On Wednesday evening, the Residents for Community Control held the first City Council all-candidates forum of the 2018 Vancouver civic election.
Two hundred hardy souls came in out of the rain to listen to and question City Council candidates from most of Vancouver’s civic parties.
We write most, because two of Vancouver’s mainstream municipal parties were unrepresented at Wednesday night’s forum: the Vision Vancouver ruling party, despite a half dozen pleading contacts with representatives of Vancouver’s governing party — who failed to respond to any of the organizer’s entreaties, for any one of their half dozen Council candidates — and OneCity Vancouver, who apologized to organizers (and attendees) for their non-attendance, as OneCity Vancouver candidates Christine Boyle and Brandon Yan — two of the must-elects in the current civic election — found themselves at the well-attended SFU Harbour Centre Broadbent Institute-sponsored Bringing Racial Justice to Local Democracy forum.
The Green Party of Vancouver was well-represented, with three of their serious-minded candidates for Council in attendance: incumbent Adriane Carr, Michael Wiebe and must-elect Pete Fry. The Vancouver Non-Partisan Association’s Colleen Hardwick and must-elect Sarah Kirby-Yung did their party proud, as did must-elect COPE Council candidate, Anne Roberts.
Otherwise, the also-ran right-wing parties were in attendance: Jesse Johl for Vancouver First; Raza Mirza for Pro Vancouver; James Lin for Coalition Vancouver — but, as it happened, no Council rep from Yes Vancouver.
The questions that you might expect to come up were featured front and centre: affordable housing, those damnable bike lanes (alas), development and which parties were in the developers’ pockets, parks and recreation and adequate funding for public facilities, the Downtown Eastside (but not homelessness), reining in City Hall’s budget or at least prioritizing expenditures differently than has been the case with Vision Vancouver, and the need for a new city plan for each of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods.
In 2014, the Mount Pleasant Council all-candidates forum, held at Heritage Hall at 15th and Main, was the most raucous and engaged all-candidate debate of the entire 2014 Vancouver election season. In stark contrast, Wednesday night’s well-attended City Council all-candidates forum was muted in comparison: too many representatives from too many civic parties, with too many utterly unknown Council candidates participating, with only one City Council incumbent in attendance — the Green Party’s beloved communicator and City Councillor extraordinaire, Adriane Carr.
By forum’s end four things were clear: forum attendees possessed a universal visceral hatred for Vision Vancouver; the Green Party in all its humility, good cheer, humanity and intelligence is absolutely and utterly beloved, at least by those in attendance and more probably by a broad spectrum of potential Vancouver votes; the Green Party’s Pete Fry and the NPA’s Sarah Kirby-Yung — two of the must-elects in this election — were by far the best speakers of the evening, the best informed with a broad grasp of the issues, and the most well-received of all the candidates at the front of the room (the Greens’ Adriane Carr & Michael Wiebe arrived a bit late — important civic business, given that both are current electeds in civic governance — and chose to remain as a part of the audience); and voters are hankering for change, and not more of the same old, same old.

Looking like the cat that ate the canary, independent Mayoral aspirant Kennedy Stewart on Wednesday morning — despite VanRamblings formally endorsing independent Shauna Sylvester for Mayor — was formally endorsed by the members and the Board of OneCity Vancouver as their ‘certain-to-be-elected‘ (they feel), and ‘someone they want to work with and have confidence in’, Mayoral candidate of choice.
For the record, OneCity Vancouver is, by far, VanRamblings’ favourite feminist, woman-driven civic party, the only party with a consistent & well-thought-out political analysis in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election. Now, we’re not saying that we don’t think Shauna Sylvester wouldn’t make a first-rate Mayor for Vancouver — we believe that with all our heart, and to the depth of our being — rather, we’re saying that Alison Atkinson, Anna Chudnovksy, Cara Ng, Kyla Epstein, Mia Edbrooke, Marcy Toms, Adi Pick, Claudia Ferris, Helesia Luke, Abby Leung, Joey Hartman, Sharon Yandle, Thea Dowler, Jennifer Reddy, Carrie Bercic, Erica Jaaf, Christine Boyle and a host of other change-making, action-oriented, difference-maker women of conscience may, just may mind you (and, most likely do), know more than that VanRamblings fella who writes these posts on this blog, and that in choosing Kennedy Stewart as OneCity Vancouver’s Mayoralty candidate of choice, these fine women are smart political cookies, and probably (okay, certainly) much smarter than the writer of this blog.
And wouldn’t you know, no sooner do the good folks involved with OneCity Vancouver formally endorse Kennedy Stewart as their Mayoralty candidate of choice, than the Vancouver Sun publishes a story that reads …

Independent candidate Kennedy Stewart is pulling ahead in the race for Vancouver’s top job after Ian Campbell’s departure, according to the latest poll.

