Category Archives: 2017 By-Election

#BCPoli | John Rustad: B.C.’s 48th Premier | David Eby Resigns as BC NDP Leader

October 1, 20242017 By-Election, BC Election 2024, BC Votes 2024#bcpoli, bc conservatives, bc election 2024, bc ndp, david eby, john rustad, new democratic partyRaymond Tomlin

Premier David Eby rallies the troops | Yet another misstep in a failing 2024 BC NDP campaign for office

Premier David Eby and the British Columbia New Democratic Party are on track to lose the 2024 provincial election.

Whether the result on Election Night, October 19th, will allow the BC NDP the opportunity to save face by retaining 39 to 42 seats, or whether British Columbia’s hapless New Democrats will be wiped out on October 19th — leaving the party with a rump caucus of 25 electeds — is a story that can only be told 18 days from now.

John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of B.C., and the next Premier of British Columbia

In Part 1 of a 3 part series VanRamblings will publish this week on the sorry fate of one of British Columbia’s two main legacy political parties — which for the past 7 years has held government in our province — today VanRamblings will set about to explore the 15 or so ridings across the province the B.C. New Democrats are guaranteed to lose — consigning the party to an ignominious defeat — and provincial ridings that are currently on the bubble, leaning John Rustad Conservative.

We’re going to skip around a bit, but because losses for the B.C. NDP on Vancouver Island, long a New Democratic Party stronghold, will prove so devastating to the governing party — but not for much longer — let’s start on the Island, shall we?

You can reference detail about the devastation the B.C. New Democrats are about to experience of Vancouver Island, by clicking/tapping on this VanRamblings post .

To read Vote Mate candidate profiles of the North Island candidates, click or tap here.

B.C. New Democrat Michele Babchuk, who won the seat in a John Horgan pandemic sweep in November 2020, will lose to physician Dr. Anna Kindy, who lost her ability to practice when Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry ordered that health care workers who had not been vaccinated for COVID-19 would not be allowed to practice medicine in the province. Dr. Kindy — a potential Minister of Health in a John Horgan government — led a delegation of 200 North Island residents to raucously protest outside B.C. Legislature, expressing their disdain for the “health” edicts of the B.C. New Democratic government. In 2024, it’s payback time.

Courtenay-Comox. With support for the Green Party in the basement, political pundits suggest Courtenay-Comox will be a tight two way race, with B.C. Conservative candidate Brennan Day set to win the riding over incumbent Ronna-Rae Leonard — who only won her seat by the slimmest of margins, in a traditional right-of-centre seat — on October 19th. Not for no reason has John Rustad been front and centre in the riding multiple times since the election kick off.

Victoria-Beacon Hill. Held by the B.C. NDP since 2005, incumbent Grace Lore, currently the Minister of Children and Family Development, is in a tight three-way race with Green Party of B.C. leader Sonia Furstenau, who moved from her Cowichan riding after redistribution, and B.C. Conservative candidate, Tim Thielmann. According to the most recent internal party polling, there’s a very real possibility / probability Mr. Thielmann could prove victorious on Election Night.

Ladysmith-Oceanside. Adam Walker, elected as the NDP candidate in the riding in the 2020 B.C. election, and booted from the party for undisclosed reasons in September 2023, is running in 2024 as an Independent, with the support of the Green Party. Stephanie Higginson, a past president of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association, is the B.C. NDP candidate. The B.C. Conservative candidate, Brett Fee, is a small business owner, with a degree in Political Science and Criminology. Ordinarily, the riding would be solidly NDP, but the candidacy of Adam Walker throws a spanner into NDP expectations for a win, allowing a probable victory for Mr. Fee. This one’s gonna be a nailbiter come election night.

To read Vote Mate candidate profiles of the Nanaimo-Lantzville candidates, click or tap here.

Crime and public safety are the issues that will see former BC NDP MLA for Chilliwack — in 2024, a celebrated law and order B.C.Conservative candidate — Gwen O’Mahony, win this riding in a walk on Election Night. Nanaimo-Gabriola remains safe for B.C. NDP incumbent and Minister Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Sheila Malcolmson — a bit of good news for Dippers.

That’s a possible / probable loss of five seats for New Democrats on Vancouver Island, maybe more — all but certain losses in at least three of those ridings.

Enough with the foofaraw. Time to get down to brass tacks.

The B.C. NDP are rock solid to lose six seats, from Cloverdale to Chilliwack.

Langley. A two seat loss for the B.C. New Democrats.

To wit: High profile B.C. Conservative Elenore Sturko will deny the B.C. NDP’s Mike Starchuk a second term representing Surrey-Cloverdale.

Langley. As we write above, a two seat loss for the B.C. New Democrats.

1. B.C. NDP incumbent Megan Dykeman will lose her Langley-Walnut Grove seat to B.C. Conservative candidate Misty Van Popta, a Municipal Councillor in the Township of Langley.

2. Incumbent B.C. New Democrat Andrew Mercier, Minister of State for Workforce Development, will be defeated on Election NIght by the B.C. Conservative candidate Jody Toor, who holds a double PhD in Doctor of Integrative Medicine and Doctor of Humanitarian Services with the Board Of Integrative Medicine.

The Fraser Valley is traditionally a very conservative region of our province. Such will prove to be the case in 2024, when B.C. NDP incumbent Pam Alexis, Minister of Agriculture and Food prior to dissolution of the Legislature, will be trounced by the B.C. Conservative’s Reann Gasper, a Fraser Valley real estate agent.

