All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Meet Your New City Council | Woe is Us

2018 Vancouver civic election | Internal Party Polling, October 13

As per usual, VanRamblings will bury the lede at the outset of today’s post.
We’re also going to provide you with a civic affairs history lesson, revolving around the formation of Vision Vancouver — who have held power for the past 10 years — and the Non-Partisan Association, our city’s legacy, right-of-centre political party, formed in 1937 by corporate interests to “keep the socialists out of power,” a measure that has met with much success. Sigh.
We intend first to provide a bit of context before we engage in a breakdown of the latest internal party polling results — a conglomeration of words we’ll also explain — the latest iteration of which you see in the graphic above.
We imagine there are some very happy civic candidates seeing the polling results above, while others are suffering heart palpitations. Not to worry.

forecast-election-2018.jpg

Every election cycle, the pollsters come out of the woodwork to predict whatever election is taking place, municipal, provincial or federal.
Now, whether it be the Mustel Group, Mario Canseco’s Research Co., Quitto Maggi’s Mainstreet Research, or Shachi Kurl’s Angus Reid Institute, these folks run public opinion research companies for corporate business, as their core bread and butter raison d’etre, and bottom line revenue generator.
None of the companies above are in the election prediction polling game, as a source of revenue that drives the sum and substance of their companies.
The research companies identified above emerge during elections for public relations value, and public relations only, supplying their polling information to the media at a nominal cost, as entertainment value for the “consumer”, and increased readership or viewership for the media companies involved, who also employ the polling information for its entertainment value to their “subscribers”, all of which serves to turns the serious endeavour of democratic engagement into a “race”, devoid of cognitive value to citizens.
During the election cycle, the companies above, or others like them, will “survey” a bit more than 200 potential voters — 236 seems to be the magic number in the 2018 Vancouver civic election cycle — reporting out the far from intensive polling results to a breathlessly anticipatory waiting public.
Internal Party Polling | An Accurate Snapshot of the Public Mood

Stratcom and Maple Leaf are the two large party pollsters in the 2018 Vancouver civic election

Bob Penner’s Stratcom, on the left, above (politically, as well), and Dimitri Pantazopoulos’ Maple Leaf Strategies, on the right (ditto) are the “party” pollsters providing accurate polling results to their respective employers.
When philanthropist and former Tennessee resident Joel Solomon decided in 2002 that he wanted to form a Vancouver municipal party to realize his ‘500 year plan’ (don’t ask), he recruited Mike Magee from Stratcom to form a Vancouver civic party that would go on to be called Vision Vancouver. That meant, of course, hiving off elected COPE Councillors Raymond Louie, Tim Stevenson and Jim Green from the civic government of the day.
Long story short, in the 2005 Vancouver civic election, Louie, Stevenson and recent Visionite recruit, Heather Deal (formerly a COPE Park Board Commissioner) were elected to City Council under the Vision Vancouver banner, with Jim Green as the nascent civic party’s mayoral standard bearer. Jim Green lost in his Mayoral bid — widely thought to be the result of dirty tricks by incoming Mayor Sam Sullivan — resulting in a search for the “perfect Mayor”, who turned out to be the cycling advocate / Fairview NDP MLA, Gregor “Hollywood” Robertson. The rest, as they say, is history.
Suffice to say that Stratcom has found employment as the left-of-centre pollster to Vision Vancouver and the labour movement ever since.

Dimitri Pantazopoulos' Maple Leaf Strategies Research Company

Meet Dimitri Pantazopoulos, longtime Stephen Harper pollster, hired by the B.C. Liberals in 2013 to suss out an election where Premier Christy ‘Crusty’ Clark was destined to go down to defeat — public polling had her at a nausea-inducing 33% — until the arrival of the affable Mr. Pantazopoulos, considered to be Canada’s most accurate public opinion research pollster.
Early on in 2013, after intensive province-wide research, Mr. Pantazopoulos determined there were 50 ridings the B.C. Liberals could win. Maple Leaf Strategies polled each of 50 “winnable” provincial ridings daily, identified voters issues of concern, and developed a communications strategy for the rding’s Liberal candidate to address the identified issues of voter concern.
On election eve, May 13th 2013, Dimitri Pantazopoulos told a near suicidal B.C. Liberal party election campaign team that on Tuesday, May 14th Christy Clark would ride to victory with an increased majority government.
At the time, the public polling — you know, media pollsters like Angus Reid — had the BC NDP at 47% and on their way to a massive majority government, with Ms. Clark’s prospects in the doldrums at a woeful 33%.
Only a half hour after the polls closed, at 8:30pm on that chill tenebrous March evening, Global TV projected a majority government for a now ebullient Christy Clark. Dimitri Pantazopoulos projected 50 seats for the B.C. Liberals, Dimitri Pantazopoulos delivered 50 seats for the B.C. Liberals.

