Category Archives: News

#BCPoli | The Knock Down, Drag Out Fight in Vancouver-Yaletown

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One of the more interesting battles for office in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election will occur in the new, redistributed riding of Vancouver-Yaletown.

Vying for supremacy on election night, Saturday, October 19th, are Conservative Party of BC candidate for office, Melissa De Genova, and the recently recruited British Columbia New Democratic Party candidate, Terry Yung.

As we say above, Vancouver-Yaletown is a new British Columbia electoral riding that was created from a 2022 re-drawing of electoral riding boundaries.

Previously, the area was part of the Vancouver-False Creek riding, which is a geographical area that includes the False Creek South neighbourhoods.

Between 2013 and 2020, the riding of Vancouver-False Creek was held by former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. Currently, Vancouver-False Creek is represented by the BC NDP’s Brenda Bailey, who is the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development, and Innovation. In 2024, Ms. Bailey will seek elected office as the BC NDP candidate in the newly-created riding of Vancouver-South Granville.


Melissa De Genova, her VPD officer husband, Blair, and daughter, Lili — who just entered Grade Two

B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad, upon successfully recruiting Melissa De Genova as a party candidate, had this to say …

“Melissa brings valuable experience regarding getting housing built, with her deep understanding of the challenges of actually getting housing built, from all perspectives. In her tenure as a two-term Vancouver City Councillor, and her work in the private sector, Melissa worked to get both market and non-profit housing built. The Conservative Party believes Melissa De Genova’s expertise in housing is critical to tackling the affordability crisis in BC.”

The Conservative Party website adds about their Vancouver-Yaletown candidate.

Ms. De Genova was named one of the top forty under forty by Business in Vancouver for her work in creating affordable housing. She has volunteered for numerous community-focused charities, including the Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre, the Salvation Army in the Downtown Eastside, Odd Squad productions, Honour House and the Italian Day Festival Society.

What is true about Melissa De Genova is that she is a fighter, a community activist and elected official who doesn’t put up with any guff.

When Melissa De Genova fought for the construction of the Killarney Seniors Centre —  despite members of the majority Vision Vancouver City Council dragging their heels on approval of the needed seniors facility — Melissa was relentless in working to get the seniors facility built, as she moved the sun, the moon, the Earth and the stars to achieve her goal.

VanRamblings, and anyone who has worked with Melissa, can tell you, this three time elected official (Melissa sat as a Park Board Commissioner from 2011 to 2014, before being elected to two terms on Vancouver City Council) is no one to mess with when she sets her mind to serving the best interests of the community.


Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, and her beloved husband Terry Yung, BC NDP candidate.

Retired Vancouver Police Department (VPD) Inspector Terry Yung — who recently left the VPD after three decades of distinguished service — on August 28th became the British Columbia New Democratic Party candidate for office in the newly-created Vancouver-Yaletown riding, ready to fight for victory in the October 2024 provincial election.

“I know Terry is values driven.

He readies action any time someone is pushed around, exploited, taken advantage of, or left behind,” said BC NDP Premier David Eby, when Terry Yung secured the nomination.

“He knows we need to be tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime. These values led him to an exceptional career in law enforcement, and have called him to public life as a BC NDP candidate. Terry will join two other senior police officers on our candidate team, all of whom have spent their careers dedicated to delivering safe and strong communities. The people of Vancouver-Yaletown can count on him to be in their corner,” continued Eby.

Terry Yung was also the longtime board Chair of the non-profit social service organization SUCCESS (United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society), and involved with other organizations such as the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver, the Vancouver Cambie Lions Club, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. Terry is a recipient of the BC Medal of Good Citizenship and a Melvin Jones Fellow.

“City cores across North America are facing crises with homelessness and addictions, and the impact on public safety that follows. Here in B.C., we’re focused on keeping people safe and getting to the root causes of crime — it’s starting to make a difference,” Yung told those gathered for the Vancouver-Yaletown BC NDP meeting where he was acclaimed the party’s candidate.