And, finally, while we’re taking a look at ridings along the south arm of the Fraser River: Chilliwack, where the B.C. NDP will lose both seats, with B.C. New Democrat incumbent Dan Coulter going down to defeat to B.C. Conservative candidate Heather Maahs, a well-respected Chilliwack School Trustee since 2008.

In the riding of Chilliwack-Cultus lake, the B.C. NDP’s Kelly Paddon is also on her way out, to be replaced by high profile, Indigenous B.C. Conservative candidate Á’a:líya (A’aliya) Warbus, who was born and raised in Stó:lō Territory, with deep family roots in politics and activism, as the daughter of former Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Steven Lewis Point.

At least three probable losses on Vancouver Island, and six guaranteed losses for the B.C. NDP along the south arm of the Fraser River. At dissolution, the B.C. New Democrats held 55 seats in the Legislature. The loss of 9 seats would leave the B.C. NDP with 46 seats, one shy of a majority in the 93-seat B.C. Legislature.

And, heck, we’ve only just begun our exploration of ridings the B.C. NDP will lose.

Susie Chant, the one-term B.C. NDP incumbent in the North Vancouver-Seymour riding will lose her seat to B.C. Conservative Sam Chandola, an award-winning technology entrepreneur, come Election Night.

Janet Routledge will lose her Burnaby North seat to Michael Wu, a small business owner, and an Auxiliary Member with the RCMP who works with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. Mr. Wu speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese.

Let’s skip over to Vernon-Lumby.

Harwinder Sandu, who most unexpectedly won the Okanagan riding of Vernon-Lumby in 2020, in 2024 will be soundly defeated by the B.C. Conservative candidate in the riding, Dennis Giesbrecht, who brings to his run for office a lifetime of invaluable experience in the energy, forestry and ship building industries.

Thus far we’re up to a 12-seat loss for the B.C. New Democrats — and, heck, we’ve not written about the two additional Surrey seats that will be won by B.C. Conservatives on Election Night, and all of the seats along the north arm of the Fraser River, from the five Tri-Cities seats, and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge East, all of which seats are on the bubble, leaning heavily in the direction of electing a swath of B.C. Conservative candidates to the B.C. Legislature.

In a column we wrote last week covering most of the Lower Mainland ridings, we wrote about the three ridings in Richmond currently held by the B.C. NDP, at least two of which will swing to the B.C. Conservatives on Election Night.

Prospects for a majority victory for David Eby’s New Democrats in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election look dire, indeed.

A generous count thus far suggests a 17-seat loss for the incumbent government, leaving them with 38 seats in the British Columbia Legislature.

Not all is lost: David Eby’s New Democrats will pick up three seats they’ve not held before, come Election Night: Vancouver-Langara, Cowichan and Kootenay-Rockies.

Here’s what our sources in the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Conservatives are telling VanRamblings: at this point in time, given how the B.C. NDP campaign has fared up until today, and the momentum John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives have experienced the first week of the campaign, 18 days out from Election Day, VanRamblings’ sources in both mainstream parties tell us that the B.C. New Democrats will likely hold on to only 41 seats, for a 14-seat loss on Election Night.

There are an additional 16 seats that are on the bubble, we are told, that could go either way. VanRamblings’ sources in both political parties believe that 32 seats represents the floor for the New Democrats. Anything less than 35 seats for the B.C. NDP on Election Night, voters across B.C. can expect David Eby to tender his resignation as B.C. NDP leader, when he gives his concession speech.

VanRamblings’ sources in both parties believe the likely outcome on Election Night will allow the New Democrats to hold on to 39 to 42 seats.

The above said, a strong possibility still exists that the B.C. New Democrats could pull out a win on October 19th, securing 48 to 52 seats, by keeping Courtenay-Comox and Victoria-Beacon Hill in the fold, as well as Vernon-Lumby in the Interior, while retaining both Susie Chant’s seat in North Vancouver-Seymour, and Janet Routledge’s Burnaby North seat, with both Lisa Beare — B.C. NDP Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills — and Bob D’Eith retaining their Maple Ridge seats. Add to those numbers, B.C. NDP pick ups in Vancouver-Langara, Cowichan and Kootenay-Rockies, and to any seasoned observer, the 2024 British Columbia provincial election is far from decided 18 days out from Election Day.

Quitto Maggi’s Mainstreet Research poll, published on Monday, September 30, 2024

Projected seat count on Election Night, for all three B.C. political parties …

NEW @MainStResearch BC projection. Here are the results:
🔵 Conservatives: 54 seats, 45.7%.
🟠NDP: 39 seats, 41.7%.
🟢Green: 1 seat, 8.9%.

Chances of winning:
🔵Conservatives: 80.8%.
🟠NDP: 19.2%.
🟢Green: 0%#bcpoli

— BcPolitics (@BcPolitics1759) September 29, 2024

Philippe J. Fournier at 338.com published his latest compilation poll on Monday.

338Canada British Columbia update | September 30, 2024

🟠NDP 48
🔵CPBC 44
🟢BCG 1

[47 seats needed for a majority]

Details here → https://t.co/2Rq5PHYgSx

En français ici → https://t.co/0L4CEsmzRd pic.twitter.com/ebHuYBm1as

— Philippe J. Fournier (@338Canada) October 1, 2024

Tomorrow on VanRamblings we will write about why it is that a decent, hard working, incredibly skilled B.C. New Democratic government who mean well for our province, may go down to defeat to an unschooled crew of (far) right leaning folks who have no experience in government, and who will spend the first year and a half in the Legislature trying to figure out where the washrooms are located, never mind governing for the benefit of all British Columbians.

