COQUITLAM, B.C. -- If there's one thing the three candidates running in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain agree on, it's that who wins here is far from pre-ordained.

In 2017, Liberal candidate Joan Isaacs, who is running again, edged out the NDP's Jodie Wickens by just 87 votes.

And that was just over a year after Wickens won the Liberal-held riding in a byelection with 46 per cent of the vote, to Isaacs' 38 per cent.

(Liberal Doug Horne held the seat from 2009 to 2015, when he stepped down to run for federal office.)

This time, Isaacs and her main opponent, former NDP MP Fin Donnelly, are prepared to work for each and every vote.

And they'll face not only each other, but Adam Bremner-Akins, an 18-year-old political science student at Simon Fraser University, who wants to shake up the status quo for the Greens.

NDP's Donnelly: "We're just getting started."

An NDP MP for a decade, and a Coquitlam city councillor for seven years, NDP candidate Fin Donnelly says he's running after staying out of politics for a few years, because he wants to be part of a pandemic recovery that he says "puts people first." https://findonnelly.bcndp.ca/

"Right now people are very concerned," Donnelly says. "Whether it's about themselves, their jobs, their families, their business. And I can provide a level of experience that's going to be needed."

Donnelly describes his riding as a "very nice place to live" with great schools and amazing parks.

He has a laundry list of priorities including health care, child care, education and housing, and own his personal passion: habitat preservation and restoration for wild salmon.

Donnelly wants to see more teachers, more schools and more child-care spaces in the riding, and while the 2017 NDP promise of universal $10-a-day child care still remains a work in progress, he says: "Well, we're just getting started."

Donnelly calls the impact of the pandemic a "real adjustment" that increased his focus on family.

If elected, he says he promises to be a "deeply committed individual who's open, and accountable."

Liberals' Isaacs: "I'm someone who gets things done."

As an entrepreneur with a background in finance who describes herself as an advocate for everything from affordable housing to mental health, Joan Isaacs shares Donnelly's view of putting people first, but has a different vision for her riding's future. http://www.bclib.ca/joanisaacs

Isaacs describes her riding as one of the fastest growing communities in the Lower Mainland, which attracts young families and young professionals who need schools and child care.

"We still get calls from people who are on waiting lists, or just can't find the spots," Isaacs says. "I think there needs to be a better concentrated effort to make sure those spaces become available."

And province-wide, Isaacs points out the biggest issue she believes B.C. is facing is a lack of competitiveness, and restrictions across a number of sectors, she says, that make it difficult to attract investment and create jobs.

"Companies don't want to come in and invest" Isaacs says. "People are standing on the sidelines and that's bad for the province."

Isaacs adds that small businesses in her riding also deserve more tax relief and more incentives to rehire and welcome back their workers.

If elected, Isaacs says she will continue to champion what she says is the key issue in her riding: the lack of schools on Burke Mountain.

Greens' Bremner-Akins: "I'm young and I'm passionate."

A newcomer to politics, 18-year-old Adam Bremner-Akins sees his age as one of his biggest assets. https://www.bcgreens.ca/adam_bremner_akins

Bremner-Akins, who is studying political science at SFU and identifies as gay, says he's entered the race because he believes his generation has been left out of politics.

"I don't see myself represented within the legislature," he says. "I don't see the issues I care about or my generation care about being represented."

For Bremner-Akins, climate change, which he calls a "disaster" that won't fix itself, rises to the top of the agenda, both on a local and provincial level.

And Bremner-Akins, who calls himself an outsider, says that while he might not win the riding, he hopes to at least "rub off" on the other candidates and get them thinking about diversity, equity, and a greener future.

"I think I'm a better option…because I'm not going to do the same thing we've been doing for 40 years. Look where that's got us," Bremner-Akins says.

Whether or not he's elected, Bremner-Akins says he plans to "continue to fight for what (he) believes in."