There was a time in the not-so-distant past when life on the Park Board was riven with dysfunction and division, when Commissioners derived satisfaction from scoring points off the opposition, as if politics is all about one upmanship, with nothing to do at all about responsible governance in service of voters who elect civic bodies to represent our collective interests.
VanRamblings is pretty sure that re-elected Park Board Commissioners Stuart Mackinnon and John Coupar recall those woeful days of their previous tenures on Park Board. For here we speak of the days when Vision Vancouver led governance of the Park Board, as a stepping stone to higher office, all but ignoring their responsibility to the people who placed them in office. And then 2014 rolled around, and Vision Vancouver was all but no more on Park Board, and the birds sang and all was well with the world.

Why on God’s green earth are pundits talking post 2018 election night of a “divided Council” where decisions will be hard come by, where pundits all but celebrate the potential for fist fights between the dastardly folks elected from the Non-Partisan Association, while the “progressives” on Council attempt to hold their own against an onslaught of evil from NPA electeds.

As if somehow, Sarah Kirby-Yung is going to go toe to toe with Michael Wiebe and make his life on City Council a living hell, or Lisa Dominato will target Christine Boyle with the sort of name calling and acting out that was rife on the last Council and was the usual operating procedure of Tim Stevenson and Kerry Jang, as if on the new Council Colleen Hardwick has her sights set on that dastardly Pete Fry (we mean, just because she voted for him in the past, and considers him to be a friend, and respects the beejeezus out of him, isn’t it somehow Ms. Hardwick’s new job to make Mr. Fry’s life a living misery on Council this next four years?), as if Melissa De Genova just can’t wait to get Jean Swanson in a corner to show her who’s boss, and how about NPA newly-elected Rebecca Bligh, dollars to donuts she has her sights set on her neighbour Adriane Carr because …
Because why? Because that’s what the press wants, because cynics in our community believe our newly-elected City Council is all about the same ol’ same ol’, when voters sought change at the polls when they went into the voting booth, and now somehow change is no longer on the agenda? Oh, puh-leeze. We know every single one of the newly-elected members of Vancouver City Council, and occasional family disputes to the contrary, we know each and every one of our newly-elected members of Council to be persons of honour and integrity who mean well for the city. Those of you expecting Gun Fight at the O.K. Corrall, well, you’re just going to have to wait til next time to elect a Council that will meet your low expectations.
What does all this have to do with the newly-electeds on the Vancouver Park Board? Everything, and more. Because it was Sarah Kirby-Yung who, after years of misery on Park Board following Vision Vancouver’s tenure, created a Park Board of reconciliation, where Commissioners were focused on the work that was to be done, in order to do themselves and the people of Vancouver, proud — by creating the best galldarn parks and recreation system to be found anywhere on the continent. Because Melissa De Genova (now about to start her second term on City Council) fought — yes, because she did fight for what is right during her tenure on Park Board, and in her first term of office on Council, because that was what was required, not because opposition and unpleasantness is fundamental to one of the kindest, most thoughtful political figures VanRamblings has ever witnessed.
Don’t believe us? Just wait to see how much good Vancouver City Council gets done on our new, halcyon post-partisan City Council of reconciliation.
Dr. Janet Fraser, recent Chairperson on Vancouver’s Board of Education set a tone of reconciliation this past year at Vancouver School Board — and woebetide the Trustee who did not accede to her instruction that interaction among Trustees should be one of economium over vituperation.
In the last term at Vancouver Park Board, although things got off to a rocky start (recovery from Vision’s tenure took awhile), by the end of the term, with Stuart Mackinnon as Board Chair, as was the case the previous year with his colleague Michael Wiebe (now, newly-elected to City Council) in the Chair, an environment of co-operation washed over Commissioners — the process begun under the tenure of Sarah Kirby-Yung, the focus on what Commissioners could do together to make Vancouver’s parks and recreation system the best of its kind on the continent, all the while protecting our beaches, waterways, the natural environment, and our urban forests.