On Thursday, we’ll write a prescriptive column on what David Eby — in particular, because this election is turning out to be a referendum on David Eby’s governing style — and our beloved B.C. New Democrats can do to right the ship and claim victory on October 19th, or at least save the furniture with a showing in the forties.

In a conversation Sunday afternoon with our friend, architect and former Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Bill McCreery, he asked about why we’re such a smarty pants on why the B.C. NDP will lose the 2024 provincial election, and just where the heck are we getting the information we publish?

The answer: Initially our primary source was the Hotel Pacifico podcast featuring Mike McDonald — the knower of all things British Columbia politics, who has spent time in all 93 ridings across the province and knows each of these ridings intimately and well — Geoff Meggs, former Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan, and no slouch himself when it comes to understanding B.C. politics, and the very excitable (we’ve loved that about him since 2017, when we saw him bouncing around the Legislature the day John Horgan’s government was sworn into power … although Mr. Zussman’s ever present enthusiasm seems to drive Mr. McDonald nuts), Richard Zussman, Global BC’s skilled and informed Legislative reporter.

In addition to the above, we’ve done our own research on the ridings we’ve written about, reading the local newspapers online, and more. We also listen to coverage of the provincial election on CBC’s morning broadcast, The Early Edition. We are just as addicted to Baldrey’s Beat, at 10:05am on CKNW’s Mike Smyth show. We also read all of Mr. Baldrey’s columns in various of our community newspapers.

We never miss Global BC’s Newshour, most particularly when Keith Baldrey and Richard Zussman are talking about the election. Keith Baldrey and Richard Zussman, on Global BC’s Focus BC insist that Vancouver-Langara, Cowichan and Kootenay-Rockies will be pick ups for the New Democrats on Election Night.

And, finally, VanRamblings has our own well-developed and informed sources within both the B.C. New Democratic Party campaign for office, as well as the B.C. Conservative campaign, folks we speak with on an almost daily basis.

At age 74, we’re something of an old fogey and lack the energy we once did — for most elections we’ve written about in the past, 20 hour days for weeks on end was de rigeur to our approach to coverage … we’ve reduced that to six to eight hours a day now, although we’ve pulled an all-nighter or two this election cycle.

We’ve got lots we want to say, and to write, which we’ll do in the days to come.

VanRamblings’ friend and neighbour, raconteur and politico extraordinaire, Bill Tieleman — who we love with all our heart — expressed concern to us this past weekend about our contention that David Eby and the B.C. New Democrats will go down to defeat in the current election.

Why are we — a tried-and-true 61-year member of the NDP — writing so despairingly about the prospects of our beloved NDP? We suggested to Bill, why (in part, we’re sounding the alarm, another part arising in response to a current health issue that has recently come to the fore … time’s a wastin’, we suggested to Bill).

“You must forgive my penchant for optimism, despite daunting odds. We won a majority government in 1996, against a favoured, well-funded foe. So long odds don’t intimidate me at all. You may still be right in what you’ve been writing, but I continue to think the NDP’s several advantages will prevail in this fraught election.”
Bill Tieleman, respected longtime political strategist, commentator and political pundit

From Bill’s lips to God’s ears. May all that is right and good prevail.

Green Party’s Janet Fraser Elected Vancouver School Board Chair

October 31, 20172017 By-Election, BC Politics, Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

On Monday evening, October 30th, in one of the most touching political inauguration ceremonies VanRamblings has ever had the privilege of witnessing, an utterly serene, ever-so-bright and warmly articulate, becomingly genuine and humble, and surprisingly humourous second term Green Party of Vancouver Board of Education trustee, Janet Fraser, was elected as the new, well-supported Chair of the Vancouver School Board.
Present for the inauguration of the new Board were …

The families of the newly-elected trustees. It was all that the youngest daughter of NPA trustee (may we say, the incredibly fabulous) Lisa Dominato could do not to run up to her mom during the inauguration ceremony to sit on her mom’s lap, while newly-elected Vancouver School Board Chair Janet Fraser made comment during her opening address as the new Chair that her two children were present for the inauguration ceremony, stating (with a becoming degree of wry levity) to the many well wishers gathered in the Board Room that she trusted her children had managed their time well, and completed their homework.
Past Vancouver School Board trustees. COPE’s (now OneCity Vancouver’s) Al Blakey was present, as was COPE / now OneCity Vancouver’s Ruth Herman, Vision Vancouver City Councillor and early 21st century Vancouver School Board trustee, an absolutely radiant Andrea Reimer, and recent School Board Chair (still one of VanRamblings’ favourite people on Earth), Christopher Richardson were all present to wish the new Board well in their endeavours.
Politicos galore. The NPA’s generational leader Sarah Kirby-Yung, the principled John Coupar, and the gloriously humane and friendly Casey Crawford were present representing Park Board, as was VanRamblings’ nemesis (?), the Green Party of Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, Stuart Mackinnon. Green Party Councillor Adriane Carr was sitting right behind us, next to Green Party Executive Director, Jacquie Miller. Failed NPA School Board candidate Rob McDowell was present (wondering why he wasn’t elected, yet still beatific — next time, Rob, next time).

Senior Vancouver School Board administrative staff were also present, looking nonplussed, wondering what the heck kind of Board the public had just elected. As a public service, VanRamblings did our best to assure administrative staff that the incoming Board was a calm and respectful group, entirely focused on serving the needs of students in a decidedly non-political and non-confrontational manner, and that all was good — admin staff still seemed somewhat querulous as to what lays ahead.
Trustees

Newly-elected Vancouver School Board trustees take office at their inauguration, a moving part of which involved an indigenous ceremony wishing the new trustees well.

