Category Archives: BC Politics

Vancouver Votes 2018 | A Primer on Civic Affairs Coverage

May 21, 2018BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

As loathe as we are to admit it, VanRamblings is not the only place for you to turn to for coverage of the upcoming 2018 Vancouver municipal election.
Outside of VanRamblings, here are your primary sources for coverage of Vancouver’s critically important election, the folks you should turn to …

Turn to Bob Mackin's indispensible Breaker.News website for coverage of the 2018 Vancouver civic election

Not familiar with, don’t know about, never visited the curries no favours with politicos, tells it like it is and gives you the straight goods, the source, your source for real reporting on the civic events of the day, and the must-visit muckraking site, in the fine tradition of I.F. Stone — theBreaker.news — your source for breaking news on Vancouver’s municipal affairs scene.
Last Monday, VanRamblings reported out on the Five Reasons Why sitting Vancouver Non-Partisan Association (NPA) City Councillor Hector Bremner’s application to be the party’s Mayoral nominee was rejected by the NPA.
The NPA Board had conniption fits reading that column, and when a letter was posted to Hector Bremner’s campaign manager, Mike Wilson, the next day, little reference was made to the issues raised in the VanRamblings column, the focus instead placed on allegations of “conflict of interest” as the reason why the NPA scuttled Bremner’s mayoral bid. Gosh. Really, huh?
The NPA’s conflict of interest allegation couldn’t have anything to do with an April 12th column Bob Mackin published on theBreaker.news …

Hector Bremner’s continued vice-presidency of a firm that lobbies for real estate, construction and retail companies has sparked a complaint to city hall that the rookie politician is breaching the code of conduct.

Bremner lost a run for the BC Liberals in New Westminster in the 2013 election and was an aide to BC Liberal cabinet ministers Rich Coleman and Teresa Wat before joining the Pace Group in 2015. The firm’s clients also include developers Concert Properties and Intracorp, architecture and engineering firms Stantec and Omicron, and Save-On-Foods’ parent Overwaitea Food Group.

Bremner was registered to lobby the provincial government for Steelhead LNG. He has also appeared at city council meetings in North Vancouver and Maple Ridge on behalf of the B.C. Wine Institute and Save-On-Foods’ applications for liquor retail licences. In September 2016, he was a guest speaker at the Canadian Institute’s Canadian Cannabis Business Week conference on the future of government relations (aka lobbying) and cannabis. In his bio on the city hall website, Bremner promotes himself as Pace Group’s vice-president of public affairs, where he “puts his unique experience and special capabilities toward navigating the process of public policy making and ensuring his clients’ messages are heard.”

The Vancouver Charter states that a council member must not use information obtained in the performance of duties for the purpose of “gaining or furthering a direct or indirect pecuniary interest.”

If conflict of interest was a concern to the NPA Board of Directors, as they stated last week, why did they not act sooner on the allegations first reported in Bob Mackin’s April 12th column? Or, did the members of the NPA Board come up with last-minute allegations of Bremner conflicts of interest to mislead the public, misdirect Mr. Bremner’s campaign, and not have to get into the muckier business of an alleged Pay for Play scheme involving Bremner’s ties to a deep-pocketed Vancouver developer, as VanRamblings reported last week as one reason for Bremner’s rejection?
Whatever the case, Bob Mackin and theBreaker.news was the original source to break conflict of interest allegations, making theBreaker.news an invaluable source for reporting on Vancouver civic news.
Bob Mackin consistently both breaks critical news of interest to the public on Vancouver’s political scene, and reports civic political news not reported elsewhere. As such, theBreaker.news should become one of your primary sources for unbiased breaking news on Vancouver’s civic political scene.

The Mainstream Media

The five newspapers above represent Vancouver’s mainstream media, which means that the reporters and columnists employed by these five Vancouver news outlets observe strict journalistic codes of conduct, and the principles, values and obligations associated with the practice of journalism …

1. Truth and Accuracy

Journalists cannot always guarantee ‘truth’, but getting the facts right is the cardinal principle of journalism. Journalists always strive for accuracy, give all the relevant facts available and ensure facts have been checked. When journalists cannot corroborate information such is stated.

2. Independence

Journalists must be independent voices, who will not act, formally or informally, on behalf of special interests whether political, corporate or cultural. Journalists must declare to editors — or readers — any political affiliation, financial arrangements or other personal information that might constitute a conflict of interest.

3. Fairness and Impartiality

Most stories have at least two sides. While there is no obligation to present every side in every piece, stories should be balanced and add context. Objectivity is not always possible, and may not always be desirable (in the face for example of brutality or inhumanity), but impartial reporting builds trust and confidence.

4. Humanity

Journalists should do no harm. What journalists publish or broadcast may be hurtful, and journalists must be aware of the impact of words written and images captured on the lives of others.

5. Accountability

A sure sign of professionalism and responsible journalism is personal and professional accountability. When journalists commit errors, remedy must be made throught correction; expressions of regret must be sincere, not cynical. Journalists must listen to the concerns of readers. Journalists must strive for fairness, and seek to provide remedy if an unfairness has been identified.

