Category Archives: BC Politics

Mayor Adriane Carr. Vancouver’s next Mayor. Count On It.

April 30, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Green Party of Vancouver's Adriane Carr unofficially announces her candidacy for Mayor

On our continuing mission to alienate just about everyone we know, and most particularly those poor, woebegone individuals who have chosen to throw their hat into the ring in the boisterous 2018 Vancouver civic election, today on VanRamblings we take a swipe at the Mayoral candidacy of two-term Green Party of Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr …
… the really quite wonderful, incredibly hard-working, uncommonly and peerlessly-principled, joy-and-heart-filled, elected civic official of conscience, the top vote-getter in the 2014 Vancouver municipal election, the person who most thinking and conscious Vancouverites have either long known, or come to realize, is on their side, always and forever — a Vancouver City Councillor you know you can count on, a person who possesses that rare quality of being a good listener, someone who does not only hear what you’re saying, but processes and contexualizes your words, who values your input, who finds grace in the interactions with her constituents (which is to say, all of us who live in Vancouver), a fine, warm-hearted, incredibly bright human being who has dedicated her life to service on your behalf. No mean feat that, and a feat for which we all should be eternally grateful, and thankful of her invaluable service to us.
And yet, even given all of the above, VanRamblings harbours concerns, and a patina of misgivings about Councillor Carr’s — we think, ego-driven — mayoral ambitions, and certain 2018 candidacy for Mayor of Vancouver.

The most admirable trait any political figure can bring to public life is humility. Across Vancouver City Council, Vancouver Park Board, and Vancouver’s Board of Education, each and every one of our elected officials comes to their job absolutely and utterly devoid of ego. Heck, if each or any one of our elected civic officials had an ego, they’d never be able to put up with the continual attacks on their character, or the supposed “wrongness” of whatever decision they had made on any given day.

No, in Vancouver and much to what should be our undying gratitude, whether it be (l-r) John Coupar, Casey Crawford, Catherine Evans, Sarah Kirby-Yung, Stuart Mackinnon, Erin Shum or Mike Wiebe at Park Board, or …

(left to right, well sorta) … Melissa De Genova, Adriane Carr, Andrea Reimer, Heather Deal, Raymond Louie, with Mayor Gregor Robertson standing in the centre, Tim Stevenson, Kerry Jang, Elizabeth Ball, George Affleck, Hector Bremner — fine, upstanding, on your side Vancouver City Councillors, each and every one of them … or

And, once again left to right, the wonderful Carrie Bercic; along with multi-term trustee Fraser Ballantyne; Vision Vancouver’s Ken Clement; Vancouver’s longest-serving trustee and incredibly great person & staunch social justice warrior, Allan Wong; with brooks no nonsense Chairperson Janet Fraser in the centre, one of the finest Chairpersons of any board, anywhere, anytime, that we have ever witnessed; the appropriately-named, Joy Alexander; the Beedie School’s Dr. Judy Zaichkowski; the heart-filled and hard-working Estrellita Gonzalez; with relatively, recently-elected Lisa Dominato next to her; and, finally, last but certainly not least, principled Student Trustee, Eugene Jeoung — each of whom serve with distinction, as trustees on Vancouver’s distinguished Board of Education …
Each one of the public servants whose names appear above constitute, as elected groups, the finest, civically-minded amalgam of municipally-elected officials Vancouver has ever had the good fortune to have represent them in civic life in our city. Are they “perfect” human beings, are the decisions they take always, and without fail, the “right” ones — no, and each one of them would be the first one to say so, wrestling with and losing sleep over the decisions taken at the Council, Park Board or School Board table as part and parcel of what it means to be an elected official in our too often riven and far, far, far too cynically-minded paradise by the sea.

The Vancouver & District Labour Council Meetings are Imminent
Days from now, the august and most definitely on your side, Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC) will hold a “let’s broker a deal with the progressive forces in Vancouver” series of meetings — with good-hearted, honest and integrity-filled representatives from OneCity Vancouver, the Green Party of Vancouver, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, Vision Vancouver, and Team Jean in attendance — in order that the forces of regression and repression, as represented by Vancouver’s corporate-funded Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, who must be kept from taking a majority position at Vancouver City Council, upon which undesired outcome would rest the unwelcome fate not only of the people of Vancouver, but the some 3500 hard-working City of Vancouver employees, the folks who work within the Engineering Department to repair our roads, or the good people who process your development permit application when you either set about to build your new home or renovate your existing residence, or any of the other invaluable, incredibly hard-working civic staff who contribute daily to your quality of life in British Columbia’s largest metropolitan city.
Ostensibly, too, the upcoming May 6th / 7th VDLC meetings will seek to find agreement among the five progressive parties as to one, agreed-upon “unity candidate” for Mayor of Vancouver, around whom Vancouver’s progressive civic parties, the 46,000 Union employees who reside in Vancouver, and all persons of conscience might rally, so that those of us who have dedicated a good portion of our lives to the realization of a fairer, and more socially just, inclusive and equitable Vancouver might rally in support, in order that this unity candidate might emerge as a voice for us.
In other words, a voice for Vancouver’s future, and a Mayor who would work together with her fellow progressive city councillors in order that Vancouver might continue to be a city of reconciliation, a sanctuary city, a nuclear-free zone, a city welcoming of refugees and immigrants, where an unbridled and dedicated advocacy force for our gender-variant communities would remain of paramount importance on the city’s social justice agenda, and a principled civic government which represents the best that we can be — all the while, of course, laser-focused on what must become a whirlwind of affordable housing construction in our city, housing as a human right.
But, alas, Adriane Carr has chosen a “go it alone” path — last evening posting notice of her Adriane Carr for Mayor candidacy on a newly-created Facebook page, days in advance of the proposed VDLC “broker a deal” meeting, when yesterday, the civic party destined to be the most powerful political force in the coming civic election - which is to say, OneCity Vancouver - went on record to state that their party of greatness will not support Adriane Carr as a mayoralty candidate in the current civic election.