Peter Armstrong, owner of the Rocky Mountaineer, and NPA Vancouver Eminence GrisThe affable, very bright Peter Armstrong just can’t seem to help the NPA secure victory

In 2014, then Non-Partisan Association President Peter Armstrong hired Mr. Pantazopoulos (he’s back again this election cycle) as the NPA pollster.
Dimitri Pantazopoulos was having none of this, “Gosh, let’s poll 236 voters once a week” nonsense. Nope, Maple Leaf Strategies polled 1000 voters in the neighbourhoods, and more accurately in the area surrounding winnable polling stations, nightly. If you’re a candidate for office, or a campaign staff official for one of the 10 civic parties, and you’ve read this far, take heart — we’re about to give the lie to the polling results you see atop today’s post.
Saturday morning, November 15th, 2014 — election day — VanRamblings met with a Vancouver Non-Partisan Association official, who told us …

“Dimitri polled 4000 respondents on Thursday and Friday, and was up all night collating the results. I just got his election prediction outcome. Kirk LaPointe has a 15-point lead over Gregor Robertson. On Council, Dimitri predicts five, maybe six seats. Raymond, the NPA is going to ride to victory tonight. It’s about time!”

Alas and alack that’s not what happened after the polls closed at 8pm.
At 4pm, Mr. Pantazopoulos provided the NPA campaign team with exit poll results. The news was dire for NPA officials and candidates: the Non-Partisan Association was going down to defeat yet again. The tears flowed.
Exit polling had voters responding in this manner: “Vision Vancouver and the NPA having been saying much the same thing on transit, on the subway down Broadway, and on housing. Where’s the difference between the two? Better to vote the devil you know, than the one you don’t.” Thus Gregor Robertson secured victory, 83,529 votes to Kirk LaPointe’s 73,443 ballots cast. Melissa De Genova, then a recent NPA Park Board Commissioner won election to Council, joining incumbents George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball.

2014 Vancouver civic election, the joy of winning, the agony of defeatGregor Robertson: the thrill of victory. Peter Armstrong: the hurtin’ agony of defeat

NPA candidate for City Council, Ian Robertson, while leading most of the evening in the 10th and last spot for Council, went down to defeat when the last two polls reported in, strong Vision polls that went 80% or better for incumbent Vision Vancouver City Councillor, Geoff Meggs, who defeated a sanguine Ian Robertson by a mere 519 votes: 56,831 votes for Councillor Meggs, and 56,319 ballots cast for Mr. Robertson. And the heavens wept.
The Latest Internal Party Polling Results | What Does It All Mean?
According to the internal party polling, the public polling is largely correct.

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With a 53% voter intention of voting Green, as above, Adriane Carr’s Green Party of Vancouver will sweep to victory next Saturday night, Ms. Carr showing coattails in 2018, with urban life philosopher Pete Fry, Park Board Commissioner Michael Wiebe, and architect David Wong set to join Vancouver’s most popular politician on City Council in the next term.
COPE City Council candidate Jean Swanson has sat near or atop the internal party polls since polling began in March.
At number 6 on the “ballot” above, current Park Board Commissioner Erin Shum — long one of VanRamblings’ and the community’s favourite electeds — has run a skookum campaign, skillfully managed by her husband and loving father to their new daughter, B.C. Liberal apparatchik Gavin Dew.
Last evening, after voting at Kits Community Centre, we sauntered over to Choices, and were surprised to see the streets lined with large Erin Shum signs, particularly observable on West 16th Avenue, the number of Ms. Shum’s Building a Vancouver for Families election signs easily outstripping all of the signs for members of her former NPA political party combined.

Park Board Commissioner Erin Shum with her new baby

Note should be made that new mom Erin Shum is running as an independent. Four years ago, we predicted a sterling political career for Ms. Shum. We have to ask — is VanRamblings ever wrong?
And what about this Ken Charko guy? We’ll tell you a secret: we’ve talked (or met) with the populist Trump supporter every day (or evening) for the past month. Although Ken Charko is running with Wai Young’s Coalition Vancouver party, in fact he’s running a Ken Charko victory campaign, having raised more money than most of the Mayoral candidates.
And let us tell you: Ken Charko plays to win. We’re not going to go into detail because, in 2018, as 2014 COPE City Council candidate (and one of our favourite people in the whole wide world), Jennifer O’Keefe, was telling us on Thursday evening, as we stood blocking the produce table at Whole Foods, “Raymond, you’re being nice to everyone in this election. I guess that cancer thing has made you a new man, huh?” Yep, Jennifer, yep.
You know how Grace Vanderwaal sings, “I don’t play by the rules of the game.” Neither does Ken Charko.

