Category Archives: Park Board

Vancouver Votes 2018 | A Primer on Civic Affairs Coverage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Mainstream Media

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

1. Truth and Accuracy

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

2. Independence

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

3. Fairness and Impartiality

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

4. Humanity

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

5. Accountability

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

The Vancouver Courier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Vancouver Park Board, 2008 – 2014: A Job Well Done. Thank you.

November 24, 2014BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

Tonight, all but one of Vancouver Park Board Commissioners step down from their elected posts, having performed a service in the public interest that will not soon be forgotten, a service that should both be cherished and celebrated, as well as publically acknowledged on this blog, and elsewhere.
No mean feat placing yourself in the eye of the storm that is elected office, particularly in the maelstrom that is Vancouver politics.
Aaron Jasper — outgoing Chair of Park Board — Sarah Blyth, and Constance Barnes have sat on Park Board since December 2008. Their fellow Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners, Niki Sharma and Trevor Loke, joined their Vision colleagues around the Park Board table some three years later, complemented by a contingent of two Non-Partisan Association parks & rec commissioners, John Coupar and Melissa DeGenova, the former of the two of this latter group about to become — as of December 1st — the new Park Board Chair, and the ever-doggedly political Ms. DeGenova on the cusp of joining Vancouver City Council, where she is just as likely to drive her Vision Vancouver opponents at City Hall around the bend as has been the case this past three years at Park Board — with the added delight to those political observers among us who care about such things, where we will see her tear strips off Vision Vancouver city councillors Geoff Meggs and Kerry Jang, in particular, in full public view. Fun times await.
Aaron Jasper. Truth to tell, I think of Aaron as a son, someone I love, and for whom I have the deepest affection. Despite Aaron’s deserved reputation as a bully, this past year at the Park Board table, Aaron has impressed, performing his duties as Park Board Chairperson not just with aplomb, but with an unerring commitment to the democratic process, and with a respect for the right — nay, make that obligation — to hold fellow Park Board Commissioners to account. I am not entirely certain that Vancouver Park Board will soon again witness as skilled and compassionate a Chairperson as those of us who have attended Park Board meetings this past year have witnessed this past 10 months, with Aaron Jasper at the head of the table.
Despite the recent provocations of VanRamblings — and this blog’s sometime commitment to hyperbole — with Vision Vancouver “in charge” at Park Board this past six years there has been much to celebrate …

1. Just yesterday afternoon, at the Dunbar Community Centre Vancouver Quadra NDP nomination meeting, outgoing Park Board Commissioner Sarah Blyth was telling those assembled about the pride she felt in moving forward Park Board’s “Arts in the Park” initiative, where more than 30 local artists — including internationally renowned visual artist Germaine Koh and composer/double bassist Mark Haney — were selected in 2012 to participate in the Vancouver Park Board’s artist studio residency project in seven park locations, taking up residency at field house studios in Hadden, Strathcona, Slocan and Memorial South parks and at the Burrard Marina, in addition to Elm and Falaise parks. Let us all hope this worthy initiative is renewed by the NPA-dominated Park Board that is about to take office.

2. Langara Golf Course. Following a seemingly extemporaneous remark by Mayor Gregor Robertson in the spring of 2012 that he was in favour of “hiving off” half of the Vancouver Park Board-operated Langara Golf Course, so that the land might be sold off to developers for the construction of “affordable condominiums”, as so often happened at Park Board, the beleaguered Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners found they’d have to deal with the fallout, with much public opprobrium.
There was politics to be played with the issue of the disposition of the Langara Golf Course — ”Don’tcha know, those damned elitist golf-playin’ richy-riches, they don’t deserve no golf-playin’ “subsidized” by our parks board“ — but, following a heart-rending presentation by members of the under-parked Langara neighbourhood, Aaron Jasper moved a “metrics” motion, and lo and behold, just a few months later when Park Board staff presented the Langara Golf Course Metrics Report, Aaron Jasper moved adoption of the report, and following the unanimous consent of Park Board, work began on remedying field drainage problems, enabling year-round usage of the course by families, teenagers, seniors, and all of the other folks in the city who, just like you and me, are not “rich”, but who see the efficacy of enjoying the open air and our green spaces.