Ms. Carr has, in recent days, told anyone who will listen that if she were to seek the Mayor’s chair — as now would appear to be the case — she would do so as leader of the Green Party of Vancouver, and under no circumstance would she consider putting her name on the ballot for the Mayor’s job as a “unity candidate” for the five progressive parties seeking office in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election.
So much for playing nice with others, so much for being the much-desired-by-the-left “unity candidate”, so much for waiting to hear what has to be said at this week’s upcoming VLDC “broker a deal” meetings.
No sirree, Jill — Adriane Carr is going to go it alone, throw caution and co-operation to the wind, fight it out with the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, and now that the estimable Ms. Carr has rejected the notion of “unity”, you’ll likely see a Mayoral bid by Vision Vancouver City Councillor Raymond Louie, who is just chomping at the bit to enter the civic race.
Unity — it was nice knowin’ ya, have a good life, maybe by moving to Saskatoon you can find what you’re looking for, because it sure ain’t happenin’ in Vancouver, not now, not anytime soon. Oh woe is all of us.
Why would Adriane Carr — person of principle and character — reject the notion of running as a “unity” Mayoral candidate, when it represents her best chance to achieve the Mayor’s chair the evening of October 20th?
One word: hubris (about which VanRamblings knows more than a little, we are sad to report).
Adriane Carr. Mayor of Vancouver. Name in lights. A ‘go it alone’ gal — who oughta have a helluva time trying to whip her City Councillors into adopting measures she places on the city agenda, whose mayoralty will only succeed in sewing the seeds of dissension and dysfunction, which we all know works just tickety-boo in civic government. And if Adriane Carr is the Mayor with a majority NPA-elected City Council, well, gosh, won’t that be just swell … nothing will ever get done, like the antipathies of the Republican Congress & Senate imported into Vancouver. Great, that’d be great, just great.
Oh, you can just see the headlines in newspapers across Canada, and on the late evening network news programmes: “Adriane Carr, Canada’s first Green Mayor of a major metropolitan city. Hallelujah, and love a duck! Good times are here again.” Or not, as the case may be …
To say that VanRamblings is unthrilled with the prospect of an Adriane Carr as Green Party of Vancouver Mayor is to understate the matter; which is not to say that we do not believe Ms. Carr will succeed Gregor Robertson, to become Vancouver’s next Mayor — that’s likely, and it’s probable that against their best possible judgement OneCity Vancouver, COPE, Team Jean, the Greens (of course), and maybe even Vision Vancouver will only just grudgingly get behind a Carr for Mayor campaign — awaiting the inevitable fireworks that will follow from her ‘far from unified and any notion of unity’ ascendancy to the Mayor’s chair.
One supposes that at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter who becomes Vancouver’s next Mayor — most of the progressive parties are focusing on, together, electing a majority (of at least six Councillors) to Vancouver City Council, who would wield the real authority at City Hall.

Now, if you don’t know who the person above is, you haven’t been paying close enough attention to VanRamblings. We’re here to let you know: in the next few months, you will become absolutely smitten with Christine Boyle, who you MUST vote for in the current Vancouver civic election.