The Research Co. found that 36 per cent of respondents say they will vote for Stewart in next month’s election, up 11 points since the company’s last poll in July. The poll shows Stewart with an 11-point lead over the NPA’s Ken Sim, who is in second place at 25 per cent.

Among female voters, Stewart holds a 23-point lead over Sim, while Sim is slightly ahead of Stewart (32 per cent to 29 per cent) among decided male voters. Sim is followed by independent candidate Shauna Sylvester with 17 per cent, Hector Bremner of Yes Vancouver at seven per cent, and David Chen of ProVancouver with four per cent support.

Word on the street is that Kennedy Stewart was unwilling to give up his cushy $168,000-a-year job as a Member of Parliament, unless he could secure both the support of labour, and the provincial NDP.
And since OneCity Vancouver is pretty much the civic farm team for the provincial NDP — again, for the record, as a life long member of the New Democratic Party, VanRamblings loves the provincial NDP, and just about every galldarn, cotton pickin’ one of the party’s provincial and federal members — so OneCity Vancouver‘s affiliation, affection and support for the New Democratic Party is just darn fine by us.
We’re sure that the terrifically intelligent folks in OneCity Vancouver are well-aware that every Union local in Vancouver, and every one of the 50,000+ Union members who reside in the city of Vancouver and call our paradise by the sea home, are working their buns off volunteering for Kennedy Stewart, and the candidates endorsed by the Vancouver & District Labour Council (hey, we’re also a life long Union member and an anarcho-syndicalist, so the support of labour for political candidates of conscience, that’s just fine — more than fine, if we’re being truthful — by us, too).
And we’re pretty darn sure that folks associated with every one of the New Democratic Party Vancouver constituencies are working overtime volunteering — on their own time, on their own dime — for Kennedy Stewart (well, at least the ones that are not over-the-moon for Shauna Sylvester, among which number VanRamblings must count ourself) and all the VDLC-endorsed candidates for OneCity Vancouver, the Green Party of Vancouver and the Coalition of Progressive Electors, and a few of the Vision Vancouver candidates, too. It’s a party — a party of the socially conscious.
If the OneCity Vancouver must-elect candidates, each one of whom VanRamblings is head-over-heels in love with — Brandon Yan and Christine Boyle for City Council, and Carrie Bercic, Erica Jaaf and and the downright spectacular Jennifer Reddy for School Board — can ride into office on Kennedy Stewart’s coattails, well that seems like a pretty darn good thing.
Just wait til Christine, Brandon, Erica, Carrie and Jennifer are all elected to office come the evening of Saturday, October 20th — you’ll become as smitten with each one of them as everyone who knows them has, and is.
Imagine. Being in love with the people you’ve elected.
Elect OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle, Brandon Yan, Erica Jaaf, Carrie Bercic & Jennifer Reddy, and that’s exactly what’s gonna happen to you!

And, finally, for today’s VanRamblings post, first this … for the folks who are anxious to get to the advance polls to cast their progressively-minded Council ballot of conscience for the transcendently lovely Christine Boyle, Brandon Yan, Anne Roberts, Jean Swanson, Derrick O’Keefe, Pete Fry, Michael Wiebe, Adriane Carr, Catherine Evans and Heather Deal, and their School Board ballot of conscience for Erica Jaaf, Carrie Bercic, Jennifer Reddy, Erin Arnold, Aaron Leung, the extraordinary Allan Wong, Diana Day and Barb Parrot and Janet Fraser, and their all-important Park Board ballot of conscience for Stuart Mackinnon, Gwen Giesbrecht, John Irwin, Camil Dumont, Dave Demers, Shamin Shivji and Cameron Zubko …

And then this, where VanRamblings hopes to see you tonight (we’re going to try to remember to bring along our tripod, which’ll make for less shaky video … and yes, we’ll be the annoying guy “filming”) …

Earlier today, respected civic affairs reporter Frances Bula published a story in the Globe and Mail, writing that …

Facebook has shut down two accounts linked to Vancouver’s civic election, declaring the accounts violate its policies and that the company has placed a priority on preventing election interference.

Facebook took down one account that was promoting mayoral candidate Hector Bremner, under the name Vancouverites for Affordable Housing. Another account disparaging the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) candidate with the page name Vancouver Deserves Better Than Ken Sim was also taken down.