The Vancouver Courier

l-r, Mike Klassen, Mike Howell, Michael Geller, John Kurucz, and eminence gris Allen Garr

The gentlemen above (and more’s the pity that there are no women pictured above), represent the retinue of Vancouver Courier newspaper civic affairs columnists, and reporter. If you’re involved in #vanpoli, you sure as hell better know who these men are, and set to reading what each has written in 2018, all easily accessible on The Courier website.
VanRamblings is constantly surprised — stunned would be more like it — at how absolutely and utterly bereft of knowledge a broad range of political activists and campaigns strategists are, the hardy but clueless folks who are involved with all six of Vancouver’s political parties spanning the spectrum —&#32parties offering candidates for office —&#32about the role and impact of the media in determining the party’s or candidates’ futures.
And who it is, exactly, writes about Vancouver civic politics, what they have to say, how they keep candidates honest, and the role the media — the columnists and journalists above, and the ones you’ll read about below — play in determining how candidates and parties are perceived, and the impact journalists, columnists, reporters, broadcasters, podcasters and bloggers have on the election night results which so consume politicos.
There’s much talk about low information voters. There’s little talk about low information political activists, strategists and party apparatchiks so wrapped up in political ideology or lack thereof, so self-involved and just plain downright narcissistic and unrealistic about their prospects for office — given their utter lack of anything approaching depth of knowledge of civic affairs — that it, to employ a colloquial term, just blows our mind.
Read up. Go online. Research. Inform yourself.
Get involved with your life, as if what you read and research about civic politics actually matters — because it does, not just for you, but for your family, the folks who live in your neighbourhood, and all of us who live in all the neighbourhoods that encompass the city of Vancouver.
Care about the future of Vancouver, inform yourself about issues involving transit, how we’ll go about responding to the crying need for affordable housing, how we’ll achieve the elimination of childhood poverty in our city, and the unending wont of parents or caregivers who cannot adequately provide for our city’s most vulnerable citizens — care for our homeless population, care for the vulnerable, care for your daughters, wives, sisters and mothers and work to ensure ours is a safe city. Read. Inform yourself. Act. Be the change. Do everything in your power to make a difference.
As we’ve written previously, sitting at home and reading John Pilger, Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky is a good thing to do, but if you don’t use what you’ve read to become active in the movement for change, your reading amounts to little more than narcisscism, self-involvement utterly useless to the rest of us, academic masturbation.
Act as if your life matters. Act as if the lives of others matter.
Vancouver’s Mainstream Media

l-r, Jen St. Denis, Gary Mason, Frances Bula, Dan Fumano, Charlie Smith & Carlito Pablo

Tiny photos above of the journalists and columnists who cover Vancouver politics, but powerful — some would say, extremely powerful — people in the realm of #vanpoli, the folks who are the opinion-shapers in our community, their contributions and their impact outsized, and as we say above, powerful. Again, if you’re not reading Jen St. Denis in the StarMetro, Gary Mason and Frances Bula in the Globe and Mail, Dan Fumano in the Vancouver Sun, and Charlie Smith and Carlito Pablo in The Straight — each and every time they publish — you cannot consider yourself to be well-informed on civic issues in the City of Vancouver.

The Georgia Straight’s Travis Lupick, one of Vancouver’s most accomplished journalists

Downtown Eastside activist Wendy Pedersen has written, informing us that we have missed the name of the accomplished Georgia Straight writer and editor, Travis Lupick, who we read all the time, and whose work we very much admire — so we’ve remedied that egregious oversight, with a big photo of Travis published above, too. We apologize to Travis and Wendy.
All seven of the writers above are the Jimmy Breslins, Studs Terkels, Allan Fotheringhams, Marjorie Nichols’, Peter C. Newmans, Peter Gzowskis and Barbara McLintocks of our city, and demand to be read, to be listened to, to have what they write be acted upon in order to make ours a better city, one where we will see transparency in government and governance.

In the near future, VanRamblings will publish an interview we did with The Cambie Reports’ Ian Bushfield, For now, visit the website, listen to the various podcasts, hear what Frances, Jen St. Denis, and ResearchCo’s Mario Canseco, among other civic affairs ‘reporters’, have to say.
And last but not least, the eastside guy who writes every day on his blog …

Jak King — writer, historian, artist, photographer, husband, father, poet and anarchist (me, too, except for the husband part, cuz no one will have me) — swore off on both writing and involving himself in Vancouver civic politics, following what he felt (and many others felt) was a dispiriting 2014 Vancouver municipal election. Click on Jak’s View 3.0 to see what we mean.
Reporting out of the East End of Vancouver (where VanRamblings grew up, as it happens), long an activist on Grandview-Woodland resident, community and development issues, where you’re not generally going to get the overlong, ponderous pieces that you get on VanRamblings, but what you will get is a welcome bit of online humanity, some great photos (and great music, too), writing about Vancouver’s eastside, poetry and insight, and if we are very, very lucky, Jak will reverse and rescind his encyclical on “50 reasons why I won’t be writing about civic politics anymore,” and set about to offer his idiosyncratic (and less labourious than VanRamblings) take on all things Vancouver municipal politics. Here’s hoping, anyway.