And, let’s face it, too, whoever becomes Mayor on October 20th will only be a placeholder Mayor, pending a run by sure-to-be-elected OneCity Vancouver Council candidate Christine Boyle who, in 2022, will become Vancouver’s once-and-forever Mayor, allowing those of us who reside in Vancouver to live in peace, prosperity and goodness for the remainder of our live-long days. Hallelujah — can’t wait til those halcyon days arrive!
In 2011, upon being elected as Vancouver’s first Green Party Vancouver City Councillor, Adriane Carr tied her wagon to the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association (or vice versa, as the case may be), appearing up front with NPA Councillors on the steps or front lawn of City Hall, anytime the NPA held a press conference — which was often. For all the world to see, and most particularly for members of the NPA, appearances were that Ms. Carr was an adjunct NPA member of Council. Come 2014, NPA voters turned out en masse for Ms. Carr, as did independents and deluded left-of-centre voters who thought, “Heck, yeah — Adriane Carr is one of us!”
Upon electing three Vancouver City Councillors in the 2014 municipal election, and seeing that Adriane Carr had emerged as the top vote-getter, the NPA’s Board of Directors gave their newly-and-re-elected Councillors a metaphorical slap upside the head, intoning, “No more deals with Adriane Carr. No more your putting her up front at press conferences you hold, no more helping to make people believe that she’s one of us — she’s not. Just what the hell were you thinking, anyway?”
Will Adriane Carr secure the right-wing vote in 2018, as the Green Mayoral candidate running to oppose Hector Bremner (who we believe has the NPA Mayoral nomination sewn up … it is to weep). You think so? Heck, c’mon over for coffee; we’ve got a bridge we’d like to sell you.
And will Adriane Carr secure the “progressive vote” in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election — not if Patti Bacchus has anything to say about (and she does!). Oh sure, it’s likely and even probable that the progressive forces will end up, begrudgingly, lining up behind an Adriane Carr bid for the Mayor’s chair, when it comes down to the crunch. But they won’t do so happily, and with any degree of enthusiasm. Oh woe is all of us.

In closing today’s column — yes, yes, today’s column is coming to its merciful end — as we are wont to do, a tale involving Adriane Carr, because as regular VanRamblings’ readers know: narrative counts for everything …
Early in her second term of office, VanRamblings attended an early morning meeting of Vancouver City Council, the city not yet having firmed up legislation that would make Vancouver a City of Reconciliation — on this particular, ‘overloaded with items of import’ agenda Council day, a just after Christmas mid-January, Tuesday morning sitting of Council, the onerous activities of the day began with an indigenous invocation ceremony that in its various parts proceeded over the course of a bit more than an hour, with frequent breaks to set up, delaying the work of the day, VanRamblings thought — callously, wrong-headedly and much to our undying shame and a measure of chagrin that we will carry with us always, from that day to this, and for the rest of our days on this Earth of ours … as we said to Councillor Carr as she approached us, welcoming VanRamblings to the Council room floor, we said to Councillor Carr, “it’s too bad, when there’s such a packed agenda, and it’s been over a month since Council last met that so much of yours and Council’s time is being taken up with today’s ceremony and presentation”, Adriane turning to us, saying …

“Raymond, the ceremony that is taking place today is more important to me and to the people of Vancouver than I can find words to express to you, the acknowledgement of the contribution of our indigenous peoples to the land, the ancestral home of our Coast Salish peoples, the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations on which Vancouver sits, which we have only borrowed from our indigenous sisters and brothers remains, as has been from the outset of my political career, one of the strongest motivating factors that has lead me to where I am today, as a sitting, 2nd-term member of Vancouver City Council.

The job I have taken on at Vancouver City Council not only concerns the recognition and acknowledgement of the invaluable contribution of our First Nations peoples it is, as well, to work on behalf of those who do not have a voice in the the critical, life-changing decisions that take place at the Council table. I work for the vulnerable among us and give voice to their issues. I work for families living in poverty. I work with my colleagues on Council to achieve the realization of a truly affordable housing stock for seniors, the working poor, for our refugee and immigrant population. I work for members of our vibrant gender-variant and LGBTQ communities, who add so much to the life of our city. I fight for young people, for the children of a generation raised by their families in Vancouver, but who cannot find a home in our city, in a place they have called home all of their lives, the city of their birth or who have come to call Vancouver home, a city where they might raise their own families, as may their children and their children’s children in the future. I fight for those of us who live in Vancouver and call Vancouver home who are being denied the opportunity to succeed and find residence in what is quickly becoming a resort city, and not a city that serves the interests of the vast majority of its citizens.

Every day at the Council table, I fight for all of Vancouver’s citizens who are being denied access to opportunity, to make Vancouver — as I have seen you write many, many times — a fairer, more inclusive and more socially just city, a vibrant and environmentally sound home for all of us who live in any one of the 23 neighbourhoods that make Vancouver the welcoming and socially just city that it is, the place we call home.”

At which point, seeing that the indigenous ceremony was set to begin once again, Councillor Adriane Carr turned away, took her seat on the south side of the room at the Council table, her focus solely on the moving ceremony that was unfolding before us, which VanRamblings now saw with newly opened eyes, and a heart filled with appreciation for Adriane’s work to make our city better — one small, but very important step at a time.
Adriane Carr as a difference maker, a social justice warrior and a person of conscience and commitment to the greater good, a person possessed of the heart and the commitment to make Vancouver a great city for all of us who are currently resident in our hilly town, and for all of those who will join us in the years to come, comprised of vibrant, welcoming neighbourhoods where we would live and prosper, where we might raise our families, in this village by the sea we call home, we call Vancouver, the city we love.