Ken Charko, and Olga Zarudina, Coalition Vancouver candidate for Vancouver Park BoardKen Charko with Coalition Vancouver candidate for Park Board, Olga Zarudina

Ken is running the best ground game of any candidate for Council in the 2018 Vancouver electoral campaign. A 2011 NPA Council candidate who fell just shy of attaining victory, the owner of the Dunbar Theatre is back with a vengeance in 2018. Ken’s team (and he has a team, a paid team of four people, out delivering signs, crunching the numbers, meeting with voters in the polls where Ken’s own internal polling indicates strong support — Dunbar, naturally, and a surprise to Mr. Charko, the West End, with the area north of the Cassiar connector solidly in the Ken Charko camp).
Ken Charko has acquired phone lists, and cell numbers of thousands of Vancouver voters likely to go to the polls. Each and every day, Ken phones and speaks (briefly) with 847 — must be his lucky number — voters on their cell phones, which development has led to dozens of calls from VanRamblings’ friends asking, “How did Ken Charko get my number?”
Will Ken’s numbers hold? As Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith might intone, “Don’t count Ken Charko out — he’s not to be underestimated.”
Melissa De Genova — who, for the record, we both respect and admire — will ride to victory on her City Council incumbency, while Colleen Hardwick looks to achieve victory on the coattails of her father Walter Hardwick’s name, Dr. Hardwick, a multi-term alderman in the 1960s and 1970s, and a distinguished and much-beloved academic and community leader whose work shaped both the Metro Vancouver region and the Fraser Valley.
VanRamblings was fortunate enough to work with Dr. Hardwick on The Livable Region Plan in the late 1980s, the published document responsible for shaping almost every aspect of urban life in our region.
And what of the straggly few challenging for the 10th spot on Council?
If you’ve read VanRamblings at all, you know we’re pulling for Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe. On Monday, we will enthusiastically endorse Sarah Kirby-Yung (you think we gush over Christine Boyle? You ain’t read nuthin’ yet, til you read what we write about British Columbia’s nominally right-of-centre generational candidate & future British Columbia Premier).
Lately, VanRamblings has been thinking, “Omigosh, we’ll be despondent if Christine Boyle doesn’t attain a seat on Council,” and we will be verklempt because everything we’ve written about Ms. Boyle we believe into the deepest fibre of our being. Note to all: this ain’t our first rodeo.

Park Board Commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung

Truth to tell, it is the possibility of a defeat for Sarah Kirby-Yung on the evening of Saturday, October 20th that would cause us the most concern, and bring us to tears. Christine Boyle will live on to fight another day, were she to lose. Sarah Kirby-Yung — the most important, action-oriented, democratic Park Board Chairperson in living memory — is on a mission to reform how right-of-centre parties respond to the needs and expectations of the electorate. Sarah Kirby-Yung is a once in a lifetime candidate.
Sarah Kirby-Yung’s victory at the polls in our current Vancouver civic election is critical to the future of British Columbia. John Horgan, David Eby and the NDP are not always going to be in power. If Ms. Kirby-Yung is to become a future Premier — we would note in passing, the polar opposite of Christy Clark — she must achieve victory next Saturday night (although, we suppose, she could run in the next provincial election — but, honestly, in order for her to realize her goal of leading the province, victory on the 20th would go a long ways towards becoming a future British Columbia Premier).
Believe me when I say, “You want Sarah Kirby-Yung as a BC Liberal Premier over any other candidate in the party, now and long into the future.”
Will the numbers hold as you see them at the top of today’s post hold?
Doubtful.
We’re holding out for victory for all three of our favourites in this election: Christine Boyle, Derrick O’Keefe and Sarah Kirby-Yung. Perhaps the electorate will come to their senses, tune into the election, and elect all three of these transformational candidates to City Council — although, truth to tell, Pete Fry must be included in this life-changing, must-elect group.

2018 Vancouver civic election

We are 7 days away from election day 2018, 7 days away from knowing who will comprise our next Vancouver City Council, Park Board and School Board. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to how things will turn out.
The Straight’s Charlie Smith wrote yesterday that he thinks there’ll be a decent, if not good turnout at the polls. We’re less sanguine about that possibility, particularly given the record low turnout at the advance polls.
Still, you never know what’s going to happen, when it comes to elections.
You know what they say, “A week in politics is a lifetime.”