3. Hastings Park. In the past three years, never was I more proud of our Vancouver Park Board than I was when Park Board unanimously adopted a motion to seek the return of jurisdiction over Hastings Park to the Vancouver Park Board — where it rightfully belongs — tearing it away from the hands of Raymond Louie, who seems for all the world to view Hastings Park not as a park, but a development opportunity.
Relating to the above, in a special August 1, 2013 meeting of Vancouver City Council, Raymond Louie (Chairman, PNE Board of Directors) led the charge to block Park Board control of all park or green spaces in the 62-hectare Hastings Park site — but not without hearing from an articulate, impassioned Aaron Jasper, and the two NPA members of Park Board.

The Vancouver Park Board’s Trans and Gender-Variant Inclusion Working Group

4. Trans-and-Gender-Variant policy. By far, the most moving Vancouver Park Board meeting this past three years, was the late April 2014 meeting of the Board where all 77 recommendations of the Trans* and Gender Variant Inclusion Working Group were unanimously adopted by Park Board. Thank you to outgoing Park Board Commissioner Trevor Loke for having moved the motion one year earlier that resulted in the striking of a Park Board committee that would report out, as Trevor hoped, and serve to “greatly improve the quality of access to recreation and active health in Vancouver, and help make Vancouver the most inclusive city in the world.” Mission accomplished, Mr. Loke. Mission accomplished.

5. Local Food Action Plan. The food available at concessions, and on food carts, in Vancouver parks, is of so much better quality than was the case previous to Vision Vancouver assuming control of Park Board in 2008.
Special thanks should go out to of all members of Vancouver Park Board’s Local Food Assets Task Force, starting with task force co-chairs, Aaron Jasper, and Niki Sharma, the Board’s Commissioner representatives.
Thanks — and a big round of applause — is also due the community members of the Local Food Assets Task Force: Park Board’s Lindsay Cole; the ever-wonderful, Trish Kelly, representing the Vancouver Food Policy Council; Ian Marcuse, of the Neighbourhood Food Networks (one of my favourite people in the city); the City of Vancouver’s Wendy Mendes; former Vancouver School Trustee, Kevin Millsip (also an amazing person); Ross Moster, Village Vancouver; Jamielee Ong, Rangi Changi Roots, and Kathryn Perkins, Grandview Community Centre Association.

All of our electeds at Park Board, are owed a debt of gratitude from all of those who enjoy the beauty of Vancouver’s parks, and the varied services available at our community recreation centres.

Constance Barnes. Consistently the most compelling orator around the Park Board table, a true woman of the people, advocating for families, and working to ensure ready access to all facilities in our parks. Let us hope that the incoming Park Board picks up Constance’s cudgel, and works to ensure that more of our parks currently without washroom facilities will have them constructed this next four years.

Trevor Loke. The most sensitive to the public will of all of the Commissioners on the Board, consistently impressive in his reasoned presentation of argument, a first-rate chair of the very difficult to navigate Park Board Committee (where all the real decision-making goes on at Park Board), and quite simply, at 26-years-of-age (Trevor celebrating his 26th just yesterday) the single most impressive young politico in Vancouver politics.

Sarah Blyth: From the beginning, an advocate for skating parks, recreational opportunities for our youth, the most human-scale of all the “politicians” around the Park Board table, a champion of the community, and for each and every one of us, Sarah was always on our side, the Commissioner who always sought the views of the public, arose from the Park Board table at breaks, and engaged with the public. Sarah’s commitment to the common weal was, at all times, impressive and demonstrative of a commitment to democracy unequalled among many who practice politics in Vancouver.

Niki Sharma. Wow! What is there to say about Park Board’s most thoughtful, incredibly intelligent, best-researched, most articulate before the cameras, reporters’ microphones and the print media personage, what a loss of tremendous proportion it was nine days ago that Niki Sharma was not elected to Vancouver City Council, one of my very favourite candidates for Council, a person of tremendous integrity, wit, political acumen, and just an all-around incredible human being.

