Category Archives: BC Politics

Sam Sullivan: The New Mayor of Vancouver

November 23, 2005BC Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

On Saturday, November 19th Sam Sullivan became the 44th Mayor of Vancouver. What does Mr. Sullivan’s ascension to the highest political office in Canada’s third largest city mean for the people of Vancouver?
Well, first off, a return to decorum. Sullivan has promised that City Council debate will not be defined by acrimony, personal invective, and ad hominem attack. All points of view will be heard and decisions will be arrived at only after due consideration. Is Mr. Sullivan to be believed on this front? VanRamblings believes Mr. Sullivan to be a reasonable person who will do everything in his considerable power to return civility to Council debate.
In setting a new — and potentially co-operative — tone at City Hall, perhaps the first tentative steps might be taken towards healing the divide that exists in our City between rich and poor, East side and West side, privilege and anomie. The most salutary aspect of a new start is the sense of hope that is inspired when one does not know for sure what is to come. VanRamblings hopes for the best and trusts that the newly elected majority Non-Partisan Association Council will, while working with the Vision and COPE members of Council, move this City forward toward brighter days.
Lest you think that VanRamblings has been consuming a little too much of the NPA Kool-Aid, we would be remiss if mention were not made of the controversy surrounding Mr. Sullivan’s election to the Mayor’s job. If you look at the chart above, you’ll see that Independent candidate James Green polled third in the mayoralty race. Adding James Green’s vote to that of Vision Vancouver mayoralty candidate Jim Green’s vote places Vision’s Jim Green 526 votes ahead of Mr. Sullivan, the declared winner of Saturday’s mayoral contest. Were there “dirty tricks” involved in the NPA’s alleged support of an independent James Green candidacy, a cynical, dastardly ploy designed to confuse voters? Vision Vancouver certainly thinks so.
Re-elected COPE councillor David Cadman chalks Green’s loss up to hubris
You only have to be aware of Jim Green’s history to know that the issue of NPA “dirty tricks” will not be going away anytime soon; Jim’s a fighter and will see it through to the end. Meanwhile, Mayor-elect Sullivan has made statements to the press that he wants to get on with the job, and to that end has extended an olive branch to his Vision Vancouver opponent, suggesting that there continues to be a role for Mr. Green to play in the development of the Woodward’s site, a long cherished dream of Mr. Green.

Continue reading Sam Sullivan: The New Mayor of Vancouver →

Vancouver Elects New Council: The People Have Spoken

November 20, 2005BC Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

The 2005 race for Vancouver Municipal Council, School and Park Board is over. The NPA scored a stunning come-from-behind victory, all but decimating the COPE civic party. The election of four of five Vision Vancouver councillors sets a new direction for the progressive forces on Council. What all of these changes mean at the end of the day, it’s too early to say. But development in the City will most certainly take a different direction, and municipal issues will be re-prioritized. And it was always thus.
In the coming days, VanRamblings will publish our take on the meaning behind the change in direction for civic politics, in Vancouver and across the Lower Mainland. In the meantime, we can take heart that the people have spoken, and over the course of the next three years we will receive the kind of civic governance for which a majority of Vancouverites voted.

Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation: COPE Has The Right Plan

November 14, 2005BC Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

l-r: Spencer Herbert, Anita Romaniuk, Omar Kassis, Jenn McGinn, Mel Lehan, Loretta Woodcock

Last week, VanRamblings published a story endorsing COPE — Vancouver’s Coalition of Progressive Electors civic party — as the only municipal party that champions a sustainable programme of development that balances economic and environmental interests, towards the creation of a more livable city for all of us. Have already wholeheartedly endorsed the COPE slate of candidates for City Council and School Board, VanRamblings turns its attention today to the robust COPE Park Board slate.
Over the course of the past three years, a COPE Park Board, while enhancing public participation and access to the Board, has …

Championed the inclusion of 26 acres of park, and a 30,000 sq. ft. community centre at the future southeast False Creek development
Expanded wheelchair access in our parks and introduced universal design principles to accommodate all members of the public, regardless of physical and mental ability
Established skateboard parks beneath the east end of the Georgia Viaduct, and in the Strathcona and Quilchena neighbourhoods
Expanded the Champlain Community Centre, including new child care facilities; rebuilt and expanded the Killarney Pool; undertook an extensive renovation of Renfrew Pool; completed the Millennium Lawn Bowling and Gymnastics facility at Riley Park; established a new artificial turf playing field in Kerrisdale embraced by the community; and established new, or renovated, parks including Emery Barnes, Sahali, Tea Swamp, Strathcona, Heather, George Wainborne, David Lam Phase Two, and Kingcrest
Extended off leash hours for dog parks, while promoting public education for dog owners
Promoted and facilitated community gardens throughout the city, and
Improved environmental practices, including the diversion of rainwater into daylighted streams, as well as the re-use of rainwater for irrigation; expanded the use of green building technology and energy conservation; expanded the recycling programme and the re-use of materials; and continued our commitment to the Cool Vancouver Climate Change plan, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases

In only a few days, you will be asked to cast your ballot for a new Park Board. Sitting COPE Park Board commissioners Anita Romaniuk and Loretta Woodcock, and new candidates Mel Lehan, Spencer Herbert, Omar Kassis, and Jenn McGinn are deserving of your vote. If a majority COPE Park Board is elected to a second term, a COPE Park Commissioners team would …

Continue the renewal and expansion of community centres, ice rinks, swimming pools, and fitness centres
Move Park Board meetings into community centres, and create an open dailogue with the community
Approve a plebiscite for the 2008 civic election on whether or not to phase out the containment of whales and dolphins in Stanley Park
Continue the development of guidelines for waterfront and shoreline activities through the new Waterfront Planning Study
Engage in a consultative process with young people to enhance youth programming in parks and recreation centres
Adopt the LEED gold standard for new facilities, thus reducing future operating costs as well as reducing environmental impact
Keep annual operating expenses and annual inflationary fee increases for facilities and programmes within the target inflationary increases set by the City, while rolling back the NPA-approved 7% increase in seniors fees for golfing, swimming, and fitness centres passed for the 2003 budget

These are good people. Hard-working people. Caring people. On November 19th, when you cast your ballot for a reinvigorated Vancouver Park Board, VanRamblings urges you to support the COPE team of Park Board candidates — Spencer Herbert, Omar Kassis, Mel Lehan, Jenn McGinn, Anita Romaniuk, and Loretta Woodcock — all of whom will work towards the creation of a more livable city for each and every one of us.

Wal-Mart The Movie: The High Cost of Low Price

November 12, 2005BC PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

Click on picture to enlage poster

Sunday, at 7 p.m. at the VanCity Theatre, director Robert Greewald’s much-praised and controversial new film Wal-Mart - The High Cost of Low Price will première in Vancouver as a benefit screening for Vancouver’s COPE municipal party.
You know Wal-Mart’s inglorious history. Child exploitation. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart Stores agreed to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges in the U.S. that it violated child labour laws in Connecticut, Arkansas and New Hampshire.
Wal-Mart’s culture of crime and greed. In March of this year, only eight short months ago, Wal-Mart paid $11 million to settle charges that it employed hundreds of illegal immigrants to clean its stores across the United States.
Workers have been illegally fired for trying to form a union, and Wal-Mart spends millions to thwart workers basic rights, giving its union-breaking staff priority on resources (like corporate jets) over even higher-placed managers. In 2000, meat cutters at a Wal-Mart in Texas voted for the union — and Wal-Mart promptly violated the law by shutting down the meat-cutting department in the store and, for good measure, closed every other meat-cutting department in 179 other stores across the U.S. and Canada, just to make sure they had stamped out any smell of unionism.
And let’s not forget Wal-Mart’s shuttering of their Jonquierre, Québéc store, in May of this year, after its employees received union certification. A former employee at that store has filed a class-action suit in the Québéc Supreme Court claiming that Wal-Mart, in closing the store, “violated the rights of its workers” by breaching the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of association to all citizens.
Then there’s Wal-Mart’s wage policies, which deny its workers the basic right to a living wage, not to mention the off-the-clock work they force on their employees, and unequal pay and treatment to which they subject their employees. Wal-Mart’s discriminatory policies in regards of their female staff have resulted in the largest workplace-bias lawsuit in U.S. history.
You know the story: poverty-level wages, with a staff turnover rate of 50% a year; destruction of local businesses due to predatory pricing (an Iowa State University study found that in the first decade after Wal-Mart arrived, the state lost 111 men’s and boys’ apparel stores, 116 drug stores, 153 shoe stores, 158 women’s apparel stores, 161 variety stores, 293 building supply stores, 298 hardware stores, and 555 grocery stores); numerous labour law violations, ranging from illegal spying on employees and falsification of time cards to avoid paying overtime to fraudulent record keeping and illegal firings for union organizing; the record-holder for the most suits filed against a U.S. company by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Wal-Mart had to pay a $750,000 fine for blatant discrimination in Arizona against the disabled. The judge even ordered Wal-Mart to air commercials confessing their guilt); and more, much more.
But you don’t know the whole story. You won’t gain a true insight into Wal-Mart corporate practices until and unless you attend this Sunday evening’s screening of Wal-Mart — The High Cost of Low Price. Until you hear for yourself the shattering experiences of the current and former Wal-Mart employees Greenwald interviewed, this story will be little more than words on a screen. Sunday evening. See you at the VanCity theatre.