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Derrick O’Keefe Endorsement | Must-Elect

Video credit. Eliot Galan. @collectivista

Derrick O’Keefe’s candidacy for Vancouver City Council represents the most heartening and principled candidacy in Vancouver civic politics since the rise of our city’s multi-term, cherished top vote-getter, Harry Rankin.
Over the years, new candidates have emerged on the political scene, barely gaining power at City Hall as they sought office, squeaking in by the narrowest of electoral margins, yet once in office going on to become our most beloved and venerated civic representatives.
In Vancouver, in 2011, Adriane Carr won elected office by a mere 909 vote margin, in an election where more than 135,000 votes were cast. In 2014, Councillor Carr topped the polls with more than 74,000 votes. Same thing in Seattle with socialist professor Kshama Sawant, squeaking to victory over incumbent Richard Conlin, running on a $15 an hour minimum wage platform, in 2013. One year later, as is the case with our very own Ms. Carr, residents of Metro Seattle and Washington state voted Kshama Sawant the Seattle region and Washington state’s most popular political figure.
VanRamblings has known committed community activist Derrick O’Keefe for 15 years, dating back to the early 2000s, when Derrick and his best friend, author and humourist Charlie Demers, emerged on Vancouver’s political scene with the boldly imagined Seven Oaks arts & politics magazine.
A well-considered, well-written and conceived activist academic journal, in every issue Seven Oaks laid out for its readers a road map for change, in order that working people would no longer get the short end of the stick. During its halycon years of publication, Seven Oaks was a much anticipated must-read each month for its legion of appreciative activist readers.
Derrick was recruited by Canadian feminist icon Judy Rebick to edit the online journal she had created, rabble.ca, with Derrick O’Keefe on the masthead as editor-in-chief, as always keeping his activism a fundamental aspect of how he brings himself to the world, as a peace activist, a renter’s and affordable housing activist, and one of Canada’s finest political writers (after leaving rabble.ca, Derrick co-founded and edited ricochet.ca, widely considered to this day to be Canada’s leading public interest journal).
Of course, as is the case with all activists of conscience, Derrick O’Keefe loves baseball. Sitting in the bleachers in Section 3 at Nat Bailey Stadium on a revivifying summer’s eve, his children and Andrea nearby, the warm breeze of the early evening wafting through the crowd, the feint scent of beer and popcorn in the air, baseball at The Nat is Derrick’s idea of heaven.

And now Derrick O’Keefe finds himself on the ground fighting for all of us who live in the city of Vancouver, in the midst of an affordable housing crisis and a looming environmental crisis on the near horizon, running as an absolutely necessary candidate for Vancouver City Council, with COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors. Not a moment too soon, Derrick O’Keefe.
When you cast your ballot at the polls, placing a checkmark beside the name of O’KEEFE, Derrick, allowing Mr. O’Keefe to be elected to Council, the fate that awaits Mr. O’Keefe is popularity among the citizens beyond all measure — and in 2022, the prospect of topping the civic election polls in the next municipal election. Because Derrick O’Keefe is a difference maker.

Derrick O'Keefe running as COPE's needed and necessary 2018 Vancouver civic election revolutionary

The prospect that awaits us? Deliverance from the ills of our city, when we cast a vote for Derrick O’Keefe for City Council, as we head to the polls.
As we wrote yesterday, in identifying the historic trinity of civic election candidates that are must-elects, who in working together on Vancouver City Council will build the city we need, OneCity candidate Christine Boyle, Green candidate Pete Fry, and the tremendous ‘on our side’ Derrick O’Keefe represent the three most charismatic, thoughtful, educated, action-oriented urban planning democrats to run for City Council in four decades.

“While the Greens’ Pete Fry is the visionary, COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe is the take no guff charismatic, truth-telling spokesperson, with One City’s Christine Boyle the democratically-engaged, collaborative, ‘get things done’ negotiator with stakeholder groups, Derrick O’Keefe, Pete Fry and Christine Boyle all working together to implement their plan for change: more truly affordable housing — co-and-co-op, rental and social housing built on city land — and soon; a socially just city that serves the interests of all; better, less expensive and more frequent transit; more child care, less expensive and more accessible; enhanced public safety throughout the city; an environmental plan that will serve the interests of our children and future generations; unprecedented support for the arts and creative community, as well as for Vancouver’s parks and recreation system.