Here are just two of the unsavoury ads the groups have been running …

Later in the day, Press Progress published a story with the heading, “Elections BC is Investigating a Right-Wing Group Running Anonymous Ads Attacking Electoral Reform“, with the sub-headline “Why is an unregistered group with links to a right-wing Vancouver political party running ads attacking electoral reform?”
One would think that we’re living in Trump’s America when social media ads like the ones above — which have flooded Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media feeds for the past week, before being taken down today — are considered necessary and par for the course by extremist right-wing groups bent on importing the Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh style of ugly, untoward, fear-mongering, unsubstantiated and untrue style of take down ads that are the purview, in Canada, of Ezra Lavant’s Rebel Media Group.
Ms. Bula quotes NPA campaign strategist Mike Witherly, as follows …

“This is honestly just the nastiest election cycle ever. The party complained about both of the Facebook pages that were ultimately taken down. I think people are getting ideas as they see the investigation into Russian interference [in the American elections]. It’s giving people a sense of its effectiveness and prompting people to try it.

Press Progress takes the Facebook group, the Kitsilano-based right-wing group Wake Up Vancouver, run by Mary Lavin and Fiona Brodie, to task. Formerly called Concerned Kitsilano Residents, the two changed the name of their fearmongering group to Wake Up Vancouver in November 2016.

Meanwhile, as we’ve written previously, both the right and the left spent a good portion of the summer engaging in a vicious and unwarranted take down campaign of OneCity Vancouver City Council candidate, Brandon Yan, the latest salvo a civil claim that has been filed before the B.C. Supreme Court by anti-SOGI 123 activists and 2018 Coalition Vancouver School Board candidates, Ken Denike and Sophia Woo.
Perhaps, in aide of creating a fairer 2018 Vancouver civic election, those hate-mongering reactionaries on the right side of the political spectrum might consider adopting the humanist perspective of OneCity Vancouver Board member Anna Chudnovksy’s elementary school-age students …

On Monday evening, Glacier Media (Vancouver Courier, Business in Vancouver, Vancouver is Awesome) hosted the first raucous, informative and — as it turned out — defining Mayoral debate in this, the consequential and critically important to our future 2018 Vancouver civic election.
All of the Mayoral candidates on the stage acquitted themselves well …

• The NPA’s Ken Sim extolled his virtues as a hometown boy, committed to families, someone who will listen and consult with voters when he is elected, who would work to develop the best plan for addressing Vancouver’s affordable housing dilemma, and the businessperson — responsible for 5000 staff in his Nurse Next Door business, he said, although audience members were querulous about this claim, shouting “It’s a franchise business, you’re not directly responsible for 5000 employees, nor do you supervise or manage them” — who would be best able to put the city back on firm financial ground. Audience members were none-too-pleased with his far off promise of building new affordable housing, some day, years down the road, after much consultation;

• Kennedy Stewart, recently retired NDP Member of Parliament, the candidate backed by labour, talked about Kinder Morgan, talked about a plan to build more rental housing (nothing about building co-housing and new co-op housing, though), articulate, polished and bland, who seems not to have quite cottoned onto the notion that Vancouver, for the past seven years, has found itself in the midst of a housing crisis;
• Yes Vancouver’s Hector Bremner, looking as chipper and dapper as always, who all but got booed off the stage for the third party billboard ads that have gone up all over town, extolling him as “the” candidate to build affordable housing for the poor and downtrodden among us, which is all of us, one supposes — although no one in the audience was buying it;
• Vancouver First’s Fred Harding, the “there’s a new sheriff in town candidate” of law and order, who seems intent on gentrifying the Downtown Eastside, and “getting rid of those damn bike lanes”;
• Pro Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate David Chen, whose message seemed confused. At least this reporter couldn’t make hide nor hair of what he was going on about, his plea, “Vote for me because …”.

And then there were the distaff Vancouver Mayoral candidates …

• Wai Young, the Coalition Party’s Mayoral candidate who railed against bike lanes, particularly along West 10th Avenue alongside the Vancouver General Hospital, but who proved herself to be quite the campaigner, articulate, bold, and someone who demands to be taken seriously, as should be the case, as she comes off well as a candidate of substance and stature, a woman who means business, whose perspective on change tends to the very conservative, but who is still very much a concerned citizen, as well as a lifelong resident of our city.

And then there was Shauna Marie Sylvester … wow, wow, wow !!!

