Advance polls open in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

Advance polls have opened in byelections for two seats left vacant in the B.C. Legislature after the NDP's Jenny Kwan and the B.C. Liberals' Douglas Horne opted to run federally in October.

Vancouver-Mount Pleasant:
Sat-Sun, Jan 23-24 and Fri-Sat, Jan 29-30, 8 a.m. PT to 8 p.m. PT

• Lord Strathcona Elementary School 592 E Pender St.
• Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, 2300 Guelph St.

Wed-Thurs, Jan 27-28, 8 a.m. PT to 8 p.m. PT

• Maurice McElrea Place, 361 Heatley Ave.
• Britannia Community Centre, Gym D, 1661 Napier St.

Coquitlam-Burke Mountain:
Sat-Sun, Jan. 23-24 and Wed-Sat, Jan. 27-30, 8 a.m. PT to 8 p.m. PT

• Evergreen Cultural Centre, 1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam
• Panorama Heights Elementary School, 1455 Johnson St., Coquitlam
• Coquitlam River Elementary School, 4250 Shaughnessy St., Port Coquitlam

Melanie Mark hopes to hang onto the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant seat for the NDP and if she is elected on the Feb. 2, general voting day for the by-election, she will become the first ever First Nations woman to be elected to the B.C. Legislature.

Since being nominated she has campaigned on solutions for housing, homelessness and addressing social injustice in the riding.

Kwan handily won the riding in 2013, making it her fifth straight, while in 1991 Mike Harcourt won the seat for the NDP.

Gavin Dew is running for the B.C. Liberal Party, while Pete Fry is the candidate for the B.C. Green Party.

• Vancouver-Mount Pleasant candidates debate affordability, poverty reduction

Meanwhile in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, the race is expected to be a lot tighter. In 2013, the B.C. Liberals Douglas Horne won just barely 50 per cent of the vote although he defeated the B.C. NDP's Chris Wilson with more than 2,000 votes.

Horne went onto to try and fill the shoes of former federal cabinet minister James Moore in October but lost to Liberal Ron McKinnon, a well-known political blogger, who took his first stab at federal office in an unsuccessful run in 2008.

• B.C. big name politicians challenged

Now the B.C. Liberals are hoping to keep the seat with Joan Isaacs, who has lived in Coquitlam for 30 years and had a career in financial services, business development and philanthropy, saying on her web site that she likes to, "get things done."

Christy Clark has spent time in the riding door-knocking with Isaacs, while John Horgan has done the same for B.C. NDP candidate Jodie Wickens

Former DOA singer Joe Keithley is running in the riding for the Green Party.

General Voting Day for the byelections is Tuesday, Feb. 2, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m PT and locations are listed on the Elections B.C.'s website or can be obtained by calling 1-800-661-8683.