Canadian Lawyer

22 M A Y 2 0 1 5 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m n her years on the bench, Carol Baird Ellan had a front row seat to the chal- lenges facing the underprivileged in society. Now she wants to try and effect change from a different perch — elected politician. "I have a passion for the justice system. There are things I'd like to see changed there and just look- ing around me right now things need to change. We're not doing our bit for the environment and things are becoming unaffordable for youth here — someone needs to do something and I thought I could be that person," she says. At a nomination meeting Feb. 21, Baird Ellan won the NDP nomination for the new federal riding of Burnaby North-Seymour — historically a mix of NDP and Conser- vative voters. The Burnaby portion has typically voted NDP with the North Van- couver area a strong Conservative hold. It's expected to be a tight race in the riding this time around. In the last election, Burnaby- Seymour was 44 per cent Conservative and almost 36 per cent NDP. "We are thinking that perhaps some of that Conservative vote has been watered down since then," Baird Ellan tells Canadian Lawyer. In 2000, Baird Ellan became the first female Provincial Court chief judge in Brit- ish Columbia. Her time on the bench saw a system slipping into crisis. She was chief judge when the B.C. Liberal government closed many courthouses without consult- ing the judiciary or the public. One of those courthouses was in Burnaby, where she had both prosecuted and sat as a judge. "I fought against those closures and we won back half of them, but we weren't able to save Burnaby's," she says. "It gave me a little taste of the political arena because I was outside the comfort zone of a sitting judge when I was dealing with government on that. There were cuts and I was striving to exert the independence of the judiciary — it's a fine line judges are required to walk when they speak out about those kinds of issues." C R O S S E X A M I N E D KIM STALLKNECHT After almost two decades on the After almost two decades on the bench, former B.C. Provincial Court bench, former B.C. Provincial Court chief judge dives into politics. chief judge dives into politics. By Jennifer Brown Carol Baird Ellan's next chapter I

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