In order for the change that we all need to occur, when you go to the polls this next week, you’re going to have to place a check mark beside the name of O’KEEFE, Derrick — 13th from last on the randomized Councillor ballot — the most important and critical to our collective future decision that you’ll make in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, a commitment in support of your family, your neighbours, your colleagues & your friends.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Pete Fry Endorsement | Must-Elect

Pete Fry has run for civic office twice previously. This time around could be third time lucky. The lucky ones, of course, will be us.
VanRamblings knows that Pete Fry would be a transformational City Councillor, who would spend his every waking moment working to build a livable city for you, for your neighbours, your friends and your family.
We know Pete Fry to be Vancouver’s pre-eminent city building philosopher, and at this critical juncture in Vancouver’s history, Pete Fry is not only a necessary candidate for whom to cast your ballot, but an absolutely critical candidate to elect to Vancouver City Council if your needs, and the needs of your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours are to be met.

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The Greens’ Pete Fry, OneCity’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe constitute an historic trinity of civic election candidates who, working together, will build the city we need, the three most charismatic, thoughtful, educated, urban planning democrats to run for City Council since the days of renowned urbanists Walter Hardwick, Fritz Bowers, Setty Pendakur, William Gibson and Art Cowie, who made up Council’s sagacious academic quintet of respected urban planners and landscape architects in the early 1970s, establishing a livable region plan that lives on to this day.
What does all of the above mean for you, for your life in the city, and the livability of Vancouver going forward? As is the case with must-elects Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, Pete Fry is committed to …

  • Public amenities. After 10 years of woeful underfunding of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, Pete Fry is committed to the growth and renewal of this critical public infrastructure, and greater, less expensive and universal access to these critical community resources.

  • Affordable housing. Pete Fry is committed to recognizing the right to housing in the Vancouver Charter, and defining affordability relative to local incomes, such that Vancouver’s citizens would pay not more than 30% of their income on meeting their housing needs.

    In addition, Pete Fry on City Council would work with his Green Party colleagues, and with Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, as well, to set a goal of 50% below-market-rate housing overall for all new multi-residential development, while launching a city-funded, city-built housing programme on city-owned land, as well as provincial and federal Crown land, on a leasehold basis, construction costs to be paid through developer community amenity contributions, federal and provincial tax, and a speculation land value capture tax.

  • Small business. Pete Fry and his Green Party colleagues — must-elects Adriane Carr, out city’s most beloved and most cherished City Councillor; the estimable and surprising and charismatic Michael Wiebe, a democrat and arts and small business advocate extraordinaire; and David HT Wong, an architect, long an advocate of heritage preservation, and slow growth, respectful of the needs, wants and desires of citizens in neighbourhoods across our city — all of whom are committed to lowering small business tax, while having major corporate business pay a fairer share of tax. In respect of housing, the Green Party’s commitment to 3500 units of rental, social, co-and-co-op housing built on city, federal and provincial land, each and every year for the next 10 years — with no one paying more than 30% of their income for housing — would mean not only would lower income workers be able to afford to live in city, small businesses would find it easier to recruit employees.

    Have you noticed lately while walking down the streets of our city, the number of businesses that are shuttered due to the lack of staff. The Green Party housing plan, along with lower small business tax, would enable small business to pay higher wages to employees housed nearby on affordable city-owned rental, or co-op housing.

Pete Fry, along with his Green Party colleagues, Christine Boyle and her OneCity Council candidate colleague, Brandon Yan, in concert with Derrick O’Keefe and COPE’s Jean Swanson and Anne Roberts will work with the provincial government to shorten the timelines for rollout of $10-a-day child care, while also requesting more money for transit, community shuttle bus, and overnight Skytrain service on the weekends.
Child care centres established in housing co-op developments, as is the case at the 135-unit Railyard Housing Co-op, built on city land, the construction and materials paid for by Concert Properties through an arrangement with Vancouver’s Community Land Trust, a re-opening of The Playhouse as a year-round theatre company servicing all other theatre companies in Vancouver, continuity of care seniors housing built in every neighbourhood, keeping our streets and our boulevards clean and groomed so it might said once more that Vancouver is not only the most beautiful city on the continent, but the cleanest and most welcoming city.

Pete Fry endorsement, 2018 Vancouver civic election

And let us not forget, either, that Pete Fry is committed to — unlike the right-of-centre NPA, Vancouver 1st, Yes Vancouver, Coalition Vancouver civic parties — the negotiation of a fair collective agreement for Vancouver’s 3500 city workers, organized within CUPE 1004 and CUPE 15 bargaining units. Negotiations begin later this autumn.
Make no mistake, Pete Fry is a key element in the success of any reformation plan that will be undertaken at Vancouver City Hall.