At Park Board in the last term, as was the case the past year at Vancouver School Board, a team of rivals worked together in service of the public, in service of creating, maintaining or working towards the realization of the best public education system in the province, and the most welcoming and accessible to everyone parks and recreation system anywhere in the world.

Take a gander at who you elected to Vancouver Park Board on Saturday.

Stuart Mackinnon, who always comes out on the side of the issues that: protect our environment, the sustainability of our parks and beaches, the viability of our community centres — among a host of others issues — all the while emerging as Park Board’s most compelling & articulate speaker of heart and conscience, perhaps the best off the cuff orator around the Park Board table we’ve ever heard, quiet, authoritative, unassuming and bereft of ego, who marshalls his arguments in such a fashion as to make them unassailable, and in this new term working with his newly-elected Green colleagues, Dave Demers and Camil Dumont, hold much promise for the stewardship for Vancouver’s parks & recreation system;

John Coupar and Tricia Barker, the former who loves Park Board, and lives, eats and breathes the life of the natural environment in our city, and his newly-elected colleague, Tricia Barker (both of whom VanRamblings heartily endorsed), who believes as her colleague John Coupar does, in slow, responsible and well-considered incremental change, and a re-commitment to building a new, replacing, or renewing a community centre every term, and who believes in sustainability as a core value and in preservation of our natural environment;

And then there’s Gwen Giesbrecht, far and away our favourite new elected at Park Board, her fellow Commissioners about to see why.

Perhaps more than any other “newcomer” to the Board, Gwen Giesbrecht, along with her newly-elected COPE colleague, Dr. John Irwin, not only has a handle on the issues, both have a well thought out philosophy of governance and activism that serves all of our interests. As Gwen says …

• Building neighbourhood pools, which were closed by the seemingly anti-park Vision Vancouver majority Park Board (always under the thumb of then City Manager, Dr. Penny Ballem) is a top priority for her;

• Renewing our community centres, many of which are ten years past due renovation, or replacement, while also ensuring the proper funding of our community centre programmes, of such value to the community;
• Fighting against the 12-foot wide asphalt bike path through Kitsilano Beach, through the basketball court, and the children’s play area that HUB, for years, and Vision Vancouver have tried to shove down the throats of residents;

• Resisting Vision Vancouver’s VanSplash initiative that would close Lord Byng and Templeton pools, replaced by a gigantic, multi-million dollar destination Olympic competition pool in the midst of a Kitsilano neighbourhood, all the while destroying scarce green space, which is to say Connaught Park to the west of the Kits Community Centre, which would come down, as would the hockey rink attached to the Kits Community, VanSplash all in favour of an environmentally irresponsible Olympic competition pool paid for out of your dollars, but meant to be inaccessible to the public for large portions of the year.

And those are just some of the issues that the new Park Board will face.
Make no mistake, it is the newly-elected members of Vancouver Park Board who will set the stage and the table for tone and style in civic body governance in this next term, as will be the case should Dr. Janet Fraser be elected by her Trustee colleagues to another term as Chairperson, and as will be the case at Vancouver City Council if the cynics, the media and academic ne’er-do-wells give our new Council an opportunity to show their stuff, to let the people of Vancouver know that finally, finally, finally after all these past years of miserable civic governance at Vancouver City Hall, School Board and Park Board, hope for a better day is on the near horizon.