Today’s VanRamblings’ post represents the sixth post in our Vancouver Votes 2018 series — where next month, we’ll introduce some of the declared Council candidates, Park Board Commissioner candidates (we’ve got to respond to our friend and UFCW stalwart Abby Leung, who’ll be placing her name forward for Park Board) and the fine, upstanding folks / defenders of public education, like the tremendous and integrity-filled community activists Erica Jaaf and Jennifer Reddy, who’ve put their names forward as candidates to be a “it’s consuming my life” (just ask Carrie Bercic, who we’ll see at tonight’s School Board meeting — everyone reading this should attend — when we’ll sign her nomination papers … and yes, Christopher Richardson, we’ll be happy to sign yours, as well, and support your candidacy for) trustee, on the Vancouver School Board.

Vancouver Municipal Election | Still Almost 6 Months Out

April 25, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

Today, a catch-as-catch-can VanRamblings column, focusing on the necessity of citizen engagement, and how critical it is that voters get out to the advance polls early in October, or on Election Day, Saturday, October 20th, to exercise their franchise, take power over their lives, and determine how our city will grow and address the issues of importance facing the citizens of Vancouver over the next four year period of life in our city.

In the 2008 Vancouver civic election —&#32one of the most closely-observed elections in Vancouver history, and following a brutal, life-altering summer of 2007 3-month strike / worker lockout brought on by the then Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Sam Sullivan-led civic administration —&#32voter turnout was a paltry 30.79%, with only 124,285 eligible voters out of a registered civic voter base of 403,663 turning up at the polls. That means, 69.21% of eligible Vancouver voters could not be bothered to cast a ballot, to “throw the bums out”, to keep or elect a new civic administration.
As has often been said, municipal government is the most important level of government, the one that is closest to the day-to-day concerns of its citizens —&#32the level of government that keeps our streets clean, fixes potholes, picks up our garbage and recycling, supplies water & services to our homes, levies property tax, builds new community centres, and determines the livability of the city where we live, the level of government that is closest to our homes, dramatically impacting on the quality of our daily lives —&#32saw Vancouver voters either staying at home sitting on their duff, going to a pub or hockey game, or otherwise avoiding exercising their franchise, as if voting, being involved in the democratic political process, and taking some degree of power over our lives, simply didn’t matter.
All of which attitude of disengagement and civic anomie, beggars belief.

If you’re here reading today’s VanRamblings column, good for you. You are a member of an elite group, that 4% of the population (2% left-of-centre, 2% right-of-centre) who are actually engaged in the process of helping determine the policies that will affect the quality of your life in this city, in our province, and in your home country of Canada. If you’re here reading today’s column, it means that you actually care about the quality of education your children, grandchildren or neighbour’s children will receive in our public education system, and whether we’re going to get that new community centre in Marpole, whether addressing homelessness and the affordable housing crisis that has plagued our city for well over a decade will emerge as a priority for the next civic administration, among a myriad of issues Vancouver voters will address at the polls this upcoming autumn.

On Earth Day this past Sunday, at the well-attended Earth Day Service: The Life of this Land, hosted by the Canadian Memorial United Church at 15th and Burrard, a young indigenous man —&#32a 21-year-old man by the name of Cedar George-Parker, who along with his sister, Kayah George-Parker, the children of Tseil-Waututh Sundance Chief Rueben George, and Tulalip Band Councillor, Deborah Parker —&#32spoke movingly about the necessity of being involved in the movement for change, and the necessity that everyone, all of us, must come together, work together, and become involved in the decision-making that affects the quality of all our lives, and the lives of our children, our children’s children, and all the generations to come.

“I could sit at home watching TV,” he told the congregation, “but that would be a disservice to my sister, to my family, to my godchildren, and to each and every one of you. We are at a critical juncture in the history of our planet, where our oceans are being polluted and our fish stocks depleted to the point where we soon won’t have a fisheries in British Columbia, where the lush green valleys of our province are being flooded in service of an electricity-generating dam to serve monied interests, a dam that will not only destroy habitat, but impact in the most destructive manner possible the lives of our northern indigenous peoples and those who live on the land, who grow the food for our tables, raise the cattle that feed our families, and those lands that allow our planet to breathe, allowing each one of us to breathe cleaner, fresher and life-giving air.

I am here today to ask you to stand with my sister Kayah and I, to stand with your brothers and sisters, to fight for your home and the preservation of our planet, to do all that you can do to make a difference.

VanRamblings has friends who have all but taken up residence on Burnaby Mountain fighting the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, who daily wage the battle against racism, bigotry, hate and intolerance, who fight for the proper funding of our public schools, and who are engaged with others —&#32with friends and neighbours, with their families and their colleagues, and people they don’t even know but whose values they share, and who recognize as they do that life on our planet, and life in our city is our responsibility, and that it is critical that each and every one of us work with others for the change we want to see, to become engaged in the political process —&#32in this case, our upcoming Vancouver civic election —&#32that will determine our collective future, and the livability of our city and our planet.