Aaron Jasper. Much of what I wanted to write about Aaron may be found above. Aaron proved, consistently, to be the best “advertisement” for the many initiatives undertaken by a Park Board of which he has been a member for six years, that commitment a critical aspect of a democratic engagement with the community that elected he and his fellow Vision Vancouver Park Board to two consecutive terms of majority office.

Melissa DeGenova: Killarney Seniors Centre simply wouldn’t have happened without Melissa, it’s just that simple. Somehow finding a way to put up with the worst treatment of an elected official I’ve seen in all of my 45 years on reporting out on the political scene, Melissa emerged as a populist, a tireless advocate for the public good, perhaps the most “political” of our Park Board Commissioners, but when being political means that you’re committed to achieving much for your constituents … well, Melissa practices politics, as it ought to be practiced.

John Coupar: My favourite for last? Yes, I think so. By far the most consistently reasoned and non-political voice around the table, the Park Board Commissioner who earned the respect and admiration of all those who sat around the Park Board table, and the many thousands who attended Park Board meetings this past three years, in my three years observing John Coupar and Park Board, and in our many calls and the times we’ve spent together away from the Park Board table, John Coupar has proved always to be the fairest and most equitable in his judicious and humane commentary about Park Board, and his Park Board collleagues, John’s outstanding commitment to the maintenance and growth of our parks and our green spaces, was more acute and impassioned than any Park Board Commissioner I’ve witnessed in Park Board history dating back decades.

Tonight at Park Board — amidst the hubbub of contention — will be a night for a public display of thanks, well-earned and well-deserving of gratitude, to our outgoing and very, very fine Vancouver Park Board Commissioners.
Thank you to each and every one of you. Job well done.

Wanted, Needed in Vancouver: A Mensch in the Political Sphere

November 19, 2014BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

Ever watch the Academy Awards, or maybe the Golden Globes, or Emmy’s?
Do you recall, that as the winner of the Academy Award approaches the stage, and finally makes her or his way to the microphone, staring out at the crowd, what happens next? That’s right — the winner thanks everyone who got her there, usually starting off with the four other actors in the category with whom she was competing for the Oscar, everyone who starred in the movie with her, her beloved spouse and children, her parents, all the teachers who encouraged her, her agents and manager, and everyone in the crew on the set of the movie she’s just worked on that helped her get to the moment where she stands before you on the stage accepting an award that was but a distant dream of her youth.
Thank everyone? An acknowledgement the ‘winner’ did not get here on her own, that it took a team of supporters and managers, the media, & more.
In the political sphere, as you might well imagine, the candidates on the campaign trail who challenge for office depend on the support of an army of volunteers and supporters, as well as the campaign team proper.
If I might point out one instance in particular, the John Coupar win at Park Board, whose candidacy I and many others encouraged and supported, as well as all the other Commissioners who were elected to Park Board this past Saturday, would acknowledge that theirs was not a “singular victory”, but a collective win, arising from the work of a great many people.
In politics, how does one go about thanking all those who played a role in helping her or him secure victory at the polls? Well, one becomes a mensch.
Allow me to illustrate what I mean.

On election night, one of the winning candidates who just barely managed to sneak into office, set about to telephone each and every one of the candidates who had challenged for the position that my friend had just barely won, save the other ‘winners’. My friend the candidate thanked the candidates who’d come forward, thanking them for their civic engagement, their challenging of all the other candidates on the campaign trail (including my friend), told them that he hoped they might run again, and finally said to them that he would be available to them should they wish to speak with him about presenting their issues before Vancouver School Board.

On post-election Sunday, my friend made a point of either visiting the homes of, calling or e-mailing or texting each and every candidate who would sit across the School Board table with my friend over the course of the next four years. In addition, my friend called, visited, e-mailed or texted every campaign volunteer, member of the media, member of the campaign team, and supporter my friend had met at all-candidates meetings, and on the campaign trail that could be reached — promising a thank you celebration during the upcoming holiday season. In addition, my friend is preparing hand-written notes, on specially-made cards, to be mailed out.

