A toss-up over a hospital tower: Paul Choi or David Xie for Burnaby South-Metrotown?

On Sunday 24 May 2026, a crowd gathered in Avondale Park, near Burnaby Hospital. The mayor came, and so did city councillors from the party aligned with the BC NDP. At the microphone was David Xie, a Burnaby father who says he was not looking for a political career until the winter before.¹

Three months earlier, the province had paused the hospital’s second phase, the 160-bed tower and BC Cancer Centre that Burnaby had been promised since 2019. Four weeks before the rally it had cancelled the construction contract. Xie had one demand, and he made it plainly:¹²

Dr. David Jones, a physician at Burnaby Hospital since 1975, told the same crowd: “The population has continued to grow, the pressure continues to build and patients continue to wait.”¹ Xie is now the Conservative candidate in Burnaby South-Metrotown. The MLA he is running against had already told the Legislature that the beds were on their way.

Before the record, here is where each of them stands, in their own words.

Paul Choi

BC NDP MLA, Burnaby South-Metrotown; Parliamentary Secretary for Trade

Before

First responder, small business owner and lawyer

MLA

Since 2024

Role

Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, since July 2025

In the House

“we are delivering.” (23 February 2026)

Portrait: BC NDP

01 Six days after the budget paused it, Paul Choi told the Legislature Burnaby’s new hospital was being delivered.

Budget 2026 was presented on 17 February. It removed Phase 2 of the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment from the province’s active capital construction schedule and gave it no new completion date.¹⁰² Burnaby has 0.58 acute care beds for every 1,000 people. The B.C. average is 1.46.²

On 23 February, Paul Choi rose to reply to the budget. He closed his list of Burnaby investments with the hospital:³

The second tower and the cancer centre in that description were the part his government’s budget had just put on hold. In our view, he told the House a story about Burnaby’s hospital that his own government’s budget no longer supported.

02 Nine weeks after his speech the Phase 2 contract was cancelled, and Paul Choi did not raise it in the House again.

On 29 April, Bowinn Ma, the Minister of Infrastructure, confirmed it in question period: “The Burnaby Hospital phase 2 project was re-paced, and, as a result, the alliance contract is being cancelled.”¹¹ About $50 million had already been spent on it, and Burnaby’s donors had raised more than $55 million for the redevelopment.¹

Kristy James, president and CEO of the Burnaby Hospital & Community Foundation, said: “We have been consistently reassured by our Burnaby MLAs and Minister Ma that this project is not cancelled – but a terminated contract with no confirmed start date sounds like a cancellation.”¹²

A week later Ma thanked “the members of the government caucus who serve Burnaby so diligently for their stalwart advocacy.”¹³ If Choi argued for the hospital, he did it out of public view. From the cancellation until the House rose for the last time before the election, on 28 May, he took the floor to congratulate a high school STEM team, to back a motion on liquor service in movie theatres, and to speak about the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, Web Summit Vancouver and Simon Fraser University. He did not mention the hospital.¹⁴

On that last day, Trevor Halford asked the Premier: “Did he consult any of his Burnaby MLAs — he or the Minister of Finance — prior to making the decision to cancel the Burnaby Hospital expansion?” David Eby replied: “Our Burnaby MLAs are fighting hard for the people of Burnaby.”¹⁵

Choi’s campaign page promises “Strengthening healthcare – Not making deep cuts.” It does not mention Burnaby Hospital.⁹ In our view, an MLA who told the House the towers were being delivered owed his riding a public fight when they were not. Burnaby South-Metrotown did not get one in the chamber.

03 David Xie came into politics speaking for neighbours who said they had not been consulted.

David Xie

Conservative Party of BC candidate, Burnaby South-Metrotown

Home

Burnaby, for nearly a decade, with his wife and their son

Raised

Metro Vancouver, by immigrant parents

Education

University of British Columbia

Career

More than a decade in recruitment and talent acquisition

Community

Spokesperson, Burnaby Neighbourhood Watch; co-organizer of the 24 May hospital rally

His ask

“Burnaby needs hospital beds.”

