Burnaby—Lougheed

Burnaby—Lougheed is situated in the northeastern part of Burnaby, encompassing the Lougheed Town Centre, residential areas near Simon Fraser University, established neighbourhoods north of Burnaby Lake, and a mix of working-class communities along the Lougheed Highway corridor. In the 2013 election, NDP candidate Jane Shin had narrowly won the seat by just 523 votes, defeating BC Liberal Ken Kramer after long-serving Liberal MLA Harry Bloy retired. Shin did not seek re-election in 2017, making the riding an open seat. The BC Liberals made a high-profile recruitment play by nominating Steve Darling, a well-known television personality, to try to reclaim the riding.

Candidates

Katrina Chen (BC NDP) — Chen was a Burnaby school trustee elected in 2014 as a member of the Burnaby Citizens Association. Born and raised in Taichung, Taiwan, where her father served on the city council, she immigrated to Canada on her own and completed her education in British Columbia. She held a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Simon Fraser University and a certificate in immigration law from UBC. Before running for the legislature, she had worked in constituency offices for both provincial and federal NDP representatives for more than a decade.

Steve Darling (BC Liberal Party) — Darling was the former morning news anchor at Global BC, where he had worked for 18 years, co-hosting the morning news program since 2001. His position was eliminated in October 2016, after which he was personally recruited as a candidate by Premier Christy Clark. He was one of two former Global BC broadcasters running for the BC Liberals in 2017.

Joe Keithley (BC Green Party) — Keithley is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the pioneering Vancouver punk band D.O.A., whose politically charged music helped define the genre alongside bands like Black Flag and Dead Kennedys in the 1980s. He had run for the Green Party in provincial elections as far back as 1996 and was a longtime Burnaby resident and community activist.

Sylvia Gung (Independent) and Neeraj Murarka (Libertarian) received minor shares of the vote.

Local Issues

Housing affordability dominated the campaign in Burnaby—Lougheed. The Lougheed Town Centre area was one of Burnaby’s four designated regional growth centres, and rapid densification around the SkyTrain station was transforming the neighbourhood. While new condominium towers brought investment and transit-oriented density, they also threatened older affordable rental buildings. The NDP’s promise to build 114,000 rental and co-operative homes over ten years resonated with renters in a riding where many households were spending a large share of their income on housing.

Childcare was a particularly significant issue in this riding, reflecting a broader provincial shortage of licensed spaces. Wait times for daycare could stretch to years, and costs in the Lower Mainland were among the highest in Canada. Chen made expanding affordable childcare a centrepiece of her campaign. The NDP’s platform promised to create new licensed spaces and move toward a universal system.

The elimination of MSP premiums was another affordability measure that candidates debated. The monthly health premium cost families up to $150 per month, a burden that fell disproportionately on middle- and lower-income households. The BC Liberals proposed a 50 per cent reduction for households earning under $120,000, while the NDP and Greens proposed full elimination. In a riding with a mix of working-class families and students near SFU, the promise of eliminating this cost had direct appeal.