Pete is the visionary, Derrick is the take no guff charismatic, truth-telling spokesperson, while Christine Boyle is the democratically-engaged, collaborative, ‘get things done’ negotiator with stakeholder groups, the Council member who will ensure that things will actually get done, and that Pete Fry, Derrick O’Keefe and her plans are fully realized and implemented.

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As remarkably well-qualified & livable city building candidates for Vancouver City Council in our city’s 2018 municipal election, the Greens’ Pete Fry, OneCity’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe are uniquely positioned as the holy trinity of civic governance, the magnificent trio who will transform our city into the paradise by the ocean we know it can once again become.
At the advance polls vote, under the Councillor ballot near the top in the lucky number 7 position, you’ll find the name FRY, Pete all ready for you to fill in the oval by his name. You might as well do the same for BOYLE, Christine, given her second place placement on the ballot.
As Christine Boyle’s father told Pete when he met him for the first time at the Kerrisdale Community Centre all candidates meeting awhile back, “Boyle and Fry, now there’s a recipe for success at the polls.”
And so it is, and so it must be.

Advance Voting, October 10th thru 17th, Vancouver Civic Election

Lucky you. The advance polls are open today through until next Wednsday, October 17th — you can cast your vote today for #2 BOYLE, Christine on the randomized ballot, skip down to 7th place, FRY, Pete, and place a check mark by his name. You might as well check O’KEEFE, Derrick, at lucky #13th from last place at the bottom of the Councillor ballot.
You’ll sleep better tonight, we promise!
If you decide to cast your ballot early, you choose one Mayoral candidate out of 21, and for City Council you’re to elect 10 Councillors in total, at Park Board there are 7 Commissioners to elect, and at School Board, 9 trustees.
We’d ask that you please, please please keep yourself informed, and being partisan for just one moment, we’d ask that you please vote for the progressive candidates running for office with the Greens, COPE and OneCity in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, today thru October 17th, 8am til 8pm …

  • Vancouver City Hall, 453 W 12th Avenue

  • Roundhouse Arts & Rec Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews
  • Britannia Community Services Centre, 1661 Napier Street
  • Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings Street
  • Renfrew Park Community Centre, 2929 East 22nd Avenue
  • Killarney Community Centre, 6260 Killarney Street
  • Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive
  • Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street
  • Marpole | Oakridge Community Centre, 990 West 59th Avenue
  • Kerrisdale Community Centre, 5851 West Boulevard
  • Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre, 2690 Larch Street
  • West End Community Centre, 870 Denman Street

We’ll see you back tomorrow for another critical endorsement.
Full VanRamblings election coverage is available here.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Be Nice, Be Kind, Support Your Candidates

Danika Skye Hammond, Executive Assistant to British Columbia Minister of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources

The woman you see above is Danika Skye Hammond.
Danika was recently appointed Executive Assistant to Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the hard-working, industrious and principled Michelle Mungall, Ms. Skye Hammond employed in Ms. Mungall’s two Kootenay offices, centered in the Nelson / Creston area, in the region of our province where Danika was raised, loves and has long called home.
As VanRamblings has suggested to retired Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter / current Creston-based beekeeper, Jeff Lee, whenever he feels he needs a boost in his mood, a centering and hopeful presence in his life, he’ll want to make sure to visit Danika in Minister Mungall’s Creston office.
Danika Skye Hammond, a year and a half ago, a UBC student in her third year at the University of British Columbia and an activist / executive member of the BC Young New Democrats, was the volunteer co-ordinator on Vancouver Point Grey MLA David Eby’s 2017 campaign for re-election.

Danika Skye Hammond and Gala Milne, campaign staff on MLA David Eby's re-election bidThe tremendously wonderful, organized, exceptionally bright, principled and inspiring persons of conscience, Danika Skye Hammond and the always marvelous, Gala Milne

VanRamblings contends that Danika Skye Hammond’s presence on Mr. Eby’s campaign was, in significant measure, the reason he was re-elected to office, and now sits as British Columbia’s Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Minister of All He Surveys. Oh sure, Gala Milne (currently working in the AG’s office) was David’s able and organized and sterling campaign manager, and Megan Sali (now back east starting a law degree after spending a year helping the government to establish itself in power) and Duncan Watts-Grant did a laudable job on communications, and Erin Arnold — taking time off from her usual employment as a social worker — as the campaign’s organized office manager, with Susan Walsh, as always keeping the troops fed while an ever-present John Yano (current Vancouver civic election Mayoral candidate) performed his usual campaign ‘jack of all trades’ office worker to a fare-thee-well, but VanRamblings knows that …
Danika Skye Hammond was the beating, pulsing heart of David Eby’s absolutely necessary for us all 2017 campaign re-election bid. No Danika Skye Hammond on the David Eby re-election team, David may have eked out a victory & just barely at that, or perhaps even lost to James Lombardi.
As we say above, Danika Skye Hammond worked as the volunteer co-ordinator on David Eby’s 2017 re-election campaign — that meant Danika was responsible for recruiting volunteers to the campaign, and co-ordinating the work of the volunteers. What did Danika’s work entail?