As you might imagine, following five months of campaigning, my friend was bushed — still, it was necessary my friend felt, to reach out. During the course of the campaign, I wrote about the nascent 2005 candidacy of Spencer Herbert-Chandra (who since has written to thank to your humble correspondent — would we expect any less from Spencer), writing …

In the 2005 COPE campaign, at the tender age of 24, Spencer Chandra-Herbert first ran for political office, as a Park Board candidate. Everyone in the campaign office hated him, his fellow candidates, the campaign team, everyone. Everyone that is except the voters, and me — I loved Spencer, and the energy he brought to his campaign for office.

Spencer was the only candidate with his own website — which drove all the other candidates nuts. Spencer posted to his fairly rudimentary website everyday. Facebook was a new-fangled social media tool — Spencer had a Facebook account, to which he posted several times a day (remember now, this is just months after Mark Zuckerberg had taken Facebook live). Spencer didn’t sleep, he was everywhere all the time, nattily dressed, with his every present chapeau, a big grin, a hand outreached to shake yours, looking right at you, deep into your soul.

Spencer remembered the name of every person he met on the campaign trail, and not just their names, but some detail about them, their family, or an event of consequence that had occurred in their lives. I am often surprised when I run across Spencer, not having seen him for a year or 18-months, that he comes up to me, shaking my hand, saying, “Ray, it’s so good to see you. How have you been?” And you know, he means it, he wants to hear about you, what’s going on in your life.

The secret to political success, and to getting elected, and re-elected again and again? Spencer Chandra-Herbert has written the book.

Spencer is a mensch, the friend of whom I’ve written above: a mensch.

Elizabeth Ball, George Affleck, and Adriane Carr Working Together For The Benefit Of All

Last evening, I received a note from newly re-elected to a third term Non-Partisan Association city councillor, Elizabeth Ball, who wrote …

Dear Raymond,

Weep I did at my victory on Saturday night, and send so many thanks for your kindness. I always enjoy your company and look forward to a chat soon.

Am having a wild fling with an end of campaign cold, so have no voice but should be back next week.

Isn’t it great to see so much good and interesting theatre and music in town! Am looking forward to all the holiday shows, and then PUSH in the new year. Amazing growth eh?

Wishing you all the very best,

Elizabeth

As busy as you might imagine our third term city councillor to be, and given the travails of a campaign cold, Elizabeth Ball still found time to reach out.
Amazing!
On Tuesday evening, I asked newly-elected Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon to reach out to a person with whom a great many of us had worked, on the Save Kits Beach coalition. About half an hour after receiving my brief note, Stuart wrote back to say …

All things calm.

All thing bright and beautiful.

Among other thoughts that ran through my head, upon receiving Stuart’s note, were, “Thank God we’ve got someone possessed of wit and intelligence, and a warming sense of humour (Vision Vancouver’s Catherine Evans, as well, unless I miss my guess) in our civic life in Vancouver.
Over the course of the recent election campaign, COPE School Board candidate Diana Day reached out to me each day she was on the campaign trail; we ended up corresponding regularly, as we do to this day.

You know, Raymond, I hope the newly-elected School Board Trustees have the political will to do the right thing by the Aboriginal students — it’s just heart breaking that there are no mini schools for vulnerable aboriginal youth to attends — but I am glad that newly-elected Green School Trustee Janet Fraser spent some time with us at the Aboriginal Mother Centre, and heard first hand about the racism and discrimination that exists, and is directed towards not only aboriginal students but staff as well.

On election night, Diana Day contacted me to thank me for endorsing her candidacy — we’ve corresponded every day since.
Next time, in 2018? I’ll move the sun, the Earth, the moon, the stars to work towards a victory at the polls for Diana Day. We need a voice at the Park Board table to represent vulnerable aboriginal youth.

My neighbour, David Cubitt wrote to me last evening, writing, “Thank you, Raymond, for your untiring efforts to bring about change, and for the useful / invaluable information you have provided to me, and to all who read your informative blog during the recent civic election campaign.”
As I’ve written on social media — politics is a people business.

Beginning in 2005, with the election of Sam Sullivan as our Mayor, a new, meaner, confrontational and less humane era began in Vancouver civic politics — utterly unique, and regrettable, the level of civil discourse reduced to an all-time low, with little civility shown for the opposition councillors.
The level of discourse at City Hall has not improved since.

Today, