D.O.A.'s Joey Shithead Elected To The Burnaby City Council

Back at the tail end of the '70s, when I was playing punk rock indie records on the radio, one of my favorite bands was a hard core punk trio from the Vancouver area, D.O.A. They came down to play in San Francisco so frequently, that people came to regard them as a local band. I had them on my radio show as often as an local band, maybe more for their left-wing politics than for their music per se. And also because of what nice guys they were. They weren't one of those bands with a chip on its collective shoulder. They may have looked and sounded angry and even dangerous onstage, but a nicer bunch of guys you were never gonna meet, especially not in the punk rock confines around the Mabuhay.

And their leader singer/guitarist, Joey Shithead, was always so real and smooth at the same time, a natural born politician who everybody liked a lot. Believe me, not every band that tried to crash the San Francisco punk scene was welcomed so thoroughly as D.O.A. was. And a lot of that was due to Joey Shithead's personality and his political adeptness.

So I can't say I was completely shocked this week when an old friend of mine told me Joey had just been elected to the Burnaby city council, breaking the power monopoly of the Burnaby Citizens Association. The BCA elected seven members of its slate-- the seven incumbents, but Joey Shithead Keithley, running on the Green Party slate narrowly beat BCA candidate Baljinder K. Narang for the 8th seat on the 8-man board. Burnaby is the 3rd largest city in British Columbia with a population of around 233,000 and a reputation of being Canada's best-run city.

Keithley won’t be the only new face at city hall.

Independent Mike Hurley defeated longtime mayor Derek Corrigan of the Burnaby Citizens Association in a race that will no doubt send shock waves across the region.

Keithley said the issue of demovictions is the biggest issue facing the city.

“We have to put a stop to that right away… Housing should be a right, not a privilege,” he said.