Category Archives: Park Board

#VanPoli | Politics Comes to Park Board | Woe is Us

November 20, 2018#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

Park Board Commissioners, l-r: John Irwin, John Coupar, Dave Demers, Gwen Giesbrecht and Tricia Barker (both obscured), Stuart Mackinnon, and Camil Dumont. On the far right (with a beard), the one, the magnificent Malcolm Bromley, Park Board GM.

VanRamblings has spent much of the month stating to anyone who would listen that there’ll be some politics at City Hall, and a whole bunch of politics at School Board, but the saving grace in municipal politics in Vancouver is our Park Board — where there’d be no politics, just good caring folks who have the best interests of Vancouver’s parks & recreation system at heart. Oh how wrong and naïve we were. Alas and alack.

The same sort of procedural wrangling that infected Council last week visited Park Board last evening.

Once again it was an amendment to amendment hellscape, this time around it was at the Park Board table, though, with a no-nonsense, takes no truck from anyone, by the book Gwen Giesbrecht in the Chair. Before we continue, note should be made we believe Ms. Giesbrecht can do no wrong — we’re so in her corner, we’ve moved in and set up permanent residence.

The first item on the agenda: setting up a VanSplash Advisory Committee, to advise Park Board on how to move forward on the VanSplash report.

VanRamblings happens to know that the eminence gris at Park Board (and one of the finest men we know), John Coupar (along with his colleague Tricia Barker) believes that the controversial VanSplash Aquatic Strategy has been talked and consulted to death, and that any reasonable person would know that Park Board should just get on with things, build much-needed community neighbourhood pools, preserve, renovate & update Templeton and Lord Byng pools, and jettison the neighbourhood-intrusive Olympic destination pool the authors of the VanSplash Aquatic Strategy threw their support behind — a plan vehemently opposed by community pool advocates, and the neighbourhood surrounding Connaught Park.

In an effort to play nice (realizing he and his colleague didn’t have the votes to quash the VanSplash Advisory Committee), Commissioner Coupar moved an amendment that would turn the attention of the Advisory Committee to preserving both the Lord Byng and Templeton pools (both recommended for closure in the original iteration of the VanSplash Report).

But Park Board Committee Chair Gwen Giesbrecht, no fool she, and one of the most well-experienced Board chairs in Park Board history, was having none of that palaver, no siree, Bob.

Not only would the amendment hamstring the new Advisory Committee, the mandate of the Committee had not yet been made clear — the amendment was ultra vires. On the advice of the clerk — with whom Commissioner and Park Board Committee Chair Giesbrecht consulted, and who advised the amendment was not an amendment, but a whole separate motion that would have to be put on notice for a future meeting — causing Ms. Giesbrecht to rule the amendment out of order. Bear with us — the amendment will live on to fight another day, in another form (and pass).

Lulled to sleep, yet? Okay, okay — we’ll leave VanSplash for now.

Topic 2: Where the (Ugly) Politics Comes in.

Chair Giesbrecht called for a 5-minute break after the contentious “debate” on the questionable VanSplash Advisory Committee. Fine & dandy with us!

Given that we’re a snoop, we listened in on a conversation Park Board Chairperson Stuart Mackinnon was having with former Park Board Chair, Anita Romaniuk, where he was exclaiming to her how he’d consulted with all of the Commissioners before assigning them to their Park Board liaison and other responsibilities.

Migawd, it’s been a long time since we’ve heard such codswallop.

Earlier in the day, we had been advised that Chairperson Mackinnon had not assigned John Coupar as the liaison to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens — perhaps the meanest, most off-putting, partisan act by an elected official in this or any other term. Colour us mightily disgusted.

The Bloedel Conservatory, now inexorably linked to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, is entering its 50th year, which it will celebrate next December 9th. John Coupar’s claim to fame in Vancouver politics, as a former member of the Board of Director of the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, was in convincing the Gardens Board to take over the Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park, when the previous Vision Vancouver Park Board wanted to shut it down. John fought against the closure, found the funding to keep the Conservatory alive, such that the Conservatory thrives to this day. John Coupar loves the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and the Conservatory atop Queen Elizabeth Park.