Green Party of Vancouver trustee Estrellita Gonzalez was, by far, the best dressed of the trustees, subtle, low key, gorgeous, and ready to settle down to business. Now, you could take an unlimited budget and dress and coif VanRamblings to the nines (as past NPA Mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe would like to do with us), and we would still not look 10% as business-like and utterly fabulous as was the case with Ms. Gonzalez — very much a woman with whom to contend, from all appearances.
The NPA’s Lisa Dominato was utterly charming (and, perhaps, the only person in the room who was glad to see us). Carrie Bercic’s presence at the Board table all but had VanRamblings in tears — we’re not sure if we’ve ever met a kinder, warmer, and more authentically humane and values driven person than Ms. Bercic. Fraser Ballantyne was friendly and came over to say hello to Christopher Richardson and VanRamblings — now, if there’s a person who has every right to want to tear us from limb to limb, it’s Fraser … instead, he was friendly, welcoming and utterly charming.
If Janet Fraser has any competition in the calm and serene department, it would be Vision Vancouver trustee Joy Alexander — who simply radiates joy in her very demeanour, her warm smile creating an aura of safety (no mean feat, that). Ken Clement brought a warmth and humane consciousness to the proceedings on Monday evening. What was missing from the last Board? The humane presence of Ken Clement, who Patti Bacchus told us she missed more than words can express on the last Board. Of course, the entirely tremendous Allan Wong was present — the single most calming presence at the Board, an utterly dedicated Board of Education trustee, serving the interests of all Vancouver students.
SFU’s Dr. Judy Zaichkowski was also present, a quiet but authoritative presence on the new Board, who during the reception following the inaugural ceremony made a point of greeting as many of the good folks gathered in the Board cafeteria as was humanly possible, a reassuring presence who in her very demeanour seemed to radiate a commitment to respectful democratic engagement.

Vancouver School Board inaugural meeting, before Janet Fraser was elected as Chair

Sources within Vision Vancouver told VanRamblings on Monday evening that the once majority party on the Board had decided this past weekend to support the candidacy of Green Party trustee Janet Fraser as the new Chair, as must be the case with OneCity Vancouver’s Carrie Bercic — given that only Ms. Fraser and the NPA’s Lisa Dominato were nominated as Chair (we’re not entirely sure Ms. Dominato even voted for herself in the secret ballot that was held). VanRamblings predicts the time will come when Lisa Dominato serves as Vancouver School Board Chair, not as a person of division but as a unifying political force with an unerring social conscience.
VanRamblings was told Monday evening Dr. Fraser has already offered the position of Vice-Chair of the Board to one of her fellow trustees, this information passed on with a glint in the eye of the individual who gave us this bit of news. We could have pushed to find out who — but we’ll wait.
For the next year, Dr. Janet Fraser will be the able, calming, incredibly hard-working and democratically-engaged Chairperson of the Vancouver School Board — VanRamblings couldn’t be more thrilled!
As per the press release issued by the Vancouver School Board …

In the coming days, trustees will be assigned to standing committees in consultation with the Board Chair, as liaisons to specific schools and as Board representatives to other committees and other organizations.

Dianne Turner, who had served for the past year as official trustee, now begins her role as special advisor to the Board.

At inaugural ceremony’s end, Dr. Fraser announced the next meeting of the new Board of Education will take place on Monday, November 27th.

2017 Vancouver By-Election Wrap-Up | School Board

October 26, 20172017 By-Election, BC Politics, Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

At 7pm this upcoming Monday, October 30th in the main Board room of the Vancouver School Board — located at West Broadway and Fir Streets (your attendance is encouraged) — nine newly-elected Board of Education trustees with be sworn in to sit as our elected VSB representatives through until the next Vancouver civic election, set for less than a year from now, on Saturday, October 20th, 2018. The following nine novice and experienced trustees were elected by a bitterly small turnout of the voting electorate, with only 10.99 per cent of eligible Vancouver voters turning up at the polls on by-election voting day, held on Saturday, October 14th.

The Vancouver School Board by-election was necessitated arising from the decision of the previous B.C. Liberal Minister of Education, Mike Bernier, and then Premier Christy Clark’s administration to fire the Board for failing to pass a budget (which they were going to do on the evening they were fired by the Minister — but that’s politics for ya as practiced by the previous, now ousted anti-public-education B.C. Con-Liberal government), and the campaign commitment by Premier John Horgan’s newly-elected provincial administration to hold a Vancouver School Board trustee by-election at the earliest possible opportunity in his new administration.
PART THREE: THE VANCOUVER SCHOOL BOARD

In today’s column, the final by-election wrap-up column (be forwarned, it’ll be lengthy, indeed) — sure to please no one, least of all the Green Party of Vancouver — where today we will attempt to provide insight into the exigencies of the by-election, and what the VSB by-election results will mean for all of us over the course of the next year, and into the future.

