Four nominees compete to represent BC NDP in Burnaby North riding

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The race to fill the BC NDP nomination for Burnaby North has heated up and it's come down to four candidates, two of them second-place finishers in the 2009 B.C. election.

Incumbent nominee Mondee Redman is running again, after finishing just four per cent of the popular vote behind BC Liberal Richard T. Lee in 2009, now in his third term.

Redman was Burnaby school board chair for four years and a trustee from 1993 to 2005.

But Redman said she welcomes the others who have challenged her nomination and is confident she will still be chosen by the riding association.

Shifting ridings is Jordan Parente, who lost by a wide margin to BC Liberal Mary McNeil in Vancouver-False Creek in 2009. Parente had been a last-minute replacement for Ray Lam, who had to withdraw from the election after media found lurid photos of him on Facebook.

Parente is a CUPE local 15 executive and works for the City of Vancouver's engineering department, but grew up in Burnaby. He moved into the Burnaby North riding a year ago with his wife.

Also throwing her hat in the ring is Ayesha Haider, a constituency assistant for many years for federal NDP MPs Bill Siksay and Svend Robinson.

Haider lives in Burnaby with her husband and three children, and says she has been a community advocate for literacy and a local PAC member.

The final candidate is Burnaby North resident Janet Routledge, who has been involved in the Fight HST campaign to secure petition signatures in all four Burnaby ridings.

Routledge worked with the Public Service Alliance of Canada for 30 years, retiring in 2009 while holding the position of B.C. regional director.

The BC NDP held Burnaby North from 1991 until 2001 when Pietro Calendino lost his seat to Lee in the sea change of Gordon Campbell's government that reduced the NDP to just two seats. Calendino came within 68 votes of winning back the riding in 2005, but after losing he sought and won election as Burnaby city councillor that December.

The nomination meeting is at Confederation Centre for Seniors, 4585 Albert St., Tuesday June 21 at 7 p.m.