At their worst and their meanest, the Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners would never have dreamed of denying John Coupar the job of liaison to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and the Queen Elizabeth Park Conservatory / Aboretum. But Stuart Mackinnon has done just that.

And in its 50th anniversary year.

Whose father was the founding curator of the Bloedel Conservatory? Gosh, could it be John Coupar’s father? Hmmm, yep, it was.

And who was present at the opening of the Bloedel Conservatory / Arboretum on December 9th, 1969, standing next to the father he loved, and who passed on to him his love of parks? Gosh, could that boy standing next to his dad at the opening of the Conservatory on that chilly Tuesday morning, December 9, 1969 be John Coupar? Yer darn tootin’ it was …

John Coupar had asked Mr. Mackinnon to be re-appointed as the liaison to the Conservatory in its 50th year, so he might help prepare for the anniversary. But Stuart Mackinnon?

He all but told John Coupar to go to hell.

VanRamblings being VanRamblings, we queried Stuart Mackinnon on his decision to strip John Coupar of his liaison responsibilities to the Conservatory, particularly in its anniversary year, and the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. His voice dripping with a haughty and indifferent mix of derision and condescension, he simply looked down on us and said, “Thank you for the input, Ray,” and walked away, nose held high in the air.

In Vancouver folks, this is what we call petty politics of the worst kind.

Update: Park Board Chair Sober Second Thought. John Coupar Appointed as Liaison to Van Dusen + Conservatory for 2019

Consistent with everything VanRamblings knows about Park Board Chairperson Stuart Mackinnon — whom we have long known to be a heart-filled person of conscience, and one of the finest men it has been our privilege to come to know — Chairperson Mackinnon, engaging in sober second thought, re-thought his original assignment of responsibility to the Bloedel Conservatory and the Van Dusen Botanical Garden, and less than 18 hours after the publication of today’s VanRamblings column, appointed Commissioner John Coupar as Park Board liaison to the Bloedel Conservatory + Van Dusen Botanical Garden for the 2019 calendar year.

VanRamblings would like to thank community members Dave Pasin and Elvira Lount for helping bring the above matter to resolution.

And don’t think that it was Mr. Coupar alone who was made subject to Stuart Mackinnon’s non-consultative decision-making. John Coupar’s good-hearted NPA colleague Tricia Barker had asked Stuart Mackinnon if she might be the liaison to the Seniors Advisory Committee at City Hall — given that Ms. Barker is a certified personal trainer who works with seniors in building a healthier, more productive life, while facing the challenging aspects of aging. Chairperson Mackinnon assigned Ms. Barker as the liaison to City Hall’s Youth Committee instead.
Commissioner Barker asked Stuart Mackinnon if she might be assigned as liaison to the Dunbar and Kerrisdale Community Centres, where she knew and had worked with staff. Instead, Stuart Mackinnon assigned Ms. Barker as the liaison to the Champlain Heights and Killarney Community Centres.

Note. Revised Park Board Liaison appointments by Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon have been made, that correspondence to Commissioners dated November 20th, the appointments effective January 1, 2019, or sooner.

Lest you be left with the impression the Park Board Committee meeting room is Dysfunction Junction, let us assure you that is not wholly the case.

Whatever Mr. Mackinnon’s faults — after all, whom among us does not have faults? — he cares desperately about Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, and long has been a staunch advocate for our parks system. The same is true for each of the other electeds at Park Board: truth-teller Camil Dumont, take no guff Gwen Giesbrecht, heart-filled Dave Demers, passionate John Coupar, parks advocate extraordinaire Tricia Barker, the mighty, velvet-gloved and oh-so-bright John Irwin, and just about our favourite person on Earth, Park Board General Manager Malcolm Bromley.

Parks and recreation is in great shape with the above-named persons.