Saturday night was quite the night in Vancouver politics.
At Vancouver City Council, voters chose a majority progressive Council, led by Mayor-elect Kennedy Stewart, who will work with fellow progressives, the Green Party of Vancouver’s Adriane Carr, Pete Fry and Michael Wiebe, One City Vancouver’s Christine Boyle, and the conscience of the new and incoming Council, COPE’s Jean Swanson.
All of the above is not to say the cadre of five NPA Councillors who were elected to Council on Saturday evening are not progressive — they are. They’re just not in quite the hurry their ‘more progressive’ counterparts are to bring substantive change, much sooner than later.
At Park Board, it was pretty much the same story: three Greens and two COPE elected, five progressives on a renewed Vancouver Park Board.
At School Board, though? Tch, tch — naughty, naughty Vancouver voters.
One supposes that the most salutary outcome of Saturday’s election, in respect of Vancouver’s Board of Education newly-elected crew of trustees for office, is that the new make up of the Board will provide narrative fodder for The Straight’s first-rate education columnist, Patti Bacchus — who we expect shed some hot tears at Saturday night’s outcome (note. Patti is neither given to tears, nor other displays of emotion, given her stoic, working for the betterment of public education ethos).

No, what voters did on Saturday night, in electing a majority centrist / leaning right Vancouver School Board was just short of a high crime and misdemeanour, electing a contingent of mean well folks not ordinarily given to challenging the status quo or the provincial government. Except …

Yes, that’s newly-elected OneCity Vancouver elected Jennifer Reddy above — who, along with OneCity’s Christine Boyle (who ran for, and was elected to Council) represented our two favourite new candidates seeking elected office in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election. In time, you’ll see why.
Trustee-elect Reddy will play the same role on the incoming Board of Education, as did her OneCity running mate, Carrie Bercic (about whom we will be writing more in just a moment), the conscience of the School Board over the past year — who it was imperative be re-elected, but was not.
Trustee Jennifer Reddy, then, will emerge as the new conscience of the Board of Education (VanRamblings is looking forward to covering the new Board, and Ms. Reddy, in particular) — just listen to what incoming Trustee Reddy has to say in her campaign video, above.
At this juncture, VanRamblings wishes to say that for many (and for us) the most heartening outcome of the 2018 Vancouver civic election was the re-election of the entirely extraordinary Allan Wong to Vancouver’s Board of Education, who will begin his seventh term, and 20th year on the Board of Education next month. Allan Wong was the only candidate running for office with Vision Vancouver, elected to office on a devastating evening for a progressive political party of conscience that deserved better, much better.
On the progressive side of the ledger, Trustee Wong and incoming Trustee Reddy are joined by COPE’s Barb Parrott, who was just floating on air on Saturday night at COPE’s Election Night celebration, and about whom Patti Bacchus wrote the following in endorsing Ms. Parrott’s run for office …

Parrott is a retired teacher and vocal public-education advocate who would be a tremendous asset to the VSB. Parrott’s experience working in the school system has given her a deep understanding of what students need in order to be successful in school, and she would work hard to ensure the board is doing everything it can to guarantee that teachers have what they need to do the best job they can in their classrooms. Parrott is a past president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association (VESTA) and would be a valuable asset in helping the board build and maintain a respectful collaboration with its education partners.

All of the above said, VanRamblings is not unhappy about the re-election of the Greens’ Janet Fraser and Estrellita Gonzalez — both of whom VanRamblings endorsed — nor are we necessarily displeased with the re-election of the NPA’s Fraser Ballantyne, and his colleague, Carmen Cho.
For the moment, VanRamblings will hold our fire on Green newcomer, Lois Chan-Pedley, with whom we are not quite familiar — although, we are pleased voters elected a person of colour to office, in an election year when that proved to be an unusual circumstance. A young mother, and an accomplished woman, we hold out much hope for Ms. Chan-Pedley and the contribution she will make to the incoming Board of Education

Still and all, VanRamblings is verklempt that the conscience of the last Board of Education, Carrie Bercic, was not re-elected to office.
A correspondent asked us a couple of days back why Carrie Bercic was not re-elected? Without wishing to offend, VanRamblings offers the following …

• As we did in the 2014 School Board by-election, when we sang Carrie Bercic’s praises to the skies, we failed to be as supportive (correspondents might suggest more accurate phraseology, such as “over-the moon” and “enthusiastically florid”) as we were in the 2017 School Board by-election. VanRamblings had enough readership in the past month so as to make a difference — and we failed to do so;

