Saturday is municipal election day across BC. This means dozens of people (typically around 30% per municipality) will show up and cast their ballots for mayors, councils, and school boards.
While the big issue in Vancouver has been the Occupy Vancouver tent camp set up on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, in Burnaby the clash is over the school board.
This past year, members of the Burnaby School Board passed an anti-homophobic bullying policy. It generated a lot of heat from conservative religious groups who saw this policy as somehow threatening their right to raise homophobic children.
These parents felt so wronged that they formed a group called “Parents’ Voice” with the goal of taking over the Burnaby School Board. I should mention here that in addition to fireworks at Halloween, metro Vancouver is also unique for having political parties in municipal politics.
Parents’ Voice is now in more hot water for some anti-Islamic comments associated with a website linked to the party’s founder.