On to the second to last item in today’s VanRamblings column, as our beloved and persons of conscience Park Board Commissioners unanimously approved a $35,000 grant to the Queer Arts Festival, the motion moved by Commissioner John Coupar, seconded by Tricia Barker, and amended by Gwen Giesbrecht to raise the sum to $35,000 — which motion and amendment passed with, as we say above, unanimous consent.

In 2019, the Vancouver Park Board will meet 21 times, with a month break in August, and only one meeting in each of March (spring break), October and December. Chances are the Board will meet more often than that, tho.

For instance, although the Park Board Commissioners meet in open session, next, on Monday, December 3rd, Chairperson Mackinnon announced to his fellow Commissioners on Monday night that there’ll be a Budget Committee meeting on the evening of Wednesday, December 5th — chances are, there’ll be more than one budget committee meeting, as there will also likely be community consultative meetings throughout the year.

Compensation for all their hard work? The Park Board Chair receives $21,346 per year in compensation, whereas our Park Board Commissioners are paid $17,077 for each year of their tenure — for what generally works out to be a 35 – 40 hour week, although most Commissioners put in more hours than that, in their liaison work, and in work in the community.

Little known fact: the Park Board meeting schedule mirrors that of Vancouver City Council, with Park Board meeting on Monday evenings, and Council meeting all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

#VanPoli | Vancouver Park Board | 2018 Inaugural Swearing In

November 6, 2018#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

At a moving ceremony held last night at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, the outgoing Vancouver Park Board Commissioners met for a final time, providing those in attendance with a video celebration of Park Board’s achievements over the past four years.
Then it was time to introduce and swear in the new 2018 – 2022 Park Board Commissioners (pictured below). Green Party Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon was elected as Park Board Chairperson by acclamation, and his Green Party colleague, Dave Demers, was elected Vice-Chairperson of Park Board. COPE’s Gwen Giesbrecht won election as Park Board Committee Chairperson (where all the action goes on), while the NPA’s Tricia Barker becomes Vice-Chair of the Park Board Committee.

#VanPoli | Hello, Goodbye | 2018 Civic Body Inaugurals

November 1, 2018#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

2014 Mayor Gregor Robertson & City Councillor Inaugural, Creekside Community Centre

This upcoming, Monday, November 5th, Vancouver’s newly-elected Mayor and City Councillors will be sworn into office for a four-year term, as will their civic elected counterparts, the seven Park Board Commissioners, and nine new Board of Education Trustees with the Vancouver School Board.

Monday, October 29th were the last meetings of the now past term for all three elected bodies. Tears were shed at School Board for OneCity Vancouver’s Carrie Bercic, the conscience of the Board this past year, and the only incumbent Trustee not to be re-elected.
At a subdued Park Board meeting on Monday night, outgoing Commissioner Catherine Evans thanked the public for placing their faith in her to represent them around the Park Board table this past four years. And at Vancouver City Council, it was a happy-sad day, which saw several Councillors leaving City Hall — when now retired NPA City Councillor George Affleck left City Hall to head home, a surprise party was waiting for him.

Newly-elected Vancouver School Board trustees take office at their 2017 inauguration, a moving part of which involved an indigenous ceremony wishing the new trustees well.

The School Board inaugural will be a low-key affair open to the public, set to take place this upcoming Monday, November 5th at 7pm, in the large Board room (pictured above), situated within the VSB offices at 1580 West Broadway. The new and returning Trustees will be sworn into office by Secretary-Treasurer, J. David Green, with friends, family and the general public seated in the gallery; after the inaugural, a brief reception will be held in the cafeteria, with small pieces of cake available to the public.

2014 Park Board Inaugural for newly-elected Commissioners, at Van Dusen Gardens

The Park Board inaugural will also be a low key, open to the public affair, set to take place next Monday evening, November 5th at 7pm, at VanDusen Botanical Gardens, with seven new Commissioners set to be sworn in, with family, friends and the public — including VanRamblings and a couple of friends who will be present with us — seated in the room in the far southwest corner of the Van Dusen building. Afterwards, given that any “snacks” are paid for with taxpayer’s dollar, there’ll be canapés available - but if you don’t get in to grab one right away, they’ll be gone.
At neither of the School or Park Board inaugurals will wine be available.
Mayor and Council will be sworn in as part of an invitation only, private affair. One Councillor with whom we spoke was told he could invite 10 guests. Another Councillor has invited 15 of her friends and supporters. All totaled, as in the photo at the top of today’s column, anywhere from 180 – 200 specially invited guests will be present at this inaugural ceremony.
As we say, this inaugural is a private affair, not open to the public.