Green School Board trustees Janet Fraser, Dr. Judy Zaichkowski & Estrellita Gonzalez

The Green Party, municipal, provincial or federal, is less a “party” than it is an amalgam of opportunists possessed of no overriding philosophy, other than supposedly being the “environmental party” — and, let’s face it, they even have a hard time living up to that claim, given that the Greens believe in moral suasion over legislative inducement for corporations to “do better”. Although most of the folks affiliated with the Green Party mean well, given that the Greens don’t stand for anything in particular, what you have with the Greens is a rugged group of generally non-political neoliberal (for the record, VanRamblings hates that epithet), almost libertarian, iconoclasts.
Somehow, though — because Vancouver voters generally like federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr — the Green Party manages to secure the votes of a goodly portion of the electorate at the polls: members of the naïve left who believe the Greens are progressive (they’re not), and right-of-centre folks who see the Greens as some form of Liberal / Red Tory alliance (which is closer to the mark).
All of which explains why Green Party candidates, including recently fired and even more recently re-elected Vancouver School Board trustee Janet Fraser, emerged as the top vote-getters in the recent by-election.

Janet Fraser. The unassuming person in the picture above may, or may not be the incoming Chair of the Vancouver School Board, who up until mere hours before publishing today’s column VanRamblings believed would be acclaimed in that position by all nine of the new Board of Education trustees, at the first meeting of the new Board next Monday, October 30th. We are no longer quite so certain — politics at the Board, as would seem to be the case at present, so thick and morbid as to fell a horse in mid-stride.
At no point during the recent Vancouver School Board by-election did VanRamblings endorse Dr. Fraser, nor for that matter any of her Green Party colleagues. We do not believe Dr. Fraser to be a particularly vocal proponent of public education — unlike the five Vision Vancouver by-election candidates, the two One City candidates, or COPE’s Diana Day.
Not for no reason did Dr. Janet Fraser support 2014 NPA-elected school board trustee (and the lowest vote-getter) Christopher Richardson as the new Chair of the Vancouver School Board, and six months later when Dr. Fraser demanded that the very same Mr. Richardson step down, chose to vote for his NPA colleague, right-of-centre trustee Fraser Ballantyne (who, even as you read this, is doing his level best to stab Dr. Fraser in both the front and back) as the new Chair, her vote putting the “not at all advocates for public education” NPA in charge at the Vancouver School Board.
Still and all, Dr. Janet Fraser may become the new Chair of the Vancouver School Board. What would that mean for parents with children enrolled in the Vancouver school system, the children / students themselves, and for all those who consider themselves to be advocates of public education?
VanRamblings believes that with Janet Fraser at the helm, public education advocates would find they have a bloody-minded, take no guff, even-handed, largely non-political, dedicated and incredibly hard-working (let’s repeat that: incredibly hard-working) Chair of the Vancouver School Board.

Rob Fleming, B.C. Minister of Education, and Mable Elmore, MLA, Poverty Reduction

With Janet Fraser at the helm, there’d be no politicking when it comes to negotiating with Rob Fleming, British Columbia BC NDP Minister of Education, and Vancouver-Kensington MLA Mable Elmore, who has been put in charge of the important poverty reduction file by Premier John Horgan. Negotiations for a speeded-up seismic upgrading / school replacement programme would be straightforward and uncomplicated, with Chairperson Janet Fraser making no untoward demands of the Minister. The same would be true with MLA Mable Elmore when it comes to funding of breakfast programmes in Vancouver’s inner-city schools: the negotiations between Chairperson Fraser and MLA Elmore would be straightforward and in the best interests of children enrolled in the Vancouver school system.
Janet Fraser is no flaming radical, nor is she a desk thumper. Rather, Dr. Fraser is even-keeled and thoughtful, with a strong tendency towards evidence-based decision-making. Clearly, Vancouver voters got things right when they cast their ballot for Dr. Janet Fraser as both a balm, and the glue who will hold a somewhat tattered Vancouver School Board together.
Still, as you read this, the NPA is seriously considering supporting second term Vision Vancouver trustee Joy Alexander as the new Board of Education Chair of the Vancouver School Board, Fraser Ballantyne’s ignoble hatred and disdain for Janet Fraser so acute and abiding as to perhaps cause him to do the unthinkable: support a Vision Vancouver trustee as Board Chair.
With Dr. Joy Alexander at the helm of the Vancouver School Board, trustees would find they have a calm, reasoned, reassuring and generally non-partisan (or non-political, if you will) trustee at the helm, a calming presence who would listen to all voices at the table and in the community, and who would be a staunch advocate for public education — which would satisfy incoming OneCity Vancouver trustee Carrie Bercic’s demand that whoever is chosen as Chair be both a progressive and a vocal public education advocate — and a Chairperson that all trustees, Board administrative staff and the provincial government could both respect and work with in support of a thriving public education system in Vancouver.

Dr. Judy Zaichkowski (pictured above): Newly-elected Green Party of Vancouver Board of Education trustee. Experienced. University professor of marketing in the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, five year member of SFU’s Board of Governors and Associate Dean of SFU’s Dean Beedie School of Business. Possesses a Bachelor’s degree in home economics. Educator who taught at Vancouver’s Point Grey and Templeton Secondary schools. Suffers from a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease.
When VanRamblings attended the Vancouver Green Party by-election campaign kickoff, we heard Dr. Judy Zaichkowski give one of the most bizarro, intemperate speeches we’d ever heard a political figure make to a crowd of supposed sympathizers (and, no, we’re not going to report what she said). Say senior Green Party officials, “Yes, we heard what Judy had to say at the campaign kickoff, and we spoke with her immediately after she gave her speech, strongly expressing our concerns to her. During the by-election campaign period, we worked with Judy to be more thoughtful in her remarks in a public setting and give thought to how the audience might receive her words, encouraging her to be more temperate in her remarks.”
Now, we realize how odd it is that VanRamblings might be seen to express a concern about foot-in-mouth disease, given that VanRamblings has a well-known penchant for intemperance — several times in the course of a day, and more often than not requiring surgical intervention. Still. Chances that Dr. Zaichkowsky will make an off-putting, concerning and intemperate remark at the School Board table, causing her fellow trustees to look upon her aghast? VanRamblings would suggest that it’s only a matter of time.
Says the Green Party, “We can only hope her professorial nature kicks in.”