“As a former VPD officer, I know B.C. can be a leader in successfully taking on these challenges with kindness and compassion, recognizing the roles of poverty and mental health in creating these conditions. And that’s the approach David Eby’s government has taken: hiring new police officers to take on organized crime, launching mental health crisis response teams, while opening more homes and treatment facilities. B.C. is tackling our public safety challenges on every level. It’s work worth doing — and worth being a part of, which is why I came forward. I can’t wait to get to work in the British Columbia Legislature.”

The emergent, central, defining election issue in Vancouver-Yaletown: crime.

VanRamblings sources tell us that …

  • When recruiting Terry Yung, the Premier made a commitment to Mr. Yung he would appoint the decorated VDP Inspector as our province’s next Solicitor General, and …
  • According to internal party polling, from both the Conservatives and NDP, Melissa De Genova currently enjoys a substantial lead over her opponent. But believe us when we say, with 46 days to go until Election Day, it is waaayyyy too early to predict the outcome of the electoral race to represent the residents of Vancouver-Yaletown..

Terry Yung’s claim to fame is that the residents of Yaletown give him credit for shutting down the controversial Overdose Prevention Society safe injection site — which was a magnet for crime and disorder in their neighbourhood.

Given that Yaletown has emerged in recent years as a family neighbourhood — we’re always surprised to find young children and their families walking throughout the neighbourhood, heading home from a visit to the T&T market, to their home on the 11th floor of one of the myriad Yaletown towers — moving the safe injection to a nearby site, adjacent to Yaletown, was the first order of business for Terry Yung, and the grateful residents of Yaletown.

If we have a criticism of Melissa’s 2024 campaign for provincial office it’s that she is — as has been the case throughout her political career — far too partisan for her own good, her daily visceral, ad hominen attacks on David Eby … who most folks actually like on a personal level, even if they’re not fans of his government … we believe to be counterproductive to her goal of attaining a seat in the provincial Legislature. In the 2022 Vancouver civic election, the electorate tired of her act, relegating her to a 19th place finish on election night, on Saturday, October 15th.

Melissa may wish to reconsider her strategy by adopting a somewhat less inflammatory approach to her goal of winning elected provincial office.

We will say two more things pertinent to Ms. De Genova’s bid to attain office.

  • There is no love loss between Ms. De Genova and current ABC Vancouver / former Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung. Terry Yung loves his wife, and hardly cottons to Ms. De Genova’s less than generous appreciation of his beloved spouse. For Melissa, this is personal, not to mention which, knowing Melissa it is probable that she feels Terry Yung to be a turncoat — “How dare he have supported his wife’s run for Vancouver City Council under the centre-right Non-Partisan Association banner, while supporting his good friend, Vancouver-Langara B.C. Liberal Member of the Legislature, Michael Lee, and now emerge as a latter day candidate for the hated NDP.”
  • Terry Yung is a respected and beloved, retired 30-year member of the Vancouver Police Department. Ms. De Genova’s husband is Blair Da Costa, a multi-year member of the aforementioned Vancouver Police Department. Now, dear and constant reader, you may have heard something about “the boys in blue are a brotherhood.” If Terry Yung doesn’t exactly cotton to Ms. De Genova’s derision for his wife, you can bet that members of the VPD will not be thrilled with Mr. Da Costa’s wife going after one of their own. Just sayin’ …

One more thing: for far too long, members of the public — particularly on the left side of the political spectrum — have underestimated Melissa De Genova, written her off as a “whack job,” designated her as a ne’er-do-well right winger (this name calling on the left drives VanRamblings crazy).

In our long association with Melissa, VanRamblings has always found her to be a progressive on the social issues of the day — and, dare we say, a union supporter — a person of heart and conscience who means well for our city, a person who strives each and every day towards building a better tomorrow for her young daughter, and for all children and families who reside in every region of our province.