VanRamblings is slowly burning out, but for now — and through until the end of June, we imagine, when we’re planning on reducing our writing output to two, three or four times a week for the summer months — you can find everything there is to know about the upcoming Vancouver civic election, which for many of those with whom we interact each day is not even a thing, as in, “There’s an election coming up? Where? When? You mean we’re actually going to the polls, again. Christine Boyle, you say. Never heard of her.” (ed. note. oh woe is us. Raymond tears his hair out).
Click on Vancouver Votes 2018 for VanRamblings’ civic election coverage.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | The Hector Bremner Saga Continues

May 16, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

On Monday, VanRamblings published the reasons why Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner’s mayoral candidacy was rejected by the party he sits with on Council, the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association. Since publication, further information has come to VanRamblings attention, in respect of Mr. Bremner’s now truncated candidacy for Mayor, and how his bid for the NPA mayoral nomination came about in the first place.
Given the involvement of longtime B.C. Liberal party fixer Mark Marissen, readers will probably find it rather elementary to put two and two together, to determine that the Andrew Wilkinson-led provincial Liberal party had everything and more to do with novice Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner’s decision to seek the Non-Partisan Association mayoral nod.

Part 1: How Hector Bremner Came to Be a Mayoral Nominee for the NPA
On May 9, 2017, the B.C. Liberal party fell out of power, after 16 years in control of the British Columbia legislature. Following the resignation of former Premier Christy Clark as leader of her party, on February 3rd of this year, Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Andrew Wilkinson won the leadership of the renewed B.C. Liberal party.
Once at the helm of the now opposition provincial political party, newly-installed Liberal party leader Wilkinson hired Harvard-educated Vancouver lawyer, Paul Barbeau, as his “special assistant“. Mr. Barbeau, a longtime respected activist in the federal Conservative party, is a founding partner of the prestigious Vancouver law firm of Barbeau, Evans & Goldstein.
Mr. Barbeau’s job for the B.C. Liberal leader: join (or is that, infiltrate?) the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, with designs on taking over the Vancouver civic party in time for the 2018 Vancouver municipal election.
Andrew Wilkinson told Mr. Barbeau that the B.C. Liberals required a political power base in Vancouver, and an opportunity to test-run the party’s electoral readiness machine, with the upcoming Vancouver civic election providing the best possible circumstance to achieve both ends. Hector Bremner — a B.C. Liberal acolyte — would be their stalking horse.
Consulting with Marissen & Mike Wilson — a veteran B.C. Liberal operative, and Mr. Bremner’s campaign manager in last year’s successful Vancouver municipal by-election — Barbeau brought Marissen and Wilson on board to run a winning Hector Bremner mayoral bid for the NPA nomination.

On February 19th of this year, Hector Bremner published a Facebook post, writing that he would be running for the mayoral nomination of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, writing, “I’m excited today, with the support of my wife Virginia and two kids Carlo and Gianluca, to confirm that I am seeking the NPA nomination for Mayor of our great city Vancouver.”
With successful and experienced campaign managers Marissen and Wilson at the helm of Hector Bremner’s mayoral nomination bid, all seemed to be falling into place nicely for the B.C. Liberal party leader’s plan to take over Vancouver civic politics, and establish an electoral power base for his party.
To seal the deal, Mr. Barbeau — now a member of the Non-Partisan Association — offered his services to the NPA Board, stating that he would be “willing” to sit on the party’s Green Light Committee, if the Board so wished … which they did. At this point, everyone was happy!
But not for long, as it would turn out.
As Globe and Mail civic affairs columnist Frances Bula has written, NPA election readiness has become a real soap opera. But we’re not there yet.
Paul Barbeau, then, would sit on the Green Light Committee vetting Mr. Bremner’s candidacy to become the NPA’s mayoral nominee.
Part 2: How Hector Bremner Lost the NPA Mayoral Nomination

A Tale of Much Sadness and Woe for Everyone Involved. Or, the Destruction of the NPA.
In fact, sources have told VanRamblings, on the three-person NPA Green Light Committee, Mr. Barbeau emerged as the only committee member to heartily endorse Mr. Bremner’s candidacy, with the other two members of the committee expressing reservations, which they would take to members of the NPA Board of Directors, recommending rejection of Mr. Bremner’s nomination application, based on those reservations — as outlined in VanRamblings’ Monday column, and in a column written by Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter, Dan Fumano, in which he writes …

The Non-Partisan Association shot down their own sitting caucus member’s bid for its mayoral nomination because of, among other things, concerns that his day job left him in an “inherently conflicted” position.

That allegation was among the “serious concerns” outlined in a two-page letter sent Sunday evening from NPA president Gregory Baker to NPA Coun. Hector Bremner, according to a person who had reviewed the document.

Sunday’s letter came at the end of a tumultuous week for the city’s oldest political party, after the NPA board voted last Monday to reject Bremner’s attempt to seek the party’s mayoral nomination, prompting a series of departures from the party, including prospective candidates and two board members, as Postmedia News reported last Friday. By Monday, another director had departed, bringing the total to three.