When Justin Trudeau was sworn into office as Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 4, 2015, along with members of his new Cabinet the event, although the inaugural was special invitation only, from start to finish, from the time Justin Trudeau stepped off the bus heading toward Rideau Hall for the inaugural ceremony for his new government, the entire event was broadcast live on all of Canada’s broadcast networks. Hardly, then, a hidden-away-from-the-public event.
When John Horgan’s government was sworn in to office on Tuesday, July 18th, 2017, the incoming government broke precedent by inviting the public to attend the inaugural ceremony — more than 7,000 British Columbians, including VanRamblings and a coterie of friends — the Legislature wide open to the public throughout the day, with Premier John Horgan cheerfully trumpeting, “This is the people’s building!” And so it is.
Note. Christy Clark’s inaugural in 2013 was private affair held in the Legislature, peopled mostly with developers and financial backers of both hers and the B.C. Liberal party’s campaign for office.

In 2008, 2011 and 2014, when the newly-elected Mayor and City Councillors were sworn into office, the press went to town on the private, invitation only City Hall inaugural ceremony, a private affair not open to the public (or “the rabble” as some Councillors liked to say — the sounds of “get those smelly plebes away from us, we don’t want anything to do with them” could be heard ringing through the air).
The press were only too happy to report that $74,000, $85,000 and $96,000 was spent in respective Vision Vancouver inaugurals on the private, closed door, not open to the public inaugural events, “a party at taxpayer expense” could read in our local newspapers, or viewed as the lead item on the evening news, that lustrous inaugural night.
On October 20th, only 12 short days ago, 38% of Vancouver’s voting public voted for change. Gosh. VanRamblings wonders if that call for change maybe, could have, might have meant a low-key inaugural for Mayor and Council that would be, y’know, open to the “rabble”, oh we mean … public.
Ain’t gonna be happening in 2018, VanRamblings is here to report.
Two weeks from now, when some enterprising civic affairs reporter - our money’s on CBC civic affairs reporter Justin McElroy - the most important new voice covering civic politics in our city in a generation - or that old (young?) curmudgeon, the Vancouver Courier’s Mike Howell, or maybe freelance curmudgeon, Bob Mackin - receives the reply to his FOI request, only to discover that City Council’s 2018 inaugural has set taxpayers back only $102,000 (what with inflation and all) — well, gosh, galldarnit, gee, shucks, there’ll be whoop-de-dooin’ galore in the media, Global TV’s Chris Gailus with a big shit eatin’ grin on his face as he reports out on “the bunch of spendthrifts just elected as Mayor and City Council in Vancouver” — he might have said “autocratic spendthrifts”, but GlobalBC News Director Jill Krop doesn’t go in for that kind of rhetorical malarkey.

A Prescription to Open Mayor & Council Inaugural To the Public

VanRamblings readers have asked that we publish an update, respecting how — either four years from now, or later this month or next — the Inaugural celebration of the investiture of the new Mayor and Council might be made open to the public.
The “solution”? Open up City Hall, in much the same way the provincial government opened the B.C. Legislature to the public for the inaugural of their new government. Perhaps on a Saturday (this year), or on a Monday after the Vancouver municipal election in 2022, hold the celebration at City Hall, opening up the main floor of City Hall, the cafeteria in the basement, and the third floor where the Mayor and Councillors offices are located, as well as Council chambers, and allow the public access to all of these areas.
Of course, security will be required, and Mayor and Council will have to be on hand throughout the day of celebration that could begin at 11am and conclude at 8pm — with City Hall left open for the day.
Mayor and Councillors would mingle with the public, as Cabinet ministers did at the NDP inaugural — what a great opportunity to get to know who it is Mayor and Council are serving. Chances are, too, that for many of the attendees, this might be the first time they’ve actually visited City Hall.
An empowered public. A Mayor and Councillor meeting the public in a celebratory, party-like atmosphere. Sounds good to us — and to Mayor & Council, too, we bet. After all, who doesn’t like a party?
The cost for the day’s festivities, apart from cakes and perhaps a few canapés available in the cafeteria, minimal and for a good cause — Mayor and Council could even employ the celebratory event as a fundraiser for an agreed upon charitable foundation.
Winners all around, an invested and respected public, an opportunity to open up City Hall as “the people’s building”, and an engaged and delightful and delighted Mayor and Councillor contingent.
Over to you Mayor and newly-elected and returning City Councillors.