• The NPA. The NPA got their vote out; witness the 5 elected at Council. There is no way under the sun that NPA voters would support Ms. Bercic’s re-election, as over the past year, Trustee Bercic emerged as the re-birth of public education advocate, Patti Bacchus. In an election with only a 38% voter turnout, and given how important the NPA has deemed School Board to be (we could say mean things, but we won’t), the NPA got their vote out in sufficient numbers so as to quash Trustee Bercic’s re-election. All of which leaves VanRamblings despondent;
• Morgane Oger. Make no mistake, our admiration and respect for Ms. Oger is deep and abiding. VanRamblings believes, however (rightly or wrongly), that Morgane Oger’s last minute entrance into the run for School Board, and the 27,157 seventeenth place votes she secured, ended up taking votes away from Trustee Bercic, and her OneCity running mate, Erica Jaaf, both of whom are longtime, effective public education advocates;
• NDP voters. Carrie Bercic challenged the status quo, and (respectfully) challenged B.C. Minister of Education, Rob Fleming. In other words, Carrie Bercic stood as a countervailing force to our hanging-by-a-thread provincial NDP government. VanRamblings surmises that there were enough NDP supporters in Vancouver who said to themselves when they arrived at the polls, “Carrie Bercic has proved a staunch defender of public education. But she’s also been critical of the NDP Minister of the Education, and our tremulous progressive NDP government. Gosh, maybe I should just vote for the progressive candidates running with the Greens and Vision Vancouver. Although, with the white guilt I’m feeling, I guess I’d better cast a vote for Jennifer Reddy, who seems articulate and bright, and perhaps not too challenging in her approach to governance. Yeah, Jennifer Reddy, that’s the ticket. Otherwise, I’ll plump my ballot.”

How voters failed to re-elect the strongest, most articulate democratic parent and child advocate in the city of Vancouver since Patti Bacchus left office in 2016, who has performed service on the Board of Education this past 12 months to a fair-thee-well, we just don’t know? But it’s done now.
Tears have been shed, and what might have been is no longer, and — if we might — VanRamblings believes we are all a little, perhaps more than a little, worse off that Carrie Bercic will not sit on the Vancouver School Board in this next term, as our public education advocate extraordinaire.
Carrie Bercic’s penetrating, insightful voice and presence at Vancouver’s Board of Education table, her keen intelligence and staunch advocacy of public education and the some 548,000 students enrolled in British Columbia schools, will be missed, more than words can express.
And you know who will miss her the most?

The Greens’ Estrellita Gonzalez and Janet Fraser, who have sat at the Board table alongside Carrie Bercic this past 12 months, who more often than not voted with and advocated for Trustee Bercic. Returning Trustee Allan Wong, who always seconded Trustee Bercic’s motions, will miss her as a colleague, and for her support of his endeavours at the School Board table. The cause of public education is just a little worse off for the absence of Carrie Bercic as a clarion public education voice in the province of British Columbia.
We trust this is not the last we’ll hear from Ms. Bercic in the political realm.
One heartening election night note: 97,809 voters cast a ballot for Vancouver School Board, while for Council only 90,851 voters cast their ballot, and at Park Board, 95,834 — so something was going on when so many more voters in 2018 came to the polls to vote for School Board.
When all is said and done, the voters of Vancouver — at least the 38% of Vancouver voters who cared enough to vote — made their decision, as faulty as we believe that decision to be, given how imperative was the need to elect an activist Vancouver Board of Education who would staunchly defend our public education system, sitting around the Board table over the next four years, representing the largest, most diverse school district in Canada’s western most province, and long the Board of Education that has set the political education agenda in the province of British Columbia.
Godspeed to Vancouver’s incoming Board of Education.
May wisdom govern your decisions, and may your advocacy for student success remain your paramount endeavour this next four years.