The Star Vancouver: Derek Corrigan sure of his rule in Burnaby, even when he’s treated ‘like a piñata’

A report released Monday by the low-income advocacy group ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) reserved special contempt for Corrigan’s self-described “progressive” Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA). “The BCA policy of mass demoviction in Burnaby is destroying the city’s supply of affordable housing … during an unprecedented housing crisis,” ACORN wrote.

Posted October 22, 2018

BURNABY—The pinboard in the bowels of Derek Corrigan’s campaign office — tucked away near a collection of half-eaten muffins and other volunteer snacks — is carefully adorned with story clippings, old Burnaby Now newspaper covers and greying candidate lists from decades past.

“Anyone who says something kind, I’ve framed it,” the city’s five-term mayor quipped in an interview Tuesday.

The 66-year-old lawyer has long been known for his frosty relationship with the media, but he has done multiple interviews since his re-election campaign kicked off, including three with StarMetro. Even then, he veered into jabs at reporters’ coverage.

He said they give his opponents too much credence while ignoring everything in his platform, such as maintaining Burnaby’s unusually low taxes, building new community amenities at “no cost to taxpayers” and protecting the environment.

The media, he said, treat him “a bit like a piñata, hoping you’ll break the harder they hit you.” “Well, I’m not breaking,” he said. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished.” It’s not merely reporters, nor conservative foes, nor pipeline-lovers brandishing a stick in the mayor’s mind.

He lists a litany of housing activists’ protests at council and even sit-ins of his cluttered city hall office. “They can disrupt; it attracts media attention,” he said. “But I don’t think that reflect the issues our community is concerned about.”

A report released Monday by the low-income advocacy group ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) reserved special contempt for Corrigan’s self-described “progressive” Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA). “The BCA policy of mass demoviction in Burnaby is destroying the city’s supply of affordable housing … during an unprecedented housing crisis,” ACORN wrote.

Last year was Corrigan’s 30th in his city’s political life, having ruled Burnaby since 2002 as mayor, winning five elections, and previously serving as a city councillor.

The steadfast Corrigan, who won with 76 per cent of the vote in 2011 and 69 per cent in 2014, is running his campaign on a simple, stay-the-course motto: “Trusted Leadership. Delivering for Burnaby.”

It’s in challenging those very grounds that his opponents hope to find his weakness. “I’m always confident but I’m always worried too,” Corrigan said in a Sept. 27 interview in his campaign office. “You go in with a healthy respect for your opponent … and ensure the public knows about your accomplishments.”

Corrigan, a father of four 30-something children he says both inspire and challenge him — “All the time, I’ll tell you” — is an unabashed New Democrat.

His wife, former BCA councilmate and law school peer Kathy Corrigan, was an MLA for the provincial NDP until last year.

The BCA historically was a local branch of the NDP and uses that party’s orange branding. However, while you might assume the left would firmly back someone with Corrigan’s NDP bone fides, that assumption would be wrong.

His rival, political newcomer Mike Hurley, surpassed him by eight points in a home-stretch poll Monday after gaining union endorsements from Hurley’s own firefighters association and the local labour council. (Corrigan’s team explained he hadn’t applied for their endorsement in the first place because they uniquely demanded an in-person interview and because of perceptions the council was too cosy with firefighters.)

While voters in what some jokingly dub “the People’s Republic of Burnaby” have clearly gone to poll after poll renewing the BCA’s progressive mandate, any political party with as long a history as Corrigan’s BCA can risk either indifference or wrath from voters if an alternative emerges.

Corrigan defended the $1.2 million in public money he spent on a series of unsuccessful legal challenges to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion through Burnaby. (The final lawsuit did pause the project, but not on the city’s arguments.)

He’s stored in his city hall office a wooden slingshot — a not-so-subtle reminder that his supporters view him as David to the corporate Goliath. Corrigan says that allegations he is against tenants and the homeless are a “drive-by smear” that ignores his record of green-lighting thousands of rental units and the province’s first rental-only zoning as well as backing “comprehensive care” facilities for people on the streets.

“There’s a great deal of public empathy for anyone having to move out of the place they’ve enjoyed, especially when they’ve had extremely cheap rents,” Corrigan said. “I grew up in East Vancouver with a single mom; we moved multiple times, I went to multiple elementary schools, so I’m not insensitive to the stories of having to move out of a location they’ve made themselves comfortable in over years.

“By saying we’re going to increase density, we were able to leverage much more … to find ways to divert some of that profit into housing affordability.”

His long-governing party’s platform was released just days before Saturday’s municipal elections, two days after advanced polls had closed, giving voters little chance to review it — or opponents to pick it apart.

On Wednesday, a poll by Justason Market Intelligence suggested that independent mayoral hopeful Hurley has the support of 51 per cent of decided voters compared to Corrigan’s 43 per cent, among the 469 Burnaby residents surveyed.

That’s up from two weeks earlier when the pair appeared to be neck-and-neck — though the BCA disputed that earlier Justason poll commissioned by the firefighters association, of which Hurley is district vice-president.

But the fact remains that no election rival has ever pierced Corrigan’s armour. Hurley is a complete outsider running with an almost comically uninspiring slogan: “It’s time for a new mayor in Burnaby.”

Corrigan scoffs at the retired firefighter’s insults on the hustings: that “he burns bridges” instead of building them, that listening “isn’t in his DNA” or that city hall has become a place solutions “go to die.”

“I continue to hope that people will put a little bit of a microscope on what my opponents are promising,” Corrigan said with a sigh. “I can tell you, anybody who comes onto council or especially the mayor’s chair without any experience, it’s not an easy job to be able to understand all these issues.

“It’s easy to make promises; it’s tougher to deliver.”

The ultimate test of Burnaby voters’ feelings toward Corrigan, of course, is whether his BCA dominion stands or falls this Saturday. Voters in Burnaby can cast their ballots from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at polling stations across the city.

Article by David P. Ball for The Star Vancouver