Estrellita Gonzalez. Founder / Director / President / small business person in charge at Vancouver’s seemingly lauded westside Derma Bright Clinic (no mean feat, that). Self-styled “Queen of Living Clean.” Has a son enrolled at Eric Hamber Secondary School. Graduate, Distance Education Programme, Thompson Rivers University, with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resources Management. And the newly-elected Vancouver School Board trustee VanRamblings feels most sorry for.
Does Ms. Gonzalez have any idea what she’s gotten herself into by being elected to the Vancouver School Board as a Board of Education trustee?
Where Vision Vancouver school board candidate Theodora Lamb brought vast community organizing experience to her candidacy, not to mention years of Board experience with the VanCity Credit Union, an organization where Ms. Lamb is Chair of the Governance Committee, and a member of the Audit and Digital Strategy Committees (not to mention her involvement with the BC Co-operative Association), and whose husband is Kurt Heinrich, a former Public Relations Manager with the Vancouver School Board (who knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak), we can find no such community involvement or Board, Council or Committee work in Ms. Gonzalez’ résumé. Don’t even get us started on newly-elected NPA School Board trustee, Lisa Dominato: mother of a daughter in Grade One at a Vancouver elementary school, Chairperson of the The Kettle Society Board of Directors, an educator with 10 years experience teaching in Vancouver, and most recently the Director, Integrated Services and Safe & Healthy Schools, British Columbia Ministry of Education. In other words, qualified.
Does Ms. Gonzalez have any idea what she’s gotten herself into? Says an official with the party Ms. Gonzalez ran as a candidate with …

“We in the Green Party believe that elected office should not be the personal preserve of those who have dedicated their lives to achieving elected office. As can be seen in the recent elections in Barcelona — which unseated a municipal government that had been in power for 30 years — the Green party is a Commons-based coalition of ordinary citizens, the Green Party — as is the case with Ms. Gonzalez’ candidacy, and election to the Vancouver School Board — represents an authentic departure from business as usual in the political sphere. It isn’t enough just to win elections; we have to change the rules of the game.”

Still, we ask again: does Ms. Gonzalez have any idea of what to expect when she finds herself seated as a Board of Education trustee next Monday at the offices of the Vancouver School Board? We have no doubt about Ms. Gonzalez’ capacity to learn, nor her work ethic — given that, as representatives from the Green Party were wont to point out to us, that Ms. Gonzalez made a huge contribution of time and energy to her run for office: there wasn’t an activist ‘meet the voter’ street campaign she wasn’t involved in, an all-candidates meeting that she didn’t assiduously prepare for, nor a commitment to her party or the voter she didn’t meet. But …
Ms. Gonzalez should know that most trustees, on average (for the $20,031 she’ll earn as a trustee) will put in 35 – 40 hours a week meeting the demands of her new job, according to a broad cross-section of current and former trustees with whom we’ve spoken, a trustee’s duty including …

Attendance at the bi-weekly Vancouver School Board meetings, which involves not only attendance at the Board meetings, but participation in the in-camera preparatory meeting that takes place in the two hours prior to the start of the public meeting, and the two hours afterwards. Not to mention, Ms. Gonzalez will be gifted with a thick binder of background information on all the issues to come before the Board, information (taking hours to read and digest) she will be expected to know.
Committee work. There are five standing committees — Management Co-ordinating, Planning and Facilities, Education and Student Services, Personnel and Staff Services, Finance and Legal — one of which she’ll likely Chair, and another committee on which she’ll be expected to sit, those committees comprised of Board administrative staff, members of the Parent Advisory and District Students’ Councils, the two teachers’ associations, the professional administrative staff association, CUPE union locals 15 and 407 and representatives of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 963, and both the Vancouver Elementary Principals’ and Vice Principals’ Associations and the Vancouver Association of Secondary School Administrators. As you might well imagine, these meetings take awhile, tend to be contentious (with a great many competing agendas), and require of the Board trustees a vast knowledge of the issues. There are those strange folks who love meetings (of which VanRamblings is one, as long as those meetings are run respectfully and democratically, and each participant is provided an open and welcoming opportunity for input). Ms. Gonzalez is in for quite an education over the next year.
Liaison. With 55,500 students enrolled in kindergarten to Grade 12, and over 3,000 adult students in adult education centres, with 18 secondary schools and 91 elementary schools in the Vancouver School District, each trustee is assigned as a liaison to at least ten elementary schools and two secondary schools, where they’re expected to participate as the Board liaison to the Parent Advisory Committees, not to mention which attendance at the occasional teacher meeting is always a good idea. On top of that, trustees are the liaison between not only the teachers but the administrators at the schools to the Board — which means that trustees must develop an abiding relationship of respect and advocacy for student, parent, teacher and administrator concerns.
And let us not forget, either, that the Board assigns a liaison to the Vancouver Library Board, and any number of the citizen advisory committees at Vancouver City Hall. Tired yet?

Make no mistake, sitting as a Board of Education trustee on the Vancouver School Board is nothing less than a full-time job.