On Monday morning Baker released a statement saying he had sent a “confidential letter” to Bremner the previous evening, “outlining in detail the reasons why the NPA board did not approve his mayoral application.”

“Although the NPA does not plan to publicly release this information, Mr. Bremner is within his rights to release the information, as well as the contents of the letter, as he sees fit,” Baker said in the statement.

The letter hasn’t been released publicly, but a person who had a copy of it read excerpts to The Vancouver Sun over the phone Monday and described parts of it, including the list of the NPA’s concerns about Bremner’s application.

The letter outlines the NPA’s “serious concerns” about Bremner’s application, beginning with Bremner’s request (ed. note., as was reported by VanRamblings on Monday) that his lawyer could accompany him to the Green Light Committee meeting to discuss his prospects of being on the ballot for the NPA’s nomination meeting May 29.

The letter cites three conflict-of-interest complaints involving Bremner’s work with the Pace Group, a media-relations and lobbying firm. Baker confirmed Monday that the three complaints referenced in the letter were those filed by two locals named Raza Mirza and Justin Fung. Mirza and Fung, both of whom spoke last month to Postmedia about their complaints, said they had recently signed up for NPA memberships. Both expressed concerns about Bremner’s suitability for the city’s top job.

As a reminder to readers, Messrs. Mirza and Fung are co-founders of HALT Vancouver — Housing Action for Local Taxpayers — and avowed supporters of Bremner nemesis, Glen Chernen, whose mayoral nomination was approved by the NPA Board, Monday, May 7th.
VanRamblings has to ask: are there any winners in this mishegoss?
B.C. Liberal Party leader, Andrew Wilkinson? No. Paul Barbeau? No.
Hector Bremner? No. NPA President Gregory Baker? No. The Board of Directors, and members, of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association. Definitely not. Mark Marissen, Mike Wilson, Glen Chernen and his acolytes, Raza Mirza and Justin Fung? Only time will tell — but it ain’t lookin’ good.

Five-Term Burnaby Mayor In For Some Rough Times Ahead

May 15, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Dysfunction in civic politics is not solely the realm of the maelstrom that has come to define civic politics in Vancouver, on both the right and the left.
As is the case in municipalities across the province, Burnaby civic parties will soon choose which candidates they will run for office in this upcoming October’s municipal election. The choice for Mayor in Burnaby, the municipality right next door to Vancouver, should have been any easy one — but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be, if what sources close to the reigning Burnaby Citizens Association tell VanRamblings, comes to pass.

Results of the 2014 Burnaby Municipal Election

As may be seen in the 2014 Burnaby municipal election graphic above, the Burnaby Citizens Association — the civic party backed by the provincial NDP, and the New Westminster & District Labour Council (NDLC) — swept to victory at the polls, defeating the upstart Burnaby First Coalition (BFC), a ragtag collection of centre-right candidates bent on defeating Mayor Derek Corrigan, and his raging band of socialists. Much to the chagrin of the BFC, though, the candidates running with the Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA) once again stormed the gates of Burnaby City Hall, as they had done in each and every Burnaby municipal election in the previous 20 years.
In 2014, then, a rough and ready Derek Corrigan was elected to an unprecedented fifth consecutive term as the once-and-forever bibulous for power Mayor of river-and-sea-rise Burnaby, where Burnaby citizens could show open affection, kiss and hold hands, where “banning behaviours that hinted at sex or sexuality, even including a chaste bridal kiss or walking hand in hand would hurt public decorum and lead to further violence,” or so said Burnaby mayoral aspirant, Sylvia Gung — would not come to pass. As may be seen in the graphic above, Mayor Corrigan eked out a tiny victory, defeating the good Ms. Gung, 28,133 votes to her satisfying 372 votes.
And the angels wept.

Wistful Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan contemplates a sixth-term run for office

As far back as October 2016, Derek Corrigan was ruminating on the decision as to whether he might wish to run for a sixth term of office as Burnaby’s Mayor, with rumours swirling about the mayor’s political future when his wife, then NDP MLA Kathy Corrigan, decided she would retire from provincial politics at the end of her term in 2017 …
“At this stage I would be leaning toward running again,” he told the Burnaby NOW when asked about his future. “I’m really going to have to have a hard look at it as I get closer to the election date. You sign up for a four-year term and you want to be able to give it everything it needs,” he said, noting he would be 71 years old at the end of another term.
Most folks on the left in Burnaby read Derek Corrigan’s statement above as he might not run again, that he’d be 71 years of age at the end of another term, that he was considering his options — with glee. Hallelujah!
Welcome news for many Burnaby citizens, not just on the right of the political spectrum, but on the social justice left, the news received with feelings of near euphoria, mixed with deep sighs of relief, by members of the Burnaby NDP constituency associations, the New Westminster & District Labour Council, and the long put-upon residents of Metrotown South and their hardy representatives, the Alliance Against Displacement.
Said a source closely-tied to New Westminster & District Labour Council …

“Four thousand Burnaby residents have been, or soon will be, evicted from their low-rise rental apartment buildings south of Metrotown. Displacing 4000 people — what kind of progressive party does that? And what arrangements has Burnaby Council made to address that displacement? None. Because, as you know, because it’s Burnaby, low-income residents are just not welcome.”