Photo of Terry Yung taken on May 11, 2012 for a BBC story on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

When it come to Terry Yung — who we know and like — we’re unconcerned about the viability and potential for success of his bid for elected provincial office.

Terry Yung went after the Vancouver-Yaletown New Democratic Party nomination with his eyes open. To underestimate Terry Yung’s wit, his intelligence, his experience and his political acumen — hell, he’s married to VanRamblings’ favourite political person in the province! — would be a terrible mistake. No fool he — they’re ain’t a smidgen of naïveté in how Terry Yung brings himself to the world.

Not to mention which: David Eby has no intention of losing this election.

The BC NDP and the BC NDP alone in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election have built an unassailable election campaign machine, with Dippers from across Canada arriving on our shores daily — experienced and winning campaigners, who mean to re-elect David Eby’s NDP government, given that there is so much on the line as they run against an alt-right, Trump-like John Rustad (who actually told the CBC’s Michelle Elliott last week that teachers are indoctrinating students in their care, distributing pornography to Grade 4 students as part of the SOGI 123 programme — without any evidence whatsoever to prove his claim — and that his government would ban thousands of books currently on the shelves in school libraries) — ready to fight for what is right, forward thinking and just for all.

#BCPoli | The Rise of BC Liberal MLA Kevin Falcon

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BC United leader Kevin Falcon, with his arm around his much cherished 14-year-old daughter, Josephine, standing with his beloved wife Jessica, and their endearing 12-year-old daughter, Rose.

VanRamblings is flummoxed. For the life of us, we cannot understand how it is that one of the most successful political leaders in British Columbia history seems — if the polls are correct, and are the polls correct? — to have fallen on hard times, the citizens of the province seemingly deserting him en masse, his political fortunes not just in decline, but so low as to barely register on the political landscape, as 2024’s British Columbia provincial election looms, only 54 short days from today.

Kevin Falcon has had a storied quarter-century career in B.C. politics.

Back in 1999, having fought for the B.C. Liberal nomination in his home riding of Surrey-Cloverdale — defeating B.C. Liberal incumbent Bonnie McKinnon — only two short years later, 38-year-old political novitiate, Kevin Falcon, was selected to sit as the duly-elected Member of the B.C. Legislature, to represent the interests of his much cherished constituents — on whose behalf he fought for all of his time in politics — Mr. Falcon came to sit on the governing front bench of newly-minted Premier Gordon Campbell’s B.C. Liberal government.

Wanting to undo the “economic damage” that the British Columbia New Democratic Party had wrought in their 10 years in power — from October 17, 1991 through May 16, 2001 — said the newly-elected Premier, Mr. Campbell appointed the novice MLA from Surrey-Cloverdale as Minister of State for Deregulation, his job to undo arcane regulations impeding economic growth across our province.

Mr. Falcon took to his task with alacrity, élan, energy and dedication.

So effective was Kevin Falcon as Minister of State for Deregulation that the woebegone resource industries across B.C. began to thrive as they had not for generations, the mining and forest industries experiencing unimaginable growth, in consequence creating good paying union jobs for those living in rural communities across our province, all the while pouring hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue into government coffers, monies that would pay for an expanded health care system to meet the needs of all British Columbians, with the portent (it was hoped) of future growth in British Columbia’s long ignored transportation system, as well as benefiting our province’s beleaguered public education system.

Kevin Falcon’s reward for a job well done?

On Monday, January 26, 2004 with a show of confidence arising from his successful achievements in government, exceeding expectation, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed Kevin Falcon as British Columbia’s new Minister of Transportation, a position he held through June 10, 2009, at which time the eight-years-in-power Premier Gordon Campbell called his second provincial election.