For all those citizens in the community who whine about our elected officials, believe us when we say: there is no higher calling than elected office, and no matter the party or political affiliation, all dedicated elected officials (VanRamblings knows not one who doesn’t throw themselves into the work, whether at Park Board, School Board, City Council, provincially or federally) give their lives over to public service, and the public interest.
In terms of time commitment, making matters even worse for Ms. Gonzalez and her fellow elected trustees: from the moment each trustee takes their seat around the Board table, they’re going to be in election mode. With the 2018 Vancouver municipal election set for next October 20th, all of the trustees will find themselves spending an inordinate amount of time on the hustings, attending party functions, raising money, working closely with school trustees in other Metro Vancouver school districts (and around the province) — so as to further raise their public profile — writing opinion pieces for The Straight, the Vancouver Sun and other mainstream media, and making regular appearances on our local radio and TV stations, speaking to educational (and other) issues at the Vancouver School Board.
The next Board year will prove to be an exemplary model of vox populi.
(Click on Read More for much more School Board by-election coverage)

Continue reading 2017 Vancouver By-Election Wrap-Up | School Board →

2017 Vancouver By-Election Wrap-Up: Judy Graves

October 18, 20172017 By-Election, BC Politics, PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

Last Sunday over brunch two of VanRamblings’ friends (yes, we have friends … sheesh) indicated their strong desire and inclination to put their names forward as candidates in the October 20th, 2018 general municipal election in Vancouver. VanRamblings was none-too-enthusiastic about the prospect of either of our friends running for political office (causing no little consternation on the part of our friends). What is the basis for our lack of encouragement of our good-hearted, socially conscious, very bright friends to put their names forward for office, which when you get right down to it is the single most civically-minded activity one could possibly consider?
The answer is simple: hurt. Politics in this latter age has become an ugly and vicious business, entirely oriented to toxic identity politics and the politics of personal destruction. The electorate is bitter, disillusioned, cynical and spitting mad angry at our elected officials, no matter their party or political orientation. Even Justin Trudeau’s “sunny ways” and entirely open and forthright style of governance meets daily with vicious pointed commentary from persons comprising the spectrum of political thought.
Whereas Donald Trump is entirely deserving of the social and mainstream media opprobrium to which he is subjected daily, such should not — and we would suggest — must not be the case with the hard-working and dedicated persons of conscience who are associated with and put their names forward for office under the banners, locally, of Vision Vancouver, the Non-Partisan Association, the Green Party of Vancouver, OneCity Vancouver, or for that matter any of the independents who choose to run for office — such as the entirely tremendous Jean Swanson, or Adi Pick.
VanRamblings is concerned with the state and nature of politics in Vancouver, and across British Columbia. When did the vast majority of the population become so cynical, alienated, apolitical and generally turned off to the decision-making that affects the quality of their lives on this planet?
In the coming year(s), VanRamblings will seek to address the issue of anomie in the political sphere, both as an academic consideration, but more importantly through action to ensure respectful democratic engagement.

PART TWO: THE MISGUIDED CANDIDACY OF JUDY GRAVES
Judy Graves (pictured above) was the affable, socially-conscious OneCity Vancouver candidate nominated to fill the Vancouver City Council seat left vacant when Vision Vancouver Councillor Geoff Meggs resigned his seat on Council to take on the position of Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan.
From 2002 on, Ms. Graves was the homelessness advocate at Vancouver City Hall, a humanizing force of nature bent on service to Metro Vancouver’s indigent population, and a strong advocate for social housing and services to the most vulnerable among us. Little wonder, then, that the nascent OneCity Vancouver civic party (largely an amalgam of principled, younger New Democratic Party-oriented persons of conscience) chose Judy Graves as their progressive values candidate for Vancouver City Council.
Too bad, then, that Judy Graves’ OneCity Vancouver candidacy turned out to be a misguided candidacy, that effectively denied the progressive voice of Jean Swanson a very-much-needed place on Vancouver City Council.
On October 14th by-election night, Judy Graves secured a paltry 13.71% of the vote, while Jean Swanson — with whom Judy Graves had worked closely over the years — who ran as an independent candidate for Council, and whose election team had moved the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars to secure the endorsement of OneCity for Jean Swanson, garnered 21.36% of the vote, and a near-win, second place showing in the polls.
From the outset Ms. Graves had no chance of securing the vacant Council seat, and OneCity knew it, well before the campaign got underway.
From day one of the 2017 by-election campaign for Council, Ms. Graves was the subject of a take down campaign the likes of which Vancouver has never previously experienced — Vision Vancouver’s Mike Lombardi, running for a third term at School Board, and to a somewhat lesser degree, COPE School Board candidate Diana Day, suffered a similar ‘take down campaign’, ensuring their loss at the polls, but nothing quite so vicious as was experienced by the otherwise recommendable Ms. Graves.
“Judy Graves, bought-and-paid-for: don’t waste your vote” was the clarion message voters on the left and the right heard throughout the campaign.
COPE was upset with Judy Graves’ candidacy (COPE endorsed Jean Swanson: VanRamblings seconded Alicia Barsallo’s motion that COPE not run a candidate, and instead endorse Jean Swanson). Vision Vancouver was none-too-pleased, either, when the Vancouver & District Labour Council endorsed Ms. Graves over Vision candidate, Diego Cardona. And Jean Swanson’s campaign team? They were apoplectic at Graves’ candidacy! The NPA weren’t happy with Ms. Graves’ candidacy (“Vision. Boo, hiss.”), but took succour from the probability her candidacy would “split the left”, and thus secure a seat on Council for their candidate, Hector Bremner.
As the campaign for Council got underway in early September, word lit up social media and spread like wildfire that “Judy Graves is Vision Vancouver light, so developer-friendly that she puts Vision to shame, her consistently strong, entirely wrong-headed and vocal advocacy of any development that comes before Council containing even a bare component of social housing sure to garner her unthinking and fulsome support.”