In 2018, progressive elements in Burnaby’s NDP constituency associations, activist Burnaby social justice groups, the Alliance Against Displacement as lead by Ivan Drury, and the New Westminster & District Labour Council — the latter, a longtime supporter and funder of the Burnaby Citizens Association, which had often taken Board positions on the BCA, helping to set and direct policy, fund-raise and set up the electoral machinery in each Burnaby civic election — in this electoral year are saying enough is enough.
In a comment dripping with sarcasm, a member of the Burnaby Citizens Association Board of Directors, in a telephone conversation with VanRamblings, averred …

“You know, there’s no homelessness in Burnaby. No homeless anywhere. Derek Corrigan says it’s true, so it must be true, don’t you think?”

In a legendary 2013 interview, Corrigan told Burnaby NOW reporter Chris Bryan that he didn’t want homeless shelters in Burnaby …

“The people in shelters (of which Vancouver has dozens and most cities in the Metro Vancouver region have at least one, Bryan writes) are by and large beyond hope,” Corrigan said. “They’re either addicted, seriously mentally ill, or habitual criminals. Some live in rooms crammed with junk floor-to-ceiling, and many rooms are infested with bugs. Many are the type of folks who, if they found you dying on the sidewalk would pull out your gold fillings. Are these the kind of people Burnaby residents want living in their neighbourhood”, he asked.

“The people (in shelters) are the impossible to house, so addicted that all they worry about is the opportunity to feed their addiction, whether it’s alcohol, drugs or anything else.”

Phew! Corrigan’s words may have appeal for the less socially-conscious members of the federal Conservative Party, and various right-wing elements in our society — but for a party largely financed by the New Westminster & District Labour Council, in 2018 Corrigan’s regressive attitude to the more vulnerable citizens who reside in our region, is not only off-putting, it is viewed as mean, heartless and completely and utterly unacceptable by a broad swath of labour and social justice activists.

As a consequence of the continued intransigence of Mayor Derek Corrigan to move forward on the affordable housing file in Burnaby, and his continuing refusal to even consider allowing homeless shelters as transition facilities to house those in need, has resulted in a decision by the New Westminster & District Labour Council not to support Derek Corrigan for a sixth-term of office as Burnaby Mayor …

“The NWDLC has chosen a progressive candidate, a young labour activist, who will become the Burnaby Citizens Association’s mayoral candidate in 2018. We know that longtime members of Council wanted to vye for the Mayor’s job, with our endorsement. We feel, given the support many on Council have offered the Mayor, that it is time for a new broom to sweep in, someone who will bring about substantive change at the municipal level in Burnaby, someone with whom our provincial NDP can work with.

Derek Corrigan will not get access to the $600,000 the Burnaby Citizens Association has raised; the NWDLC members of the BCA Board will see to that. All of this will unfold towards the end of the month. Negotiations are ongoing with the Mayor to convince him to step down. If he doesn’t accede to the wishes of the NWDLC, and the many social justice groups in Burnaby, should he decide to run, Corrigan will find that he’ll be running a shoestring operation bereft of the support of labour, and the new and more progressive BCA candidates who will run for office, and we are confident will be elected on Saturday, October 22nd.”

And here you thought that in the sleepy, mall-laden bedroom communities of the Metro Vancouver region all was well, and the world was unfolding as it is meant to, where peace & harmony would reign forever & ever & ever.
As it still might — just not with Derek Corrigan as the mayor of Burnaby.

For VanRamblings’ complete coverage of #VancouverVotes2018, and related activity across Metro Vancouver, click on this link. VanRamblings continues to publish civic election coverage Monday thru Thursday and will do so through the end of June, at which point our civic election coverage may be reduced to thrice weekly, with full near daily coverage of the upcoming civic election to resume again in September, through until election day, Saturday, October 20th — complemented by coverage of the upcoming and glorious, 37th annual Vancouver International Film Festival.
All of which leaves our Friday VanRamblings to ‘arts coverage’ — this week focusing on the upcoming programme at the must-attend Vancity Theatre — with Saturdays given over to Stories of a Life — which, if you want to know who’s behind this blog, will provide you with insight and narrative — and on Sundays … who knows? See ya back here tomorrow, and always!