Do you have friends, neighbours, colleagues or family members who are disengaged from the political life of our city, disengaged from the decision-making that affects the quality of their and all of our lives, those of us who live in the city of Vancouver, who prioritize going to the movies or to their neighbourhood pub, or who find themselves sitting home most nights smoking a doobie, or watching TV or who otherwise are letting life pass them by, as if somehow it doesn’t matter that the new tower being planned for down the street that will affect the livability of their neighbourhood is a fait accompli, and what can they do about it anyway? If so (and you know that you do), take them out for a coffee, remind them that they can make a difference, that their voice is powerful, and their time, energy and commitment is required to create the kind of city we all want to live in, to raise our families in, and to share with our neighbours, family and friends.
Take it upon yourself to convince them to join the political party of their choice, and accompany them to a meeting of —&#32the Green Party of Vancouver, who prize the environment and independent thought; or OneCity Vancouver, the Vancouver municipal political party that means to make a difference in 2018; or Vision Vancouver, the party that has held civic office for the past 10 years, the party that has championed LGBTQ2+ issues, and enacted healthy, environmentally sound active transportation initiatives that have transformed our city; or, the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, who mean to return service to citizens as its number one priority; the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), the political party that will this year celebrate 50 years of service to the citizens of Vancouver; or, the good folks involved with Team Jean, originally formed to champion, support and ensure the election to City Council of longtime community activist, Jean Swanson, and —&#32if truth be told —&#32the most energetic and well-organized amalgam of community activists / change makers our city has seen in years, some members of whom have now joined COPE.
Take this advice: turn that damn TV off, read about what’s going on in our city, in the Vancouver Courier, the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the new StarMetro Vancouver daily, on VanRamblings, and in the Georgia Straight (most particularly, online —&#32the opinion pieces written by editor Charlie Smith always a must-read).
Click on each of the party websites above, gain some cogent insight into what each party stands for and prioritizes in its electoral platform, and the programmes and policies each will set about to implement should they be elected to office at Vancouver City Council, Park Board or School Board, in the coming civic election, in this most critical of election years.
Go out to coffee with your neighbours to discuss the issues of importance that are facing Vancouver voters in the coming civic election, or when you’re with your colleagues at the lunch table, in the BBQ in the back yard or on the roof, in our parks, or any place where you are gathered with your friends, your neighbours, your colleagues, and those with whom you gather together in your neighbourhood, in your community and across our city.
In 2018, set out to make a difference, set out to prioritize engagement over anomie, get to know the issues, and work with your friends and neighbours to make ours a better, fairer and more just city. You’ll sleep better at night, your health will improve and your levels of stress decline, you will feel empowered and will one day very soon arise and know that you truly are making a difference, that you have stories to tell, a life to live, and a past to look back on where you know that you’ve done your part to make things better, not just for your family, but for all of us who share this planet, who live in this city we call home, a paradise by the sea named Vancouver.

The Inevitable Candidacy of John Coupar for Mayor of Vancouver

April 24, 2018BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Park Board Commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung (left), with bearded Avalon Dairy owner Everett Crowley, and NPA Mayoral hopeful / candidate for nomination, John Coupar.

John Coupar is a decent man. A loving husband and father, a near lifelong Vancouver resident who raised his family in Dunbar, but now lives (with his wife Heather) in a condo in the Olympic Village (“North America’s most sustainable community”, as you’ll hear John say in the video below), a dedicated and hard-working two-term Park Board Commissioner, and recent Chairperson of Vancouver’s cherished Board of Parks and Recreation — where he’s made an unparalleled difference for the better during his near seven years in elected public office — a fighter and an advocate for our parks and recreation system, whose work in our parks system knows no equal, one of the kindest, gentlest, most open and most gregarious, yet settled and centred men you will ever have had the welcome opportunity to meet, the estimable John Coupar is — among the four NPA mayoral aspirants — VanRamblings’ overwhelming choice to secure the nomination, when members of Vancouver’s oldest, most established political party cast a ballot for their next Mayoral candidate, to carry them into office in 2018.

There’s an old saw among the left — or, if you will, “progressive” — forces in Vancouver that any candidate offering their name up for elected office and choosing to run with the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association must and will, perforce, emerge as little more than a right-wing Trumpian nightmare, devoid of conscience and empathy and an “enemy of the people”, a despicable toady to the elite corporate forces that seek to control our lives, denying us equality of opportunity, so as to maintain their capitalist class interests to keep the majority population oppressed and in a constant state of wont, confusion, self-hatred, alienation and disempowerment.
If anyone is going to put that not entirely inaccurate shibboleth to bed, it is the tremendously engaging John Coupar, who is a democrat to his core, an advocate for all people, welcoming of hearing and engaging with all persons on all the myriad positions on the issues that affect the quality of our day-to-day life, movingly socially progressive, and just about as non-partisan as one could possibly imagine in this age of identity and destructive dog-whistle politics, and narcissistic and egoist, self-serving hyper-partisanship.