Many Vancouver citizens resident on the eastside, and particularly those in Grandview-Woodland and Chinatown, worked assiduously against Ms. Graves’ candidacy. Grandview-Woodland residents who have long opposed the controversial Boffo Development at Venables and Commercial Drive — and have consistently derided Graves’ support for the out-of-character, neighbourhood destroying, thin-edge-of-the-wedge market condominium tower development — worked overtime to ensure Graves’ defeat. Same thing was true of the organizing team opposing the long controversial Beedie Development at 105 Keefer — which Graves initially supported, and only changed her mind on when she became a candidate for office, and thought better of her support for a development so widely opposed. For the folks working with the Chinatown Concern Group, Graves’ conversion to opposing the Beedie Project was viewed as a matter of too little, too late. One only has to take a look at how Graves polled in Chinatown — or Grandview-Woodland, for that matter — to know just how much opposition there was to her candidacy in these two Vancouver neighbourhoods.

The ‘active transportation’ / bike folks were none-too-thrilled with Graves’ insistence on the campaign trail that Vision Vancouver’s ‘bike lane advocacy’ was just as wrong-headed as wrong-headed could be, and that the tens of millions Vision has spent constructing bike lanes would have been better spent building social housing for the thousands of our most vulnerable citizens who are in need of safe, secure and low-cost housing.
The icing-on-the-cake (or the shiv in the back, as the case may be) that ensured a no better than distant fourth place finish for Ms. Graves was the absolutely devastating Mainlander article titled, Rethinking Judy Graves: On Charity, Xenophobia, and Class Collaboration, as withering a take down piece as you’d never want to read.

“Judy Graves’ candidacy seems to reflect OneCity’s policy of silent support for the governing party and non-criticism of Vision policies, and longtime Vision luminaries have likewise supported the Graves campaign. Where Jean Swanson has directly challenged the ‘common sense’ tax-cutting agenda, Graves combines a charity approach and a class collaboration approach that has long been popular with developers and the wealthy.

In establishment circles, Judy Graves has been touted as Vancouver’s Mother Teresa. Over the decades, Graves has emerged as an establishment figure, who has worked to individualize the fight for housing, and deny the larger forces that create homelessness and evictions on unceded Coast Salish territories. Phrases such as “hard to house,” and related concepts that pin homelessness on homeless individuals — including the dominant framing of mental health and addictions — are indelibly associated with the Graves name and legacy.

Graves has been a mainstay on the side of government efforts to close down shelters and disperse tent cities, playing a continuous role in the City’s yearly spring closure of homeless shelters, while standing by the intolerable evictions “relocating” people into substandard, unsafe, or non-existent housing.

We don’t feel that Judy Graves represents the kind of transformative politics Vancouver needs. The current housing crisis provides an opportunity to radically re-think the foundations of the system — but instead Graves wants to bring back a discredited ‘dream’ that has consistently failed our most vulnerable citizens. Graves’ candidacy pushes for the status quo. We believe it’s time for something radically different.”

David Chudnovsky, who has a long history of radical politics dating back to the 1970s — VanRamblings remembers when David, as President of the Surrey Teachers’ Association, was considered ‘too radical’ by even the most left-wing folks in the BCTF; it is this very same David Chudnovsky who worked to create the principled, left-of-centre OneCity Vancouver.
Left-wing community activist Charles Demers, who is very much involved with OneCity and is just about as radical as they come (VanRamblings wants to live in a realized society imagined by the humanist Mr. Demers) worked closely, and is best friends, with Derrick O’Keefe, one of the key organizers of Jean Swanson’s campaign for office. How is it that Derrick was unable to influence his friend sufficiently to ensure his bff’s unadulterated and enthusiastic support for Jean Swanson’s candidacy?
Surely Mr. Chudnovsky and Mr. Demers could have foreseen from the outset what the outcome of the 2017 Vancouver City Council by-election would be if OneCity refused the entreaties of the Jean Swanson campaign team to support their candidate: the election of right-of-centre NPA candidate Hector Bremner to Vancouver City Council. We know that neither one of them wanted Bremner to ascend to Council, but that’s exactly what happened — and more’s the pity for that deleterious election outcome.

No doubt the good folks at OneCity felt it necessary to run a candidate for Council, in order to raise the profile of their nascent civic party and give their very fine candidates for School Board — Carrie Bercic (who, in fact, secured a seat at the School Board table) and her running mate, Erica Jaaf — a better opportunity at the polls on election night, October 14th.
VanRamblings believes that should OneCity have supported Jean Swanson’s energized, near-winning candidacy — in the process requiring the Jean Swanson campaign team work to ensure their full support for the two OneCity candidates for School Board — the outcome on by-election night might very well have seen Jean Swanson elected to Vancouver City Council, and both Erica Jaaf and Carrie Bercic seated at the School Board table at the inaugural meeting of the new Board this upcoming October 30th, 2017.

One more column to go on VanRamblings’ wrap-up coverage of the 2017 Vancouver civic by-election: the new Vancouver School Board, from the political novices to the experienced politicos. We believe, for the most part, our newly-elected Vancouver Board of Education trustees are comprised of a thoughtful, and overall not-too-partisan group of folks who mean well, and will work in the best interests of our children, and grandchildren.
Part One of VanRamblings ‘by-election wrap-up’ may be found here.