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. View all posts by Raymond Tomlin →

Vancouver Votes 2018 | An Open Letter to Members of the NPA

May 10, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Hector Bremner makes accusation of racists motives in rejecting his NPA bid for Mayor Hector Bremner alleges racist intent as reason for NPA rejection of his mayoral bid

As VanRamblings wrote yesterday, the Board of Directors of Vancouver’s longest serving civic party, the Non-Partisan Association, on Monday informed NPA Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner that his bid to become the party’s mayoral candidate had been rejected by the Board.
And, as we also wrote …

As you might well expect, Mr. Bremner, his family and his many supporters — both inside and outside of the party (sitting Vancouver School Board trustee, Lisa Dominato, is one such supporter) — were devastated at hearing the unwelcome news from their party’s Board of Directors.

Throughout the day Tuesday, VanRamblings heard reports that since hearing the unwelcome news Mr. Bremner was devastated, despondent and angry. Would Mr. Bremner simply sit back, and take the slight to his reputation as par for the course in political life, run once again for Council and live on to fight another day, or would he come out guns a blazing at what he considered to be the unfair decision of the NPA Board of Directors?
Late last evening, Vancouver politicos’ answer to that question came in the form of a blistering column penned by Susan Lazaruk for the Vancouver Sun, in which he accused the Non-Partisan Association Board, and the party itself, of lacking transparency, being stuck in an old “backroom boys mentality” and — most damaging of all to the NPA’s prospects of winning government at City Hall this upcoming October — ”displaying an anti-immigrant bias”, both in the selection and the vetting of their candidates for public office. Bremner’s allegations are explosive and unprecedented in the history of Vancouver municipal political internal party struggles.
VanRamblings will hold off on weighing in on the current NPA contretemps until Monday, when we will publish an expansive piece as response to the allegations being made by Mr. Bremner, and others, and the as yet undisclosed reasons why Mr. Bremner’s mayoral candidacy was rejected which, we understand, are quite as explosive as Mr. Bremner’s untoward allegations of racist bias in the operation of the internal mechanisms of decision-making within the windward Vancouver Non-Partisan Association.
For the record, as we wrote to well-known political operative Mark Marissen late last evening …

You know, Mark, I like a fair fight.

Whoever wins, wins. Sometimes the playing field isn’t level, sometimes the game is rigged, the outcome pre-determined and the result not fair. Sort of like the great Canadian game, hockey.

But, you know what? Life isn’t fair. We’ve both lived on this planet long enough to know that.

While I appreciate your linking to Dan Fumano’s April 27th article in The Sun, and I very much appreciate what Wade Grant has to say: for the record, I do not believe that (NPA Board of Directors Chair) Gregory Baker, (Park Board Commissioners) John Coupar, Sarah Kirby-Yung and Casey Crawford, (sitting NPA City Councillors) George Affleck, Elizabeth Ball and Melissa De Genova, (NPA School Board trustees) Lisa Dominato and Fraser Ballantyne, (current NPA mayoral nominee hopeful) Glen Chernen, and my friends Christopher Richardson and Robert McDowell — not to mention good and socially conscious folks like Kirk LaPointe and Peter Armstrong, despite the fact that they are all white, are racists.

Neither do I believe that the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association is a racist party and organization — the NPA may be many things the so-called “progressive forces” in Vancouver don’t like, but racist?

That’s not only an untoward suggestion, it is an outrageous — and we would suggest to you — completely and utterly unwarranted charge, based on the inclusive history of the NPA in selecting and championing the interests of their diverse candidates — Erin Shum, Jay Jagpal, Ken Low and Sandy Sharma running as NPA candidates in 2014, with Bill Yuen and Frances Wong running strong NPA campaigns for office in 2011 — and all of the other fine candidates representing the spectrum of communities that make Vancouver, Vancouver, civic election after civic election.

Based on what I know and what I have observed first hand — and, I bet, you have experienced and know about the members of the NPA, as well — the members of the various NPA Boards of Director, the members of the party, and the NPA candidates running for office comprise, as a group, and as a political organization, not only some of the finest political minds who have gifted Vancouver’s political landscape, but some of the finest, most heart-filled, and socially forward-thinking persons it has been my privilege to get to know.

I sleep better at night, and I enjoy my life more each and every day, knowing that fine folks like the ones whose names are mentioned above play a key role in the governance of our city.

I heard from various sources earlier (yesterday), that you — as Hector’s campaign manager — were acting as a moderating force to keep Hector’s worst instincts (sort of like keeping Trump’s worst instincts) at bay, that you had convinced Hector to play the long game, to live to fight another day (stacking the NPA Executive with your own people is a tried-and-true political tactic to gain control of an organization), that Hector would run in 2018 as a Council candidate, and come back guns a blazin’ in 2022 to take the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association by storm, take the Mayoral slot in a landslide, and go onto civic victory in October of that year.

I guess not. Not if you read the Vancouver Sun article.

Take a breath. As I wish that everyone on the so-called “progressive” side of Vancouver’s political landscape might get it together, and run candidates for office in some sort of informal ‘progressive coalition’, to forward their civic agenda.

Almost needless to say, and as you might well imagine, I wish the same thing for the nominally right-of-centre folks in the NPA and those who once saw the NPA as their political home.

Time to stop the infighting. Everyone involved in the current NPA fiasco — inside and outside the party — should seek to find peace and resolution, and mount a campaign that best serves the interests of the citizens of Vancouver. I mean, after all, isn’t that why you — and every one else you know who is politically engaged — dedicate yourself to public life?

VanRamblings writes about politics — municipally, provincially and federally, and in every other forum (our housing co-op governance has long driven us just crazy for its lack of true and respectful democratic engagement) — because we care desperately about democracy, and the right of the people to be truly engaged in the life of their city, province and nation.
The current internal political shenanigans troubling the Non-Partisan Association ill serve the interests of democracy. Oh sure, to seasoned politicos, the NPA’s political adversaries, and even to the casual observer, the current NPA contretemps all seems like so much fun and game playing in the old political corral, a perverse and voyeuristic look inside the malodorous internal workings of a political party riven with dysfunction.

Not to VanRamblings it doesn’t — not when there are life and death issues on the line: homelessness; maltreatment and the underserving of the interests of our most vulnerable citizens; continuing rampant poverty in our city that drains hope from those living in wont, and sees one in five children going to school hungry each day; a lack of affordable housing that constitutes a crisis in our city for tens of thousands of our citizens.
A transit and active transportation system that requires our close attention; the all-too-frequent displays in our city of racism and bigotry towards our Jewish population, and towards persons of colour and our immigrant and refugee populations; and perhaps most egregiously of all in 2018, a still seemingly unbreakable glass ceiling for women who live in our city, women who are still not safe walking alone in neighbourhoods in our the city, and on Vancouver streets whatever the time of day, whatever the circumstance.
Vancouver Non-Partisan Association: you’re better than this. Mr. Bremner and Mr. Marissen, you’re better than this. Seek to bridge the chasm that now separates you. Perhaps Board Chair Greg Baker needs to consider appointing an independent third party to look into Mr. Bremner’s allegations, the concerns of Mr. Grant, and others. The roiling battle within the NPA does no one any good, neither Mr. Bremner, nor your party.
As a political party offering candidates in the critically important 2018 Vancouver municipal election, you’re supposed to be our leaders, you’re supposed to be focused on making life better for those whom you propose to serve while elected to public office. The NPA’s internal dissension not only ill-serves your party, it ill-serves the interests of Vancouver’s citizenry.

Follow The Bouncing Ball, Where It Lands Nobody Knows

May 9, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

The evening of Monday, May 7th, 2018 was hardly a salutary one for Hector D. Bremner, sitting NPA Vancouver City Councillor, elected to office in a by-election to fill the vacant seat of Geoff Meggs (now Premier John Horgan’s Chief of Staff) on October 19th, 2017. Monday night, Mr. Bremner was informed by Gregory Baker, the President of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Board of Directors, that despite his candidacy passing muster with the party’s Greenlight Committee — as Mr. Bremner states in his Facebook post below, the NPA Board rejected his candidacy, Mr. Baker stating to the MetroStar civic affairs reporter Jen St. Denis that he “disputed (Mr. Bremner’s) version of events.” (Baker) said the committee had serious reservations about Bremner, which the committee communicated to the board verbally. “They (the Greenlight Committee) discussed them at the board, and the board voted on them, and that was that,” he said. Mr. Bremner’s Mayoral candidacy was no more.

May 7 2018 | Hector Bremner NPA Mayoral candidacy | REJECTED

Mr. Bremner has accused the board of kneecapping his bid.
Hector Bremner has stated that an unnamed candidate had “stacked” the board (ed. note, one would have to think that Mr. Bremner is referring to his mortal enemy, Glen Chernen, whose NPA Mayoral candidacy is moving forward) and that even though the NPA’s Greenlight Committee agreed to move his name forward, “the board rejected their advice.”

“My team has tried to do the right thing at every step to keep moving forward in a positive direction, and signed up the most members to the NPA of all of the candidates, with over 2,000 supporters.”

But, again, Gregory Baker, disputes Mr. Bremner’s version of events. He continued to aver that “the committee had serious reservations” about Bremner, which the committee communicated to the board verbally. Mr. Baker has refused to expand on what “serious reservations” constitutes, and explain to the press, or to Mr. Bremner, what, exactly, that means.

“They discussed them at the board, and the board voted on them, and that was that,” he told the MetroStar’s Jen St. Denis.

Still, Mr. Bremner vows to fight on — what form that will take is yet to be decided — as he indicates in a Facebook post published Tuesday morning …

May 8 2018 | Hector Bremner NPA Mayoral nomination | REJECTED

As you might well expect, Mr. Bremner, his family and his many supporters — both inside and outside of the party (sitting Vancouver School Board trustee, Lisa Dominato, is one such supporter) — were devastated at hearing the unwelcome news from their party’s Board of Directors.

While Hector Bremner’s Mayoral candidacy would have proved a potent threat to victory for Vancouver’s progressive forces, in this year’s critically important civic election — given Mr. Bremner’s youth, his well-practiced Kennedy-esque presentation and his diversity marriage — a Hector Bremner Mayoral candidacy would have presented a similarly potent threat to the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association and the brand the NPA attempted to promote in the 2014 election and will again in 2018, that of the New Progressive Association, a socially forward municipal party still bent on lower taxes while providing service to the public — Hector’s ‘in the pocket of developers’ supply, supply, supply ethos and his, how do we say this, thickheadedness, would have proved death for a civic party doing its best to emerge from the electoral weeds, and resume power at City Hall.

John Coupar could very well become Vancouver’s next Mayor, come October 20th

That smiling face you see above (nice picture, by the way, John and City Councillor, George Affleck, who is John’s Mayoral campaign manager) is John Coupar, a current (and dare we say, outstanding) two-term member of Vancouver’s invaluable and necessary to the people of Vancouver, Park Board, on whom VanRamblings has written glowingly about, previously.
As the headline in Travis Lupick’s story published yesterday morning in The Straight states, the “NPA greenlights three potential candidates for mayor and rejects two others.” Once there were five, now there are three: the aforementioned Mr. Coupar; Glen Chernen (who if you didn’t click on the link on his name above, you should click here to learn a bit more about Mr. Chernen; and the corporate-backed businessman, and virtually unknown quantity (who we will seek to interview next week), Ken Sim, who — again for the record — still does not have a campaign website. Puh-leeze.
John Coupar, who is a nominally right-of-centre political figure, would relieve Vancouver’s often beleaguered “natural governing civic party” of their relatively recently-acquired reputation as a civic political party comprised of fire-breathing troglodytes, intent in locking up the homeless, throwing up towers willy nilly in your neighbourhood, and in the pocket of developers and foreign national interests who see Vancouver as the resort town of their dreams, the next Monte Carlo and a playground for the rich.
John’s candidacy, then, would provide the NPA with the opportunity to put their best foot forward, offering a Mayoral candidate of much wit and no little compassion — as we’ve written previously about Mr. John C. Coupar.

Campaign launch for Vision Vancouver School Board candidate, Aaron Leung

On Monday evening, at the kick-off for Vision Vancouver Aaron Leung’s sure-to-be-winning campaign for School Board, even former Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner and political adversary, Trevor Loke, had good things to say about the accomplished John C. Coupar.

“I like John,” Trevor Loke told VanRamblings Monday. “When we were on Park Board together, he worked hard, was passionate about parks & recreation issues, and the life of our city. We may be on opposite sides of the political fence, but I possess a great deal of respect for the man.”

As such, then, if you’ve visited John Coupar’s campaign website, and watched the video on the front page of his website introducing his campaign, and if you’ve read the VanRamblings piece, must suggest to you that a John Coupar Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Mayoral candidacy would present the greatest impediment for victory on October 20th, for whoever it is that emerges as Vancouver’s progressive parties’ — COPE, OneCity, TeamJean, Greens, Vision Vancouver — ”unity Mayoral candidate.”
Oh, did we forget to mention that John Coupar has a lock on the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association nomination, come Tuesday evening, May 29th at the Hellenic Hall (hey, Peter Armstrong, want to see what you can do about making sure there’s going to be some great food there that night)?
Or, that John Coupar’s and George Affleck and team’s sign-up of existing and new members, according to the affable Mr. Affleck, went swimmingly well, and much to the satisfaction of Mr. Coupar, Mr. Affleck, and now certain-to-be NPA Council nominee, a generational nominally right-of-centre candidate, current Park Board Commissioner, soon-to-be Vancouver City Councillor, and a future Premier of the province (we know, we know — we weep, too, that the BC NDP won’t always hold power in Victoria — but if it ain’t gonna be the NDP’s John Horgan or David Eby as British Columbia’s Premier, it darn well better be a real Liberal, or at least progressive Red Tory conservative, and populist of the first order, not to mention a person of principle, that you would find we would have in …) Sarah Kirby-Yung.
In terms of debate, and a reasonable and fruitful electoral discussion of where Vancouver is heading — at least in the near future, what the issues are that the opposing Mayoral candidates will prioritize during their term in office, and who will emerge as the political figure who best reflects the concerns of Vancouver voters clamouring for change — the shenanigans that occurred Monday evening and yesterday concerning Hector Bremner’s rejected NPA Mayoral candidacy, will at the end of the day prove to serve the best interests of Vancouver voters who’ll be heading to the polls this upcoming October autumn, with John Coupar as the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Mayoral candidate, and whoever in heck will emerge as Vancouver’s progressive party ‘coalition’s’ much-desired “unity candidate.”

Vancouver Votes 2018 | VDLC | Brokering a Necessary Civic Deal

May 8, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Over this past weekend, the Vancouver & District Labour Council held a one day conference, open to members of the labour movement, and Boards of Directors and candidates running with Vancouver’s five progressive civic parties — the Greens, OneCity, TeamJean, COPE and Vision Vancouver — Saturday’s Crossroads Conference, a plenary session designed to put 100 Vancouver politicos, and labour activists, in a large conference room together, at the Croatian Cultural Centre, and introduce them to each other, many of the participants meeting one other for the very first time.
Ben Bolliger (pictured above), a candidate for nomination for Vancouver City Council in the current election cycle, running with OneCity Vancouver — the civic party VanRamblings believes will emerge as the powerhouse political force in the 2018 Vancouver civic election — attended the critically important Crossroads Conference on this Saturday past, and was kind enough to speak with VanRamblings about his experience.
Listen to the audio above. See if you don’t come away impressed with the expressively optimistic & politically sophisticated Mr. Bolliger. Articulate? Ben’s picture may be found right next to the definition of the word in your dictionary (c’mon now, people still have those in their homes, don’t they?).
Ben is a Project Manager with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), having worked in public health now for four years, including having served as the Manager of the Project and Change Management office with Providence Health Care, where he worked extensively and in close contact with staff and the administration at metropolitan St. Paul’s Hospital.

Just a few of the very fine folks in OneCity Vancouver, who are working for you.

More, you want to know more about the affable and — ”Hey, I’m casting a ballot for Ben Bolliger at the advance Vancouver civic election polls in October, or on election day, Saturday, October 20th, aren’t you? You are? Good! — Ben Bolliger (the link, it’s Ben’s candidate website — really, honest, you should click on it, learn more about Ben, and then come right back here) is, as you may have gathered at this point, seeking a OneCity nomination for Vancouver City Council. Ben, a person of conscience.

Ben Bolliger, OneCity Vancouver nomination candidate for Vancouver City Council

Ben Bolliger, an avid cyclist and active transportation advocate

2018. Entering the political fray? Emerging as a difference maker? Nope, this isn’t Ben’s first visit to the farm. He’s been there as a graduate political science student focusing on First Nations history — in our nation’s capital, at the University of Ottawa — after which, Ben went on to work as a parliamentary assistant with late NDP leader, Jack Layton’s federal NDP.
In 2008, Ben moved to the west coast, settling in the West End. Ben, as may be seen in the rough and tumble photo above, is an avid cyclist, currently completing his second term as a member of the City of Vancouver’s essential Active Transportation Policy Council. Good for us.
Ben’s issues, the ones he is focusing on? How about: working collegially with his colleagues on Vancouver City Council, one of whom will most assuredly be fellow One City candidate, Christine Boyle; tackling Vancouver’s current affordable housing crisis — which means, of course, the construction of thousands of housing co-op units on city-owned land, on a 66-year lease, with no cost to taxpayers, given that developers will build the housing co-ops as part of Vancouver’s much-vaunted Community Amenities Contribution programme — as well as working with the federal and provincial governments, and businesses in our city, to continue the diversification of Vancouver’s booming economy, although an economy that continues to leave some Vancouver citizens out. Ben aims to fix that.
Addressing the issue of accessibility is also a key concern for Ben Bolliger — Ben is right when he says, “Vancouver must be a city for everyone.”
Conscientious, accomplished, ready to get to work for you, an elected official who will answer all calls placed to his office at City Hall, will respond to each & every e-mail, who will listen to your concerns, and take action to remedy those concerns, working with others to ensure remediation occurs.
And, if you get out there to support Ben’s candidacy — as you must — Ben Bolliger will emerge as a soon-to-be-elected public official who will be on your side, each and every day. Voters simply can’t ask for more than that, in 2018 or in any other year, when traveling to the polls to cast their ballot.

A Destructive Political Divide, One We May Not Be Able to Bridge

May 7, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

In the age of Trump, a great chasm has opened on our political landscape, one that — despite the best of intentions — may not be able to be bridged.
On the one side, you have that portion of Vancouver’s population who reside in multi-million dollar homes located predominantly in Yaletown and southeast False Creek, West Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale and Shaughnessy, whose populations turn out in droves — up to 85% of residents in these neighbourhoods arriving at their local pollings station on election day to cast their ballot — to vote for the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, the corporately-funded-and-backed municipal political party that has, for generations, protected their class and economic interests.

These are the folks — pictured above — who rallied last week at West Point Grey’s Trimble Park to oppose a move by the BC NDP government to impose a school surtax on homes worth more than $3 million, a newly-created tax that would see a westside homeowner who owns an $8-million home paying an extra $18,000 in property taxes, annually, to the province.
The mainly westside residents think it unfair, after decades of right-of-centre B.C. Liberal / Socred provincial governments, and the right-of-centre Vancouver Non-Partisan Association pulling the levers of civic government, that new wealth taxes be imposed on them so that government can better fund our public education system (from which the B.C. Liberal government cut $58.3 million in funding in Vancouver each year from 2002 to 2015), build affordable homes to house the 50% of seniors in our city living on less than $26,000 a year, the construction of affordable housing, and provision of funding for the one in five children in Vancouver who live in poverty.
In order words, these are the Darwinian “I’m all right, Jack, you make out of life what you put into it, I’m not responsible for you” folks. Nice.

On the other side of this great political chasm, you have folks like United Church Minister and current OneCity Vancouver candidate for Vancouver City Council, Christine Boyle — and her progressively-minded colleagues in OneCity, Vision Vancouver, COPE, the Greens and TeamJean, the latter of which group’s core organizing philosophy revolves around “building the city we need”, a fairer, more inclusive and more just city for all of us, whether we live in the sometimes blighted Downtown Eastside neighbourhood where residents have come together in solidarity to build a vibrant community of the caring and compassionate, or Strathcona, Hastings Sunrise, Riley Park, Grandview Woodland, and any one of Vancouver’s 23 diverse neighbourhoods where housing is acknowledged as a right, and where the elimination of poverty and wont is a central operating principle of the five progressive parties offering candidates in the upcoming civic election.
The latter grouping of political parties have reached out a hand to those in our community who have been deemed to be “wealthy”, by dint of income or housing status, have attempted to bridge the political divide, thus far to no good effect. All of this is not to say, either, that there are not many good persons of conscience resident in Yaletown, West Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale and Shaughnessy who are at present, and as has been the case for some while now, working with their neighbours & with civic parties like OneCity Vancouver in common cause to acknowledge that Vancouver is, indeed, one city, comprised of diverse peoples from every socio-economic strata and circumstance, who live together in the village that is Vancouver, where we are — each and every one of us — responsible for one another.
For as President-elect John Fitzgerald Kennedy stated in an address (abridged) to the Massachusetts legislature, on January 9th, 1961 …

For those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us — recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

First, were we courageous, possessed of the courage to stand up to our adversaries, to stand up when necessary, to resist public pressure, when such pressure does not serve the common good?

Secondly, were we possessed of good judgment — with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past — of our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others — with enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candour to admit it?

Third, were we possessed of integrity, who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the public who believed in us — women and men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Finally, were we truly women and men of dedication — with an honour mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good? Courage — judgment — integrity — dedication — these are the historic qualities which must characterize the conduct of governance, in every city and in every region of our fair nation, in the four turbulent years that lie ahead.

And so it is. The divide in our city must be bridged, if at all possible, in the current civic election cycle, by the political figures who would seek to govern our city over the next four years, beginning in November of this year, each of whom must be governed by the notion of implementing legislation and policies based on what is best for all, and not one particular interest group — which for too long has been the overriding foundation of government in our province and, far too often, in our city.

We must together realize that, in principle and in fact, we are our brothers and sisters keepers, that collectively we have an obligation to one another, and that as has been stated: to whom much is given, much is expected.
In the coming election, let us all come together as one, let us bridge the chasm that would seem to divide us, let us work together to ensure that modular housing is built in neighbourhoods across our city (let’s make sure, too, that there is adequate, respectful, information-filled, and inclusive consultation with residents in neighbourhoods, as a pre-condition to the taking of decisions to construct that housing).
And, that new and truly affordable housing co-ops are constructed on city land, as homes for families across all of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods; that Vancouver City Council work with the provincial government to ensure supportive social housing is built, opened and properly and humanely administered in the housing of those in need; that the tax structure at City Hall for small business, which is such a burden for small business operators, is moved to the multi-national companies in our town, who pay woefully less in business tax than is fair and proper — in the process, this transfer of tax responsibility to “big business” relieving the beleaguered home owner of the burden of annual titanic property tax increases; and that Vancouver continue to move forward as we’ve written previously, and will continue to write, to become a city defined by inclusion, social justice, and a city that truly serves the needs of all of Vancouver’s diverse citizenry.