The single most moving experience to which VanRamblings has been witness, in recent years in the public realm, respecting an elected official — a moment which will reside deep within our heart and memory always, a moment of hope and inspiration which informs VanRamblings’ life and the way we bring ourself to the world, every day — involves John Coupar.
As we wrote on November 11th, 2014, when endorsing the candidacy of John Coupar for Park Board …

When the gender-variant policy was presented to Park Board, the most moving address to those gathered in a crowded Park Board conference meeting room was given by John Coupar, who thanked all of those who had presented to Park Board on an issue of importance to each person in attendance, and to him, saying in part, “Sitting on Park Board for the past almost three years has proven to be the most enlightening and moving experience of my life, and never more so than was the case this evening. I want you to know that you have an advocate in me, and in my fellow Park Board Commissioner, Melissa De Genova, that we will fight for you, we will fight for inclusivity in our parks and in our community centres. Working together with all of the Commissioners around the table, I commit to you today that our parks and community centres will become welcoming and safe havens for you, where you will be respected always. I look forward to working together with you, and with Park Board staff, on the early implementation of all facets of the gender variant policy on which you have worked so hard, and has proved of such service to our community. Throughout my life, I have made a commitment to inclusivity, fairness and equity — let us work together, go forward and write a new chapter in our social and political history, as we work toward a community of comfort, respect and acceptance that serves the interests of all of our citizens.”

If you’ve read this far, you won’t be surprised to learn that when John Coupar became Chairperson of the Vancouver Park Board in early December 2014, his first order of business was to get to work to implement the gender-variant policy throughout Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, and that in early January 2015 when Templeton Pool had its first, inclusive, late morning and early afternoon swim, John Coupar was front and centre, trunks on, swimming laps with the members of Vancouver’s gender-variant community, inclusivity an issue he continued to fight for throughout his second term of office on Vancouver Park Board.

All of which above probably leaves you thinking, apart from what has been written, “What kind of Mayor would John Coupar be, should he be successful in winning the NPA Mayoral nomination on Tuesday, May 29th”?
John would be a ‘back to the city’s political roots of service to citizens’ Mayor, where you could wake up every morning and know to a certainty that the streets and roads would be clean, free of clutter, cleared of snow in the winter season and safe to drive on (or, if you’re riding your bike or walking to work, or traveling to a friend’s home, that your journey there would be safe), where the medians on our boulevards would be well-kept, where our Park Board would once again be properly and fully funded (as has not been the case this past 10 years under the current civic administration) — given the Greens and the NPA would seem to be the only Vancouver civic parties who would appear to give a good galldarn about our parks and recreation system (which, for the left, ought to be an access and a class issue, but is not, and is given little or no consideration) — where John’s door would always be open, where debate in the surprisingly snug room where Council meets would be temperate and respectful and where the focus would be on getting things done, co-operatively and in a timely manner in the interests of all the citizens of Vancouver.
John Coupar, then, would be a ‘back to the basics’ Mayor, supportive of and sympathetic to social justice issues, but focused more on the core issues of service to the community.

Vancouver Park Board GM, Malcolm Bromley & Mike Klassen, Vancouver Courier columnist

If we might suggest such, should John Coupar secure the NPA Mayoral nomination and win the Mayoralty come October 20th, we would advise that he appoint a tough, strong and knowledgeable Chief of Staff to aid him in traversing the shoals of inevitable dysfunction at Vancouver City Hall, and would suggest to John that he give consideration to bringing Vancouver Courier civic affairs columnist Mike Klassen on board for that critical role to his Mayoralty, and that he, as well, give strong and thoughtful consideration (as must already be the case) to appointing current Park Board General Manager Malcolm Bromley as his “there’s a new, temperate, very bright, city building sheriff in town, one who intends to reach out to the citizenry to ensure that citizen voices are heard in all the decision-making that takes place at City Hall, the central tenets of my job to ensure that Mayor and Council accomplish that which needs doing, as reflected in the majority decisions of Council & the will of the people of Vancouver” City Manager.
As VanRamblings indicates above, we endorse John Coupar’s candidacy to secure the Mayoral nomination of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association. If you’re not already a member of the NPA, or you’re not working with the progressive coalition of left-of-centre civic parties to ensure a majority progressive Vancouver City Council this upcoming autumn, VanRamblings would encourage you to take out a membership in the NPA today (or before cut-off day, this upcoming Sunday, April 29th), in order that you might cast your ballot for John Coupar as the NPA Mayoral candidate in the critical and tremendously important 2018 Vancouver municipal election.