Volunteers. 400 hundred of them. Large, organized blackboard, on the wall to the left and just a little bit north of Danika’s desk, names of 400 volunteers on the board, assigned to burmashaving, door knocking, street corner events with the candidate, supporting the candidate at all candidate meetings, and every outside the office ‘job’ you might imagine.

Now, as you might also imagine, co-ordinating 400 volunteers meant not only communicating and organizing those volunteers, but inspiring those volunteers to work harder, to work smarter, to keep notes, report back, and be ready to work to the best of their capacity the next day, full of spirit and dedication towards the goal of victory for our much-beloved candidate, David Eby in government proving to be the most dedicated Minister of Justice and Attorney General in British Columbia history.

As Gala Milne will attest, as will those 400 volunteers, Danika Skye Hammond was a transcendent force on David Eby’s 2017 re-election bid, the single most inspiring and welcoming presence on a political campaign VanRamblings has witnessed in 55 years of political campaigning.

There was not one volunteer on David Eby’s 2017 campaign re-election bid who would not have given their lives for Danika.

Every single day, Danika had at the ready for the volunteers, all of the appropriate flyers, signs and materials that would be required by the volunteers, all counted out, wrapped in recyclable elastic bands where necessary or in envelopes, with clipboards, pens and just the right campaign literature attached to those clipboards.

On a campaign that could, at times, tend towards the chilly (at least to some of us older folks), Danika was the smiling, organized, welcoming presence, 6am til midnight, seven days a week. VanRamblings didn’t see Danika break once (and we were in David’s campaign office ALL the time).
Late at night, in the dim light of early morning, we could see Danika organizing volunteer activities for the coming day, a beatific presence.
VanRamblings is unsure that we’ll ever see the likes of a Danika Skye Hammond on any political campaign on which we will work in the future, but migawd are we — every single person who worked with Danika — grateful that we were afforded the once in a lifetime opportunity to be inspired by and to work with Danika Skye Hammond in the spring of 2017.

What does all this palaver about Danika Skye Hammond have to do with the price of donuts, and the 2018 Vancouver civic election?
Listen up and listen tight.
At the outset of the 2018 Vancouver civic election, co-campaign managers on the OneCity Vancouver campaign, Deanna Ogle and Mary Leighton, called a meeting of the party’s candidates, part-time staff and volunteers, and members of the Board (who were instrumental in drafting a policy on campaign deportment), and instructed those who were gathered to …

Be kind. Always be kind to one another. Be kind to the people you meet on the street when you’re out canvassing. Be kind to our fellow citizens who enter our office. Be kind when you’re delivering signs and dropping them off. Be kind, be especially kind, to the candidates running for office with political parties other than our own.”

“From the moment you begin work with our campaign of social justice and change for the better, from this moment on, you are a representative for the OneCity Vancouver campaign, from early morning til late at night. Support our very fine candidates for office. In a world of social media opprobrium, never seek to respond with bitterness, rather respond with reason and kindness, if at all. As a representative on the OneCity Vancouver campaign, from this moment on, it is incumbent on you to never, ever, ever, in any circumstance, or on any social media forum disparage any candidate running with a party that is not our own, anyone in the press, or any campaign volunteer on another party’s campaign.”

“For us, and for yourself, be your best self at all times.”

“And, please recognize that we are in an alliance with COPE, Vision Vancouver and the Greens — which means that always, always, always it is of critical importance that you remember that all of those candidates and persons who are working on the COPE, Vision and Green campaigns are our allies. We love, respect and honour their service to our community as we love our own families, and as we love one another.”

And you know what, even though they’re the “opposition” to the left-of-centre parties, Vancouver Non-Partisan Association campaign manager and VanRamblings’ good friend Patrick O’Connor, and his very fine campaign team of Wendy Hartley, John Manning and Mike Witherley gave near exact the same instruction as above to their party’s candidates and volunteers.
Vision Vancouver gave much the same speech to their candidates, and volunteers. And so did Mark Marrissen and Mike Wilson, on Hector Bremner’s Yes Vancouver campaign. Wai Young, too. All civic political parties but two have adhered to the campaign of kindness, personal responsibility and integrity political ethos in this civic election campaign.