Shauna Sylvester, the ‘come from behind’ must vote candidate for Vancouver’s next Mayor, the surefire new Mayor, for whom you’ll be casting your ballot next month

Imagine. A woman as Vancouver’s next Mayor, supported by & working with a City Council comprised of OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle, COPE’s Jean Swanson & Anne Roberts, the Greens’ Adriane Carr, Vision’s Heather Deal & Catherine Evans, the NPA’s Sarah Kirby-Yung & Melissa De Genova, and first-rate independents Sarah Blyth and Erin Shum. It’s easy if you try.

A record 71 candidates are vying for a seat on City Council, in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, along with 21 Mayoral candidates, and 33 candidates apiece for Vancouver Park Board and Vancouver School Board.
Advance polls open on Wednesday, October 10th and close one week later on October 17th. Election day 2018 voting will take place from 8am til 8pm on Saturday, October 20th. We oughta know the final results of the current Vancouver civic election and our new civic governors, shortly after 10pm.
Those setting about to cast their votes at their local polling station will be faced with a randomly organized, non-alphabeticized ballot, with some 158 names on it, and will vote for one Mayoral candidate, 10 candidates for City Council, 9 candidates for School Board, and 7 candidates for Park Board.

The Google Map above was created by Christopher Porter, a proud dad and husband, on his Canadian Veggie blog — Mr. Porter refers to himself on his Twitter feed as a “runner, cyclist, urbanist, and data nerd software engineer (he’s currently employed as a senior software developer at New Hippo Health) — is himself weighing in on the current Vancouver civic election.
The clearly highly technically-skilled Mr. Porter has also created expandable and easy-to-read Google maps on his site for where each of the candidates running for School Board and Park Board reside, and in which neigbourhood within our city each may be found at home. We’d say it’s very much worthwhile for you to consider surfing to Mr. Porter’s informative and readable Canadian Veggie site, both for the maps, and to read an opinion on election goings-on other than what you read on VanRamblings.
Later this week, VanRamblings will adopt the format of Mr. Porter’s Vancouver Election 2018 Primer post to weigh in as he has on the civic parties in this election (we like his work, but we’re not particularly thrilled about his, what we consider to be, ageist commentary on COPE candidates for City Council, Jean Swanson and Anne Roberts … still and all).

Here’s the Vancouver Sun on the Mayoral and Council candidates running for office in the Vancouver civic election, replete with pictures and bios.

Simon Fraser University professors Shauna Sylvester and Kennedy Stewart (the latter, who recently resigned his Burnaby South Member of Parliament seat) are the nominally left-of-centre, progressive independent candidates for Mayor with the highest profiles, most funding, and best organized campaigns. According to the recent Canseco poll, Stewart has secured 23% support from voters, with 19% registering support for Shauna Sylvester.
Sylvester and Stewart’s right-of-centre mainstream party Mayoral competitors are Vancouver Non-Partisan Association’s Ken Sim — sitting at 14% support among Vancouver voters — followed by ProVancouver’s David Chen (11%), the Coalition Party’s Wai Young (8%), Yes Vancouver’s Hector Bremner (5%), and Vancouver First’s Fred Harding (3%).
At best, the remaining independent, non-affiliated candidates for Mayor, woefully underfunded and with little public profile, would have to be considered also-rans in the 2018 Vancouver Mayoral sweepstakes — including COPE-affilated John Yano, and NPA-affiliated Jason Lamarche.

At the last minute, a confused, and as one of the commenters on the video above wrote, “out of touch” Mayoral candidate, IDEA’s Connie Fogal, a retired lawyer — railing against City Hall’s Empty Homes Tax (which Kennedy Stewart says he’ll triple should he become Mayor), and the province’s speculation tax — threw her hat into the ring. We know not why.
Restore Vancouver’s Steffan Ileman obviously thought better of entering the race — his name is nowhere to be found on the ballot. Candidates for Vancouver’s newest civic party, Reclaim Vancouver — which recently announced to much foofaraw on the steps of City Hall: nowhere to be found on the civic election list. In both instances, we’re all the better for it.

There are a handful of fairly well-known, relatively high profile independent candidates who have submitted nomination papers, set to run for a seat on Vancouver City Council. VanRamblings’ two favourites are mediator and well-respected longtime politico, Rob McDowell, and city hero and Overdose Prevention Society founder, Sarah Blyth — both of whom VanRamblings will enthusiastically endorse as must-elect candidates for City Council.

Wade Grant of the Musqueam Indian Band, who once served on the Vancouver Police Board; former NPA Park Board candidate, Ken Low; Green Party member running as an independent (cuz she’s got something to say), Françoise Raunet; 5 Kids 1 Condo’s Adrian Crook; and our favourite of all, current Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Erin Shum, who her constituents love (and for good reason).