Shauna Sylvester, Trojan Horse? The Destruction of a Candidate

April 23, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

On Saturday afternoon, when returning home on the bus from a friend’s place, in checking our Facebook timeline on our iPhone (as we are wont to do), we ran across a post by former Coalition of Vancouver Electors City Councillor, Tim Louis, titled Shauna Sylvester: A Trojan horse for Vision?
For reasons we have yet to get a handle on, VanRamblings found ourselves becoming emotionally verklempt and stricken, as if we had just taken a punch to the gut. Our whole demeanour saddened. Stumbling off the bus at the stop nearest to our home, we had to steady ourself, leaning our arm against a building wall protusion, remaining stock still, our eyes downcast, standing there for a number of minutes, before finally making our way home to our cozy co-op apartment, at which point upon entering the living room, we slumped down onto the sofa, where we remained for a half hour.
VanRamblings was struck, upon re-reading Tim’s piece, by what we feel is the rank unfairness and mis-characterization of a person of conscience, a strong, accomplished woman with agency, a social justice warrior who has fought for inclusivity and for a fairer and more just world during the course of her entire adult life, one of the kindest, most welcoming and spiritually soulful women we have encountered during the course of our own lifetime.

A digression. VanRamblings has known Tim Louis well for 14 years. We worked on his 2005 re-election campaign, and in 2008 acted as a co-campaign manager for Tim (along with his spouse, Dr. Penny Parry, and if memory serves, longtime Tim Louis devotee and founder of Free Geek Vancouver, Ifny LaChance), creating his campaign website — with the able assistance of our longtime friend, current Vancouver Courier civic affairs columnist, Mike Klassen (yes, Michael — then a member of the dreaded Vancouver Non-Partisan Association — was instrumental in creating Tim’s 2008 and 2011 campaign websites, a job assumed by COPE Executive Director, Sean Antrim, in the 2014 Vancouver civic election campaign).
In each of the campaigns we worked on closely with Tim, we posted regularly to his campaign website, shot and edited video, and assisted him in developing a platform in each of three municipal election cycles – playing a key role in developing Tim’s 2014 affordable housing and transit policy (which, if truth be told, was a direct steal from Dr. Patrick Condon, a Mayoral aspirant in the current civic election, & a longtime, well-respected Professor of Urban Planning at the University of British Columbia).
VanRamblings, too, is a longtime devotee of the estimable Mr. Louis. But we think he’s got it wrong in 2018. As we’ve suggested before, in the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp, when men are allies in the fight for sustaining social justice for women, it is wrong-headed (and sexist, at the very least, we believe) to attack a women of character whose values, for the most part, he shares, and whose core values all progressively-minded voters would most assuredly share, support, champion and celebrate.
VanRamblings has been criticized in the past for being too quick to employ the word misogyny in circumstances such as the one we describe above — unsurprisingly, this castigation always coming from men, as if somehow misogyny and the ingrained prejudice against women long evident in our culture does not constitute a fact of life for all women, most particularly in western society as evidenced in the denigration of women who deign to challenge male dominance. One is left to wonder if an ingrained misogynistic attitude does not inform and lay at the centre of Tim’s article.
End of digression.

In a discussion with Ms. Sylvester (from here on in, our intention is to, mostly, refer to Ms. Sylvester as Shauna, as an acknowledgement of her innate humanity, and certainly not as any intended sign of inappropriate familiarity or disrespect) eight days ago, at the OneCity Vancouver Membership Meeting, we voiced to her that we would be “mean” to her in the column we would publish about her “independent” candidacy for Mayor of Vancouver. Her response: “Why?” Why, indeed? In the column we had written and intended to post today, we employed the sardonic, offhand style of commentary we are often wont to employ on VanRamblings.
We’ve scrapped that already written — and, we thought, “entertaining” and informative — column in favour of today’s, we hope more humane, ramble.
Not that we intend to forego reporting on concerns about Ms. Sylvester’s candidacy, concerns that are being widely expressed in the Vancouver political community. To fail to report out would be to do a disservice to VanRamblings readers, and the cause of journalism – which, as celebrated muckraking writer Finley Peter Dunne opined in the late 19th century is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” And so we shall.

