BURNABY, B.C.—Richard Lee focused on his community connections Saturday as he made his first public statements since being named the Liberal candidate in the Burnaby South byelection.

Lee has lived in the riding for 30 years and represented Burnaby in British Columbia’s legislature for 16 years, serving for a time as deputy Speaker. He was the first Chinese-Canadian to do so, the Liberals pointed out in a statement on their website.

Speaking at his campaign office, Lee answered only a few questions from reporters and said he had not spoken with Karen Wang, the Liberals’ original pick for the riding, since the social media post that led to her resignation.

Wang stepped aside Wednesday after StarMetro Vancouver translated a WeChat post in which she urged Chinese-Canadians to vote for her, the “only” ethnic Chinese candidate, instead of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who she described as “of Indian descent.”

The riding was already garnering national attention as Singh vies what would be his first seat in Ottawa. He welcomed Lee to the race Saturday before quickly turning his attention to highlighting the housing crisis in the community that “was ignored or made worse by various governments.”

Lee, meanwhile, promised to run a “positive” campaign and said he will “talk to everybody.”

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A strong belief in “democracy, freedom, equality and multicultralism” led him to join the race, Lee said as he pledged to “address housing, jobs ... and having a green environment for our kids.”

He was also firm in his support for the Trans Mountain pipeline when questioned.

“The local community will support the pipeline as well as getting safety concerns addressed,” Lee said. “We want to create jobs that’s why the pipeline is going ahead.”

When asked if he approached the Liberals with interest in running or if they approached him, Lee said he had expressed before “but due to time constraints and other issues I was not running.”

Given “this situation” there is an “opportunity to see what we can do for Burnaby South,” Lee said.

The Liberals’ decision to run a candidate in the riding was not a given: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May urged the Liberals to follow her party’s lead in offering a “leader’s courtesy” to Singh by not running against him.

Valentine Wu, a former B.C. Green Party candidate, announced his intention to run as an independent in the riding on Thursday and said he’s gathering signatures to confirm his candidacy. Wang has also said she is considering re-entering the race as an independent.

The Liberals further distanced themselves from Wang on Friday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the controversy for the first time.

“The statement made by our former candidate in Burnaby South was unacceptable and not representative of the kinds of politics that I put forward, certainly the kinds of politics that our team focuses on,” he said in in Sherbrooke, Que., where he was meeting with cabinet at a retreat. “One understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths as a country. Those statement were not in keeping with what the Liberal Party stands for and certainly that is why the individual is no longer part of our team.”

Burnaby South is one of the most diverse ridings in the country — more than 68 per cent of 111,000 residents identify as visible minorities with Chinese people accounting for the largest bloc — and the byelection turmoil has sparked debate about how racial identity fits into Canadian politics.

Some observers say parties have a long history of cynically appealing to the so-called “ethnic vote,” and Wang’s only fault might have been putting the strategy in writing. Others say her post crossed a line by pitting two groups against each other.

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Mario Canseco, president of Vancouver-based Research Co., said he conducted polling in 2015 on what “multicultural voters” in the Lower Mainland are looking in a political representative.

“They’re motivated, more than anything, by the same things that any other voter would be motivated by — the party policies, the structures, the candidates. There were less than five per cent who said their main motivator for choosing a candidate is ethnicity,” he said.

“So there’s not a lot of meat on those bones, in my view. But it’s still something that many politicians spend time doing. Everybody celebrates the Lunar New Year, they go to Vaisakhi. ... But it’s not going to be the main motivator for those voters.”

With files from Melanie Greene, Bruce Campion-Smith and The Canadian Press.

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