As both a builder and a visionary, the newly-minted Minister of Transportation set for himself the task of ensuring the construction of a rapid transit line from Vancouver to Richmond, an idea that was pooh-poohed by the left in our province, thought to be unnecessary, unfeasible and a boondoggle.

“Nobody will ride the damn thing,” said those who decried the project.

At the time, Vision Vancouver Councillor Raymond Louie — who sat on Translink’s Board of Directors — opposed the construction of what came to be known as The Canada Line. Over weeks, which turned into months, Kevin Falcon met with an intransigent Raymond Louie, in an attempt to change his mind on the efficacy of a rapid transit line along the Cambie corridor, out to Richmond.

On Wednesday, June 30, 2004 — with boos and jeers from enraged citizens who had gathered in large numbers in the gallery to attend the public meeting — the TransLink Board of Directors — including the once recalcitrant Raymond Louie — voted 8 to 4 in favour to resurrect the controversial RAV rapid transit project, from Richmond-Airport to Vancouver, to the “best and final offer” stage.

On August 17, 2009 — three-and-a-half months ahead of schedule, and under budget — the Canada Line became a reality, ferrying passengers from downtown Vancouver to Richmond / the Vancouver Airport, from Day One far exceeding the projected ridership projection of ten years hence, the project a wild success, much appreciated by those citizens who rely on public transportation.

Long story short, upon re-election in the 2009 British Columbia provincial election, Kevin Falcon was appointed as Minister of Health Services in British Columbia, succeeding George Abbott in that post, on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.

Subsequently, on March 14, 2011, Kevin Falcon was assigned the post of Minister of Finance / Deputy Premier for the province, by Premier Christy Clark.

As we wrote yesterday, married for three years now to Jessica, the love of his life, and set to raise together their two young daughters, in 2012 Kevin Falcon made the decision to withdraw from public life, and focus on the needs of his family.

VanRamblings is attempting to write “short” these days.

Although we’d love to publish a 2500-word barn burner, in the interest of preserving our readers’ sanity, we’ll wait until tomorrow to explore the topic of The Decline of BC United Leader Kevin Falcon, and what may very well turn out to be, a four-part series on the esteemed — if beleaguered — Kevin Falcon.

See you back here on Wednesday.

#BCPoli | BC United Leader | The Personal, Joyful Tragedy of Kevin Falcon

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Bliss, happiness, joy, a life fulfilled, family as all important, and a driving political force: BC United leader Kevin Falcon sitting on the porch of their home with wife Jessica and their two daughters

Kevin Falcon is one of the most driven, successful and accomplished tranformational figures to grace the British Columbia political landscape this century.

The former Deputy Premier of British Columbia, Kevin Falcon is generally regarded as one of our province’s most successful ever Finance Ministers — during his tenure in that portfolio, providing necessary services and economic growth to serve the interests of all British Columbians — an outstanding Minister of Health — yet another portfolio in which he far exceeded expectation, emerging as a groundbreaking defender of our health care system —  and a builder in the mould of former Socred Premier, W.A.C. Bennett, Kevin Falcon in his lengthy, storied tenure as British Columbia’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure — without Kevin Falcon, those of us living across Metro Vancouver would have no Canada Line today, with ridership levels of more than 170,000 commuters each day, were it not for the across the aisle, non-partisan, visionary leadership of Kevin Falcon.

The current leader of B.C. United — the official opposition in the British Columbia Legislature, to Premier David Eby’s British Columbia New Democratic Party — Kevin Falcon is a generational British Columbia political leader who has long served the best interests of the citizens of our province well, with dedication and distinction.


Jessica Elliott and Kevin Falcon were wed on Saturday, July 25, 2009, in a low-key, back yard ceremony

For all his success as a Minister of the Crown, Kevin Falcon — for almost a half century — was a confirmed bachelor, leading a lonely — if directed — life of service, unloved, unseen, unappreciated and little known — feeling deep within himself that he was, perhaps, undeserving of love. Upon meeting Jessica Elliott, a substitute teacher working on her Master’s degree, he fell head over heels in love, and much to his utter surprise and delight,  the object of his deep affection and love, fell just as deeply in love with him as he was with her, as remains the case to this very day.