Men Who Live In Glass Houses, Shouldn’t Throw Stones

May 14, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Hector Bremner, set to go it alone in his bid to become Vancouver’s next Mayor

EXCLUSIVE
As we wrote last week, Monday evening May 7th, Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner was informed by Gregory Baker, the President of the Board of Directors of his party, the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, that his mayoral nomination application had been rejected. No reason was given.
After extensive dialogue with members of, and sources close to, the nominally right-of-centre Non-Partisan Association, and a frank Friday afternoon discussion with Mr. Bremner’s indignant campaign manager — longtime respected political campaigner, Mark Marissen — as well as numerous other individuals with insight into the reasons why a rejection of Mr. Bremner’s application was always in the cards, that Mr. Bremner’s bid to become his party’s mayoral standard-bearer was finished even before it began, today on VanRamblings we will reveal a few of the reasons why the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association rejected Mr. Bremner’s mayoral nominee application, tempered with commentary from Mark Marissen, and explanatory political context provided by VanRamblings.
1. Pay for Play
Or, Mr. Bremner’s alleged cozy relationship with a Vancouver developer
This past week, lawyer Michael Avenatti — legal counsel for adult film star, Stormy Daniels — released a document he referred to as a Summary Brief, alleging that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s lawyer, created a shell company called Essential Consultants to receive payments from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, and corporations with business before the Trump administration, e.g. AT&T, involved in a merger with Time-Warner, a merger President Trump had heretofore opposed. Mr. Cohen was paid $800,000 by AT&T for “access” to the President.
In total, Mr. Cohen has received monies in the millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars, from Mr. Vekselberg — a confidant of Russian leader, Vladimir Putin — and others, monies it has been alleged were used to pay off 130 different “complainants” set to bring suit against Mr. Trump.
Pay for Play? Mr. Cohen launders money received from Russian oligarchs, and multi-national corporations in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, and just like magic Mr. Trump’s “problems” go away, as do the problems of the multi-national corporations Trump fixer Michael Cohen has promised favours to, in exchange for payment of millions of dollars.
Pay for Play? Nice and tidy — until you get caught.

Mr. Bremner. Sources within and close to the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association administration have told VanRamblings they believe Mr. Bremner, and members of his election team, have “cut a deal” with a prominent Vancouver developer, that in exchange for funding the novice NPA City Councillor’s bid to become Vancouver’s next Mayor, Mr. Bremner has promised “special favours” to the developer, should he win election.
In times of old Pay for Play was called, “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” a central feature of political administrations, municipal, provincial / state, or federal. Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party have often been accused of a cozy, perhaps quid pro quo, relationship with Westbank developer Ian Gillespie, and real estate marketer, Bob Rennie.

Christine Boyle, OneCity Vancouver candidate, running for Vancouver City Council

In contemporary society, and particularly in the politics of personal destruction realm, there is a propensity to demonize political adversaries, and developers in particular — a central feature of political life in our city, we’re sad to say — but not for pure-hearted politicos like Christine Boyle, a OneCity Vancouver candidate for Vancouver City Council — who will top-the-polls on election night, Saturday, October 20th — running a committed social justice, affordable housing, activist, get-things-done-for-us platform.

Politics is just like life.
Every now and then you’re going to run across someone you really like, someone you admire, someone with whom you gain an immediate rapport. When VanRamblings sat as a member of Vancouver’s Board of Variance, there were any number of developers, architects and designers for whom the members of the Boards of Variance on which we sat, gained some deep affection. Did that affection ever translate into “a deal” for the avuncular, good-natured appellant appearing before the Board. Never!
VanRamblings would suggest the same thing is true with Mayor Robertson, and the members of his Vision Vancouver team. Sure, there’s a closeness between Mayor Robertson and Ian Gillespie — in 2011, when VanRamblings’ friend Mike Klassen ran for City Council with the NPA, when Michael and another NPA candidate entered the waterfront Fairmont Vancouver hotel owned and operated by Mr. Gillespie, both were unceremoniously ejected, in a rough process at that — but does Mr. Gillespie’s support of his friend Gregor Robertson translate into a rubber stamp for whatever development Mr. Gillespie brings before Council?
VanRamblings would suggest that the answer to the question above is an emphatic no! All you have to do is take a look at the Westbank development near 70th and Granville, where Mr. Gillespie got next to nothing from Gregor Robertson’s majority Vision Vancouver City Council, who mandated a significant reduction in density, much-reduced heights for the condominium towers Mr. Gillespie proposed, and a break-the-bank Community Amenity Contribution.
Far too easy and far too cynical to accuse our political masters — and the very strong and principled women who sit on Vancouver City Council — of corruption, or collusion with developers, many of whom are true visionaries and despite their wealth maintain an altruistic love for our city. Perhaps Mr. Bremner’s involvement with “his” prominent Vancouver-based developer supporter is innocent. Seems that the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association don’t think so — all of which means, yet another nail in the coffin of Mr. Bremner’s truncated NPA candidacy for Mayor.
2. Wet Behind the Ears
Or, Mr. Bremner is a novice politico, with little or no grasp of city files
Sources within the NPA administration have expressed concern that Mr. Bremner not only lacks gravitas at City Council, he seems to have little or no understanding of the files that come before him at Vancouver City Council, and seems unwilling (or unable) to learn. NPA sources have told VanRamblings “it’s not good enough that Hector skates by on charm and good looks — there has to be some there there and, quite frankly, we find him wanting, not seasoned enough by far.”
Lack of experience, a poor grasp of the files that come before Council, and a ‘style over substance’ Bremner candidacy had party officials concerned.
3. An ‘Incident’ at Council
Or, Mr. Bremner referred to a woman presenter to Council as a girl
At a May 2nd City Finance & Services meeting chaired by Councillor Heather Deal, co-founder of Good Night Out Vancouver, Stacey Forrester, made a presentation to Council, requesting funding from the city.
As may be heard at approximately the 59 minute, 13 second mark on the video of City Council’s standing CF&S committee meeting, Ms. Forrester introduces herself to Council, stating, “I am also a nurse by trade, having spent many years working in public health, and harm reduction, here in Vancouver,” referring to Good Night Vancouver as a “a pilot programme that has a street team roaming the Granville Entertainment District to help foster a safer environment for club and bar-goers during the area’s busiest hours, the first initiative of its kind in Canada.”
Ms. Forrester completes her address to Council at the 01:05:33 mark of the video of the CF&S meeting, after which Councillor Bremner begins his questioning of Ms. Forrester, stating …