Vancouver City Council chambers

Okay. Let’s take a brief break for just a moment.
Is VanRamblings accusing our incoming Mayor and City Councillors of anything? No we are not. Let us repeat that, and expand on the idea: VanRamblings continues to believe, save one of the elected Councillors (who, in the early days, is proving to be just as unhinged as we thought s/he might be) that we have elected the strongest and most progressive Mayor and City Council in a generation, dating back as far as 1972.
Although we’ll get heck for writing the following, we’ll say it anyway: we love every cotton pickin’ one of our new Councillors, and Mayor, too, and believe all that they will do in the weeks, months and years to come will be beneficial to the public interest.
All we’re sayin is: it’s the optics, kids. It’s always about the optics.
Why court, or be seen to court, a controversy not of your own making, when it was the outgoing Mayor and Council, and City Hall staff who made the decision to plow ahead with a private inaugural ceremony?
And, let’s get real here for a moment: who in heck wants to come onto Council, which one of our current newbie Councillor-elects wants to start making demands, even before they take office (well, so far there’s been one!) for what on the surface appears to be a picayune issue, hardly on the radar of our newly-electeds?
Heck, as we say above, the Councillor-elects haven’t even been sworn into office yet, and are hardly in any position to be making demands.
We have elected eight novice Vancouver City Councillors, five on the left side of the spectrum including an independent mayor & electeds from 4 different parties. So far, there’s been no caucusing going on among them.
Nope, let’s be clear: there ain’t no finger pointin’ going on here.
Just a word to the wise, a reminder: we live in a democracy, Mayor and Council are elected to serve the public interest, and when on the first day in office the public is excluded, kept away from participating in the celebratory Councillor inaugural they voted into office, a poor, anti-democratic “tone” is set from the outset. All we’re here to say is, it ain’t a very good look.

Top, l-r: Michael Wiebe, Christine Boyle, Jean Swanson, Colleen Hardwick, Pete Fry
B (l-r:) Adriane Carr, Melissa De Genova, Lisa Dominato, Rebecca Bligh, Sarah Kirby-Yung

Mayor and Council are comprised of 9 rookies. When, as is the case at the moment & over the course of the past 10 days, they’re being overwhelmed with input from city staff and well-wishers (and bothersome cranks like VanRamblings), it’s amazing that any of the newly-elected officials at City Hall are keeping their sanity. VanRamblings is proud of each and every one of those persons voters elected into office, and we remain confident that, together, they’re going to do an outstanding job serving the public interest.
At 9am next Monday morning, November 5th, 2018, our newly-elected Mayor and Council will spend the morning having their pictures taken, separately and as a group, and be shown their new offices. The inaugural ceremony takes place in the afternoon, at a location we won’t disclose.
Then Councillors are going to have to fasten their seat belts …
Tuesday, November 5th at 9am, all day until 4:30pm, and every weekday that week and the next week, from 9am til 4:30pm, all the way through until Friday, November 16th, our newly electeds will be oriented to their new jobs, meeting department heads and staff, shown their way around all of the buildings where work takes place to serve citizens’ interests, shown all the secret corridors (and elevators), concluding with an all day “lecture” on meeting procedure and decorum.
Then they’ll be ready to get down to business.

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 …

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.