Life changed forever — Mr. Falcon would contend, if you were to ask him, for the much much better — upon his marriage to Ms. Elliott, now Ms. Falcon, the personal, joyful “tragedy” of Mr. Falcon’s marriage to Ms. Elliott compounded only months later by the birth of his daughter, Josephine, now 14 years of age, and in 2012 with the birth of his second child, daughter Rose, all of 11 years young.

With the birth of newborn Rose, Kevin Falcon — now and forever, a changed man, a family man whose primary priority was now the happiness and welfare of his wife Jessica, and their beloved young daughters — told the members of his B.C. Liberal caucus that he would not run for re-election in his long-held Surrey-Cloverdale riding, in the then upcoming 2013 British Columbia provincial general election.

As a dedicated family man — his life revolving almost totally around his wife, and two daughters —  Kevin Falcon did not forego contribution, as he took on a number of volunteer roles with non-profit organizations, including the Canuck Place Foundation, Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and the Streetohome Foundation.

From that date in 2013 through until February 5, 2022, upon crossing the 50% threshold required to win the leadership of the B.C. Liberal party — which he did on the fifth ballot —  Kevin Falcon had remained out of politics, when in 2013, he joined Vancouver-based Anthem Capital as their Executive Vice President.

Following Mr. Falcon’s win, Andrew Wilkinson — who had led the B.C. Liberals to ignominous defeat in the 2020 British Columbia election, his campaign for office dogged by allegations of lack of leadership, and anti-LGBTQ / anti-vax / anti-woman / eugenics sentiment of then Chilliwack-Kent B.C. Liberal candidate Laurie Throness — formally resigned as an MLA to free up his Vancouver-Quilchena seat  for Mr. Falcon. A by-election for the riding was called on April 2, 2022. Mr. Falcon won the by-election, and was elected riding MLA, taking his seat in the Legislature.

Perhaps the most transformative change western culture has experienced in the past two decades has arisen as a consequence of the critically important, the vital, the fundamental, the pivotal and the joyous, indispensable role men have now come to play as involved, utterly essential fathers in the lives of their children.


Clockwise from the top left: Scott Andrews, senior consultant at Earnscliffe Strategies; Derrick O’Keefe, journalist with Richochet Media; Gavin Dew, BC Conservative candidate for Kelowna-Mission, with his lovely wife, Erin, and their beautiful daughter and young son;  and Stephen von Zychowski, President of the Vancouver District & Labour Council, with daughter, Coraline (who he loves with all his heart).

The Kevin Falcon of 2024 is very much not the Kevin Falcon of 2001 thru 2013.

The Kevin Falcon of today is more forward and ‘future thinking’ than the Kevin Falcon of old — the pre-having-a-family Kevin Falcon — the Kevin Falcon we thought we all knew, but apparently did not, and the Kevin Falcon the B.C. Liberal party elected as the redemptive leader of the aimless, perhaps too regressive, ‘out of touch with the times’ B.C. Liberal party of 2022, the centre-right B.C. political party that had been so unceremoniously defeated in the 2020 B.C. election.


BC United leader Kevin Falcon, walking his beloved, cherished daughters, Rose & Josephine, to school

Today’s VanRamblings constitutes the first of a two-part series on the B.C. United leader, the second part of the series expressing why Kevin Falcon and B.C. United find themselves in the doldrums politically, seemingly on the verge of political oblivion come the evening of Saturday, October 19th, why the newly progressive, forward-and-future-thinking, newly-minted B.C. United leader believed it was of critical importance to excise a backward thinking, neanderthal member of the B.C. Liberal caucus — which is to say, current B.C. Conservative party leader, John Rustad, who Mr. Falcon could just not stomach — and the impact that decision has had on Mr. Falcon’s personal and political fortunes, and on the fortunes of the British Columbia political party he heads …  but for how much longer?