“Thanks for the work that you’re doing. Councillor De Genova has stepped out, but her and I got a ride-along a couple of months ago in downtown, and we were there sort of overnight, and there we were, like, at two in the morning, and it was getting kinda late, and there was a girl, she’s about your age, and she was pretty drunk.

And the officers that we were with respond to the call, the establishment has kicked her out, she’s outside, she’s standing in the pouring rain, no jacket, she’s drunk, can’t find her ID, she doesn’t have her coat cheque, they won’t give her her jacket, it’s just turned into a whole mess.

And what I was surprised by, was struck by, really it came down to the VPD – who literally went out into the street – their flashlight flashed a cab, a cab came over, we put her in a cab. We sent her home.”

Do you see where the problem is — a problem identified by NPA members of Council — in Councillor Bremner’s rambling address to Stacey Forrester? A problem that caused enough concern to another Councillor sitting across from Mr. Bremner, that a tweet went out into the ether expressing astonishment and disgust that Councillor Bremner had just referred to a nurse presenting to Council as a “girl” — not a woman, but a girl.
Although the tweet has since been taken down, concern has been expressed to VanRamblings about Mr. Bremner’s conduct at Council, and the untoward nature of his referring to a woman with agency, as a girl.
One would imagine that there are some men out there, and perhaps some women, who would suggest that Councillor Bremner’s faux pas — unadmitted and not apologized for — is much ado about nothing. But that is decidedly not so for the women with whom we have spoken, who brought the video of the May 2nd City Finance & Services meeting to VanRamblings’ attention. The NPA Board of Directors are aware of the expressed concern.
4. A Legal Foofaraw
Or, Mr. Bremner insists a lawyer attend his Green Light Committee meeting
Applicants for a Vancouver Non-Partisan Association nomination must complete the filling out of a 51-page document. The Green Party of Vancouver employs a similar — but only 24-page — vetting document.
At the Friday afternoon meeting VanRamblings had with Mark Marissen, Mr. Bremner’s campaign manager, Mr. Marissen said …

“We had concern going in (to the Green Light Committee meeting). As you may be aware, at the last NPA AGM, Glen Chernen (ed. note, an approved NPA candidate for Mayor) placed a number of his people on the Board. Given the number of articles published recently where Glen Chernen has alleged a conflict of interest with Hector’s candidacy, and given the ties that HALT has to Glen, we all thought it best that Hector have a lawyer present for the meeting with the Green Light Committee.”

Sources close to the NPA Board told VanRamblings that the Board was “apoplectic” that Mr. Bremner wanted a lawyer present, that such a request is unprecedented in the party’s history (as it would be for the other Vancouver civic political parties, we have been told by representatives).
The Board of Directors fired off a letter to the Bremner team, a letter drafted by legal counsel for the Board, stating that “in the interests of procedural fairness” Mr. Bremner would not be allowed to have a lawyer present for the vetting process conducted by the party’s Green Light Committee. At this point, neither Mr. Bremner’s team, nor members of the NPA Board of Directors — or party members — were relieved or happy.
5. We Don’t Want Any of Them Damn, Di ….
Or, where Mr. Bremner’s concern about racism in the party derived
A couple of weeks back, Hector Bremner’s campaign manager, Mark Marissen, was called to a luncheon meeting with a well-heeled NPA supporter, long a fixture in the party’s infrastructure. According to Mr. Marissen, the person with whom he met expressed a concern about the “500 sign-ups by members of the Muslim faith” who were supporting Mr. Bremner’s bid for the NPA mayoral nomination. Marissen was aghast at the comments of this individual, he told VanRamblings at our Friday meeting.
In fact, sources close to the NPA expressed a similar concern to VanRamblings, not relating to any issue relating to race, but rather …

“We know that Hector has signed up 2000 new members,” an NPA insider told VanRamblings. “Our party’s concern isn’t with the ethnicity or racial makeup of the members Hector signed up — whether it be the 500 members of the Muslim faith, an equal or even greater number of members of Vancouver’s Asian population, or members of the evangelical community who have signed up in droves to support Hector — our concern is that, going forward, few of these new sign-ups are likely to play a role in the party, are unlikely to go door-knocking, man the phones, or play a role in the coming civic election campaign.

Many of Hector’s sign-ups not only have English as a Second language, they speak no English at all. The party feels that Hector isn’t trying to grow the party, but simply stuff the ballot box to secure the NPA nomination for Mayor. To the members of the Board, that’s a concern.”

Also of concern, NPA sources have told us, relates to a feared move of the party to the right, were Mr. Bremner to secure the NPA mayoral nomination, at a time and in an election cycle when the party is again trying to position itself, as it did in 2014, as the wider appeal New Progressive Association.”

Note should be made that none of the concerns expressed above were discussed with Mr. Bremner during his meeting with the NPA Green Light Committee, nor did any NPA Board members approach Mr. Bremner, at any time, to express such concerns to him directly.

Mark Marissen, political campaigner, energetic guy, affable, good-natured and ...

The affable and handsome political campaigner, Mark Marissen

Mr. Marissen rejects all the concerns expressed by NPA party members …

“Look, I didn’t initially come into this looking to work on Hector’s campaign. My candidate, and I thought he’d make a great Mayor, was Fred di Blasio, a high profile member of British Columbia’s indigenous community, a graduate of Queen’s College at Cambridge University, a Telus Vice President, and before that an AT&T VP. Fred’s happily married to Lana Parrilla, one’s of the stars of ABC’s Once Upon A Time TV series. Fred’s a good guy, and I thought he’d make a terrific Mayoral candidate — but after giving the idea much thought, he told me, ‘Not at this time, Mark’. And that was that, I thought, until …

“One day I heard Hector speaking at Council. I was impressed. I know Mike Wilson, who did a bang up job on Hector’s by-election win last year, and it got me thinking … since I’m in campaign mode, I thought to myself when listening to Hector, “Here’s a guy that could go all the way, and become Vancouver’s next Mayor’. So I signed onto Hector’s campaign, and I’m glad I did. Hector is a terrific candidate.”

Marissen’s primary concern relates to the unfairness of the process laid out by the Non-Partisan Association, many of whose members he has great affection for, he told me …

“Ray, you know as well as I, that the candidate who signs up the most members, and gets those members to the nomination meeting to cast their ballot, wins. Politics, in that way, is simple. When it comes right down to it, it’s a numbers game. And that’s the way it should have been. We signed up the most members, we would have gotten them out to the nomination meeting, and on May 29th, Hector would be the NPA’s Mayoral candidate. But it didn’t exactly work out that way, did it?”

At which point, Mark got up from his chair outside the Starbucks on Granville, shook my hand, a big smile washing over his face, predicting, “Hector’s going to be Mayor come October. Just you wait and see.” And then Mark disappeared into the crowd, and VanRamblings was left agog.
Over the course of the afternoon, another item came to the fore.

UPDATE | Hector Bremner posted the above on Facebook at 10am Monday, May 14th.
The NPA posted a confidential letter to Mr. Bremner this morning explaining the reasons WHY his nomination has been rejected by the party, allowing him to reveal the contents.

For Mark Marissen, there’s more than a taste, and a bitter taste at that, a feeling of déjà vu in the current contretemps his candidate is experiencing with “the old boys club” who run the affairs of the NPA, and a lingering resentment at the treatment his then wife, Christy Clark, was subject to when she put her name forward for the 2005 NPA Mayoral nomination.

VanRamblings is sympathetic to both sides in the current dispute between Mr. Bremner’s team, and the NPA Board of Directors — there are good people on both sides. Maybe, as Mark Marissen suggested, “the fix was in,” that John Coupar signed up 1250 members; Ken Sim, 1000; and Glen Chernen, reportedly, 750 members. Perhaps, in 2018, the NPA is looking to nominate a steadier hand as their Mayoral nominee.
Whatever the case, both sides to the dispute know that — at least in terms of political philosophy — there’s more that unites them than separates them. VanRamblings was looking for a “fair fight” come autumn, with the nominally right-of-centre Vancouver Non-Partisan Association on one side, and the coalition of Vancouver’s progressive parties — OneCity Vancouver, COPE, the Greens, Vision Vancouver and TeamJean — on the other side, both offering quite radically different platforms, but similar values of commitment to public life, leaving the decision as to the victors to the voting public, come Saturday, October 20th.
Alas. That’s not going to happen. Not that VanRamblings isn’t pleased that the ‘progressive parties” — now seemingly committed to the notion of a progressive coalition where all the parties in the coalition would agree on at least some tenets of a unified platform — look to emerge, together, as victors this coming autumn. No, we’re near ecstatic with what victory for Vancouver’s progressive coalition will mean for all Vancouver residents, and the provision of truly affordable social, housing co-op and co-housing; and a movement to expanded, and where necessary — as it must be for children aged 5 to 18, and Vancouver residents who live on an income below $40,000 a year — free transit, or at a much-reduced rate.
Final note. VanRamblings will provide both parties to the current right-of-centre dispute, the opportunity to have published here they’re reply to today’s column, or information either or both parties feel the voting public should or must know about the current dispute, heading into this autumn’s Vancouver civic election. And, oh yeah don’t forget: we’re here Monday to Thursday reporting out on Vancouver Votes 2018. See ya tomorrow!