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 →

The Federal Tories: The Gang That Can’t Think Straight

September 2, 2008Decision Canada, PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

No matter how much money the federal Tories have in their coffers heading into the federal election — expected to be called on Sunday — no matter that, over the course of the next six weeks, they’ll outspend the Liberals, the NDP and the Green parties combined, Stephen Harper’s Conservative can’t help themselves.

They just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Writing in her column in the Toronto Star, Chantal Hebert says that …

The recent Conservative cuts to arts and culture have done what neither the pursuit of the unpopular Afghan war nor the demise of the Kyoto Protocol had accomplished: wake up a sleeping Quebec giant that is now gathering strength for a show of force in the upcoming election campaign …

On Tuesday, a 2,000-strong who’s who of Quebec’s art community gathered in Montreal to decry what has largely come across in the province’s media as an ideologically driven federal disengagement from the front of culture.

In no other province in Canada would the citizens express the ire that Quebeckers do over funding cuts to the arts — thank God that there’s one province in Canada that stands up for Canadian cultural identity.

The Conservatives probably feel that with a weak and inarticulate Stephane Dion leading the federal Liberal party, and a rudderless Bloc Quebecois, they’ll romp to election victory on October 14th. Don’t bet on it.

The Conservatives are so inept (not to mention, mean-spirited) that Harper won’t be able to help himself from putting his foot in his mouth during the 37-day election period. The Conservative party will, VanRamblings predicts, do everything in their power to snatch defeat from the jaws victory.

Hopefully, after October 14th, there will be a responsible and responsive federal government in Ottawa that will be committed to …

the creation of affordable housing
the development of a national transit strategy
the development of a national telecommunications strategy
restored funding of the arts, and a recommitment to the CBC
the implementation of national daycare
the re-establishment of the Canadian armed forces as peacekeepers
restoring the economy so that Canadian familes can be provided for

If the Conservatives are re-elected, they’ll be committed to none of those initiatives. What an anti-Canadian government the Tories proved to be.

Come October 14th, it’ll be time to throw the bums out. Good riddance.

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: Hope for the Future

July 30, 2008VancouverRaymond Tomlin

In an area of Vancouver defined by despair, drug addiction, mental health disorders, and a lack of hope for the future, the prospect of marginally better living conditions for the several thousand people who call the downtown eastside home emerged a year ago when the provincial government purchased 16 hotels in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood.
Since that time, the Province of British Columbia has also agreed to build new social housing for the poorest and most destitute of our citizenry, on land turned over to the province by the City of Vancouver. The City and the Province, working together, have fast-tracked the approval of up to 1,200 new social and supportive housing units, on 12 city-owned sites.
How is the renovation and construction process coming along, one year on?
The short answer: nothing good happens quickly. And so it goes.

In the most recent report issued by Vancouver Housing Update, progress is slow, but steady. The 18 community non-profit partners who will operate the renovated hotels, as well as the 12 new social housing projects — range from the Lookout Emergency Aid Society to the Motivation, Power and Achievement Society and the Coast Foundation, to RainCity Housing and the Atira Women’s Resource Society, among a raft of other non-profit partners. All are onboard, and more than ready to house the homeless.
As to progress on those 12 City-owned sites, development on the sites continues to wend its way through Vancouver’s Planning Department.
The local architectural firm of Gomberoff Bell Lyon submitted their plan for the site to be developed at 188 East 1st Avenue, on May 2nd; this site will house 129 persons in a social housing building that will meet the LEED Green Environmental standard. Construction on the building is about to commence, with completion set for mid-2010, when residents will move into the building to by operated by the Lookout Emergency Aid Society.
GBL‘s remaining projects — at 1237 Howe Street and 505 Abbott Street — have made it through the design and notification process, and await final approval from the Planning Department before construction begins.
Meanwhile, on May 12th of this year, the Vancouver-based architectural firm of Neale Staniszkis Doll Adams submitted their plan to Vancouver City Hall for a 9-storey, 62-resident apartment building, to be operated jointly by the Katherine Sanford Housing Society, and the MPA. Again, construction is about to commence, with a completion date set for mid-2110.
The other NSDA-designed site, at 1388 Seymour, consists of 106 single units, and will be operated by the Granville Mennonite Housing Society.
VanRamblings’ readers may follow developments on the 12 sites (to be increased shortly to 14 sites, we have been informed by reliable sources) by clicking on this link, and when you arrive at the page to gain further insight, clicking on the addresses of the sites on the left-hand side of the page.
In time, as construction progresses, VanRamblings will produce a photo record of the social housing sites’ progress. We’ll see you back here soon.

2008 Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Wrap Up

July 23, 2008Folk Festival 2008, MusicRaymond Tomlin

Sunday was the best day — weather-wise, music-wise and otherwise — of a spectacular three-day weekend, at the 31st annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Everything fell nicely into place, and a good time was had by all.
Although the 2008 Folk Fest was a Festival quite obviously in a year of transition, with interim artistic director Linda Tanaka holding the fort while the Folk Fest Board of Directors figures out where to take the Festival in future years, and what the nature of the presumed ‘corporate funding’ will be, thanks to uncommonly great weather and what appeared to be the largest turn out by families in some years, Festival staff would have to consider this to be one of the more successful Festivals of recent years.
True to form, VanRamblings continued to be a pest to political types, on Sunday focusing our attention on lawyer and community activist Ruth Herman, and her beloved, Vancouver-Kensington MLA David Chudnovsky; COPE internal chairperson Donalda Greenwell-Baker; former Vancouver City Child and Youth Advocate, Penny Parry, and her beloved, former COPE Councilor and current COPE Board member, Tim Louis; and to top (bottom?) the day out, NPA mayoral candidate, Peter Ladner, who was querulous (in a quiet way) that we took the time to shake his hand, and wish him well (cuz he knows we’re hardly a supporter of his … he was probably wondering why we bothered to approach him at all — but, heck, it was Folk Festival weekend, and a time for peace, love and understanding).

VanRamblings was most impressed with Mr. Chudnovsky and Ms. Herman.
Although we agreed not to report out on the specifics of our conversation, both felt strongly that the 8-2 Vision Vancouver / COPE deal is hardly a fait accompli, and that there is every prospect that the deal might be 7-3, or even 6-4. Of all the political types in COPE (of which both are longstanding members), and Vision Vancouver, only Chudnovsky and Herman expressed hope for a ‘workable deal’ between the two civic parties that serves the interests of progressive forces in the City of Vancouver, and by extension, the people of Vancouver, and the entirety of the Metro Vancouver region.

Continue reading 2008 Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Wrap Up →

2008 Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Sunday (Part 1)

July 21, 2008Folk Festival 2008, MusicRaymond Tomlin

VanRamblings will post our full, and thorough, wrap-up of the 2008 Vancouver Folk Music Festival — with more YouTube videos we’ve uploaded, including Maeve McKinnon in an early morning concert at Stage 7, and Ferron in concert over at Stage 3 in the early afternoon — as well as more municipal politics, and raves about the day and the weekend, at some point later in the week (paying work beckons, a call we must heed).
We’ve also got some bubbles, but you’ll have to wait until late Tuesday, or sometime on Wednesday, for our full-fledged version of the Folk Fest wrap (starring BC Provincial MLA David Chudnovsky and a cast of thousands, including more than a few politicos, and their and our consequent musings).
We will post. Promise. You’ll just have to be patient.
Oh yeah, despite VanRamblings’ dire pronouncement about Friday night under-attendance, Saturday and Sunday crowds were substantially larger.
Although overall attendance looked to be healthy — the crowds were certainly enthusiastic — it’s unlikely that any records were set. A little more marketing next year, a stronger musical line-up, and a return to form — for instance, CBC on site recording concerts for posterity — and a bit of that ol’ time corporate sponsorship, and the Folk Fest will be on its way to sustainability. And would we want any less for our beloved Folk Festival?