#BCPOLI | Two Months Out from British Columbia’s 43rd Provincial Election

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Two months from today, at 9pm on the chilly mid-autumn evening of Saturday, October 19th, British Columbians will be apprised of who will form government in the coming four years, from November 2024 through October 2028.

According to David Coletto’s August 16th Abacus poll, David Eby’s BC NDP maintain a comfortable 5-point lead over John Rustad’s novice BC Conservative Party. BC United leader Kevin Falcon and BC Greens leader Sonia Furstenau remain in the also ran category, with no hope of forming government post October 19th.

VanRamblings has been told that Quitto Maggi will release his latest Mainstreet poll later this week, weighing in on British Columbia’s provincial election, following an in-the-field survey of 2000+ prospective voters across the province.

Mainstreet gives John Rustad’s BC Conservative Party a 5-point lead over David Eby’s BC NDP — which reads to VanRamblings as more of a push poll, commissioned by the BC Conservative Party and designed to influence prospective voters still sitting on the fence as to who they will cast a ballot for this upcoming October.

Back to David Coletto’s, more credible, Abacus August 16th poll.

According to Mr. Coletto, David Eby’s BC NDP maintain an even more comfortable 9-point lead over John Rustad’s upstart BC Conservative Party in the vote rich Metro Vancouver region out to Chilliwack, where there are 52-seats up for grabs, which will constitute 58% of the 93 seats in the next session of the British Columbia Legislature.

Further, David Eby’s BC NDP maintains an almost insurmountable lead of nine points over John Rustad’s woefully unprepared BC Conservative Party across the entirety of Vancouver Island, where 17 seats are up for grabs, all but two of which are currently held by BC NDP incumbents.

VanRamblings has been told the BC Conservatives are polling better north of Nanaimo, and could very well pick up Courtenay-Comox and the North Island.


John Rustad, leader of the upstart British Columbia Conservative Party, which is currently polling well.

Although John Rustad’s BC Conservative Party holds an 11-point lead over David Eby’s BC NDP outside of the Lower Mainland — in the Okanagan, the Interior and in the North —  there are only 24 seats that the BC Conservatives could possibly win. Nathan Cullen, currently the wildly popular BC NDP Member of the Legislative Assembly representing the Stikine, and current Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and Minister Responsible for Fisheries in David Eby’s BC NDP government hardly constitutes a winning seat up north for the BC Conservative Party, so John Rustad would likely be denied a sweep of the ridings outside of Metro Vancouver.

All is not lost for John Rustad and the BC Conservative Party, though, which VanRamblings will write about later in the week.


Kevin Falcon, the beleaguered leader (at least for now) of the down in the dumps BC United Party.

Apropos of nothing in particular, VanRamblings has also been told by a generally reliable source that BC United leader Kevin Falcon will tender his resignation as party leader later this week or early next week, and most certainly before month’s end.

We don’t find the information respecting Mr. Falcon’s pending, apparent, resignation to be credible. In tomorrow’s VanRamblings, we’ll express why, while going into some detail as to why we believe Mr. Falcon is not faring better in the lead-up to the 43rd BC provincial election.


Government House, home of BC Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin, where Premier David Eby will visit   September 14 to ask Ms. Austin to dissolve the Legislature and call for B.C.’s  43rd provincial election.

As we wrote last week, the Writ will be dropped on Sunday, September 14th, at which point what is sure to be an uncommonly “pointed” (read: vicious and unsettling) 35-day election cycle will commence, with the four main British Columbia political parties fighting hammer and tong for victory, whatever the nature of that “victory” might mean— for BC United, survival and six seats would suffice to keep the party alive, as would be the case with the BC Greens, who would be thrilled were they to secure two seats in the next session of the Legislature.