The photo you see above — published in a January 16th, 2018 CBC news online article, written by journalist Maryse Zeidler — sees Shauna Sylvester standing beside longtime Chief of Staff to Mayor Gregor Robertson, Mike Magee, the photo taken at this year’s Vision Vancouver Annual General Meeting, one week after Mr. Robertson announced that he would not seek a fourth term of office at Vancouver City Hall.
The photo is meant to suggest to voters, or remind them, that Shauna is a died-in-the-wool Visionista, a Gregor Robertson devotee and, as Tim Louis “points out” in his brief article published this past Saturday, a “trojan horse” and as Tim also writes, “anything but independent” and almost certainly “a placeholder” for a discredited civic party “certain” to lose power on the evening of Saturday, October 20th, British Columbia’s municipal election date. The photo above is also meant to “remind” voters that …

Shauna sat as a member of the Board of Directors of Vision Vancouver;
Shauna is a longtime friend — and acolyte — of Vision Vancouver founder Joel Solomon, who journalist Frances Bula characterized as The Unlikely Revolutionary in a June 1st 2009 feature article in Vancouver Magazine, Mr. Solomon a longtime target of Vivian Krause, and Canada’s right-wing forces (and, no, we’re not going to link to any of those attack articles), Joel Solomon as the “left wing” counterpart to the “right wing” longtime NPA President, Peter Armstrong;
Shauna is the “woo woo” candidate, as a member of the “cult forces” of Cortes Island’s pricey Hollyhock Spiritual Centre, about which journalist Shannon Rupp wrote in an article in The Georgia Straight, “I assume this artificial feeling of love and acceptance is what people are paying for, but I have to admit I find these get-togethers oppressive. Perhaps the most annoying aspect of Hollyhock is its culture of conformity — Goddess forbid anyone should question anything. After five days here, I’ve found Hollyhock is really two places: the site itself is delightful, but the half-baked spiritual and psychological concepts it peddles make me uneasy.” Note: Gregor Robertson owns a home on Cortes Island, and is a charter member of Hollyhock, as is current Vancouver City Manager, Sadhu Johnson (as well as other senior administrators at Vancouver City Hall);

And, finally, as the pièce de résistance …
Shauna chaired a Mayor’s task force establishing an “affordable housing rate” in Vancouver — and as was recently pointed out by Vancouver Kingsway NDP MP Don Davies, at an Affordable Housing Forum — at a ludicrous $1700 for a studio apartment, $2250 for a one-bedroom, and $2850 for a two-bedroom apartment, on Vancouver’s eastside!

The above “talking points”, then, are what have been making the rounds among the left cognoscenti in Vancouver, are denying Ms. Sylvester agency in her campaign to become Vancouver’s next Mayor, and have caused COPE and Team Jean to refuse to even consider an accommodation with Vision Vancouver in the upcoming civic election.
Among the ideological left, it was always thus.

All of which begs the question: What kind of Mayor would Shauna Sylvester become, should she emerge victorious late in the evening of October 20th?
Well, first of all, Shauna is a woman, and in Vancouver we are one of the few jurisdictions on the planet who have never elected a woman to become Mayor of their city, which is a stain on the reputation of a city that purports to be and widely extols itself as a “progressive city”. Vancouver can hardly call itself “progressive” when we’ve never elected a woman as our Mayor.
All of the social justice issues that Vision Vancouver has promoted during their term in office as the majority party at City Hall are central to Shauna’s vision of the world, and as such she would be a staunch defender of the progressive values that Vancouverites are known the world over for celebrating within the cultural mosaic that is early 21st century Vancouver.
Vancouver would remain a sanctuary city, where police would not ask for I.D. or otherwise seem to harass citizens who are persons of colour, and where no one is illegal; Vancouver would continue to champion LGBTQ2+ issues; would remain a nuclear free zone; would continue to implement the 10-year Women’s Equity Strategy, to make Vancouver a “fair, safe and inclusive city” for all women; would continue to implement the benefits of our city’s ongoing active transportation initiatives (and, yes, for those of you who are not paying attention, that means more bike lanes — about which initiative VanRamblings continues to be, and will always be supportive); and would work with senior levels of government to ensure the construction of truly affordable housing (defined as one-third of a person’s income), while continuing the city’s work with the Community Land Trust to ensure the construction of co-operative housing, such as the recently-opened 135-unit family friendly Railyard Housing Co-op at Quebec and 1st.
Mayor Shauna Sylvester would work to continue the important environmental initiatives that are critical to the future of our children and our families; would work with provincial Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Judy Darcy, and provincial Minister of Justice, David Eby, to work towards the elimination of the scourge that is the fentanyl crisis, most evident on Vancouver’s downtown eastside but also evident across our city, while supporting the good work of Sarah Blyth, Constance Barnes and others who work with the Overdose Prevention Society; would be a fair and judicious chair of Vancouver City Council meetings, providing all elected City Councillors a voice in the decision-making that affects the quality of life in Vancouver, and as such would be a mediator and an agent for change to bring Vancouver City Council together to enact programmes and legislation that would enhance the lives of all Vancouver citizens.
To be honest, and let’s be damn sure about this, Shauna Sylvester would make a first-rate Mayor for the City of Vancouver were voters to cast their ballot for her in sufficient numbers come this October, such that Shauna Sylvester would become our first ever, compassionate woman Mayor, in a four year term that would begin this November, not a fire-breathing radical Mayor, but a neighbourhood-championing Mayor who would put the interests of Vancouver families, families of every description in all of our communities, first on her political & social agenda, and make us all proud.