Portrait: Conservative Party of BC

Xie has lived in Burnaby for nearly a decade, with his wife and their son. He was raised in Metro Vancouver by immigrant parents, graduated from the University of British Columbia and has spent more than a decade in recruitment, helping employers find skilled people.⁷ He says he was not looking for a political career when he joined protests in late 2025 against two BC Housing proposals in Burnaby. He emerged as a spokesperson.⁶

One of those proposals was a five- to six-storey building of supportive and complex-care homes at 5389 Imperial Street, in the Royal Oak neighbourhood. When the province announced it in November 2025, Paul Choi supplied the government’s quote: “Homes with supports and services can offer people stability during a time of need.”⁵ A petition against it gathered more than 14,000 signatures, and Burnaby council voted unanimously to require BC Housing to present a public engagement plan before any rezoning.¹⁶¹⁷ Xie’s argument was about how the decision was made:

The consultation never happened. In February the province dropped the project, saying it had to “adjust the pace of housing investments” and that “we needed to make the difficult decision not to proceed with it.”¹⁶ The project Choi had put his name to was dropped by his own government, which cited the pace of its housing spending, in the same month that its budget paused the hospital tower.

Xie ran for city council with the New Burnaby party, and the Conservatives named him their candidate after the snap election was called. He said he would serve provincially if elected to both, and he told Daily Hive: “I can confirm that I am no longer seeking a seat on City Council.”⁶¹⁸ Preliminary results show he was not elected to council on 17 October, so a vote for him on 24 October is a vote for a full-time MLA.¹⁹ He has said why he wants the provincial job:

04 Paul Choi has spent his term on trade, and in this campaign he answered no one who wrote to him online.

Choi was a first responder, a small business owner and a lawyer before he was elected in 2024. Since July 2025 he has been Parliamentary Secretary for Trade.²⁰ His campaign leads with standing up to Donald Trump’s tariffs.⁹ Those are real concerns. They are not the concerns his neighbours brought to Avondale Park.

We read his campaign accounts from 22 September to 17 October. He left replies open on every post, which is to his credit. But under 11 of his posts we read 13 comments from the public, and we found no reply from him to any of them.²¹

Here is his record, measure by measure, beside what Xie has said and done.

Xie is a first-time candidate for the Legislature, and his public record is a short one: a party biography, a few interviews and a season of community organizing. In our view, it is the right season. When Burnaby’s hospital was put on hold, he was the one standing in the park asking for a date.

05 Burnaby South-Metrotown is a toss-up, and about 600 voters decided it last time.

338Canada, which turns the published polls into a projection for every riding, rates Burnaby South-Metrotown a toss-up. Its update of 16 October puts the BC NDP at 44% and the Conservatives at 43%, each with a margin of eight points either way.²²

Burnaby South-Metrotown, projected vote

338Canada, update of 16 October 2026. Bars show the projection; the thin lines show its margin either way.²²

Paul Choi, BC NDP

44%

David Xie, Conservative

43%

Bryan Fockler, BC Green

8%

Andrew Rose, OneBC

4%

0%30%60%

Bryan Fockler of the BC Greens is projected at 8% and Andrew Rose of OneBC at 4%. One point separates Choi and Xie.²²²³

In 2024, Choi held the riding by 1,187 votes over the Conservative candidate, Han Lee: 7,560 to 6,373. If about 600 of his voters had chosen the Conservative instead, the seat would have changed hands.²⁴

In our view, a race this close will turn on who has been doing the work, and on the hospital that has been David Xie.

06 Paul Choi told the House the beds were coming. David Xie asked when.

Advance voting runs from 16 to 21 October, and Final Voting Day is 24 October.²⁵

In February, Paul Choi told the Legislature that Burnaby would get its towers and its 399 beds, and that “we are delivering.” In May, after the contract was gone, David Xie stood in Avondale Park and asked the government to show its plan, its start date and its finish date.³¹

“Burnaby does not need another vague promise. Burnaby needs hospital beds.” In our view, David Xie has earned the chance to go to Victoria and get them.