, diverse, and transit-connected character made it a bellwether for suburban Metro Vancouver politics.