Be Kind. 2018 Vancouver civic election

Because, as anyone who has ever worked on a political campaign knows, campaign staff and volunteers never, ever, ever, under any circumstance or in any forum deride or disparage their “opponents” running for office in a campaign. To do so only serves to undermine the work that is undertaken by the campaign staff, the party’s Board of Directors, and the heart-filled volunteers of principle who often dedicate their every waking hour to helping achieve victory for the candidates whose candidacies they support.
And did we mention the Green Party of Vancouver’s campaign manager Ryan Clayton, and their absolutely superb and tremendously talented Director of Communications Alex Brunke? Well, as any person who has ever spent time around Green Party candidates for office, the members of their Board of Directors, and Ryan and Alex, in particular, know that the Green Party of Vancouver wrote the book on kindness in political campaigns.
You know how they say, ‘The meek shall inherit the Earth’? Well, VanRamblings wouldn’t exactly call the Green Party folks meek (cuz they’re activist persons of conscience), but we would call them principled, and kind, thoughtful and collaborative, and aim to do and be better, non-partisan change makers, as fine a group of folks as you’d ever want to meet.
Unfortunately, and very sad to say, there are two political parties whose candidates are seeking office in the 2018 Vancouver civic election where members of the paid campaign staff and volunteers (and in the case of one of the parties, candidates for the party) have gone online to disparage and name call and unwarrantedly, viciously attack candidates who have been endorsed, in one instance, by the Vancouver & District Labour Council, and with whose candidates and parties they are in an alliance. It is to weep.

Samuel Holmes, a COPE malefactor in the 2018 Vancouver civic election campaign

Perhaps the most foul, acting out malefactor in the 2018 Vancouver civic election campaign — and that’s going some, considering who’s out there and what they’re doing — is a COPE operative, Samuel Holmes, who seems to derive great perverse pleasure and takes the greatest possible delight with ad hominem attacks on candidates in the COPE alliance, with the working press, and any other target of his mean-spiritedness, absolutely delighted in undermining the campaign of principle his party is running. Alas.

That such egregious conduct is extant among only some of the party’s high profile operatives only serves to undercut and undermine the very fine campaigns that their party’s candidates are running for office in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election — the very best campaign for office by their party in more than a generation, with the best grouping of candidates of principle we can recall seeking elected office dating back to the 1980s.
Yesterday, VanRamblings wrote that we were livid at the conduct of some campaign operatives in going after candidates, woman candidates in particular (which we consider to be woman-hating misogyny, or self-hating misogyny, as the case may be). We have expressed to campaign operatives how egregious and counterproductive to victory we find the conduct of the few miscreant operatives working on their party’s electoral campaign.
Most political parties would fire the campaign operatives who are acting out immediately, and disavow their conduct as contrary to the aims of their party during the election process. Unfortunately, those in decision-making positions with the one party to which we refer are not exactly known for integrity of purpose, intelligence and humanity — we hold out feint hope that those campaign operatives who are acting out will held to account.

Trust

The above said, VanRamblings is heartened that the vast majority of persons of conscience working on this party’s campaign, and all other 2018 Vancouver civic election campaigns, and most candidacies in Vancouver’s 2018 civic election, have conducted themselves with integrity of purpose, a sense of joy and community service, and an opportunity to learn, to engage, to be afforded time to get to know our community better, and better familiarize themselves with determinedly achieving the city we need.

Advance Voting, October 10th thru 17th, Vancouver Civic Election

Advance polls run today through October 17th — if you decide to cast your ballot early you choose one Mayoral candidate out of 21, & for City Council you’re to elect 10 Councillors, at Park Board there are 7 Commissioners to elect, and at School Board, 9 trustees. We’d ask that you please, please please keep yourself informed, and being partisan for just one moment, we’d ask that you please vote for the progressive candidates running for office in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, October 10th – 17th, 8am til 8pm …

  • Vancouver City Hall, 453 W 12th Avenue

  • Roundhouse Arts & Rec Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews
  • Britannia Community Services Centre, 1661 Napier Street
  • Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings Street
  • Renfrew Park Community Centre, 2929 East 22nd Avenue
  • Killarney Community Centre, 6260 Killarney Street
  • Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive
  • Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street
  • Marpole | Oakridge Community Centre, 990 West 59th Avenue
  • Kerrisdale Community Centre, 5851 West Boulevard
  • Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre, 2690 Larch Street
  • West End Community Centre, 870 Denman Street

We’ll see you back tomorrow. Full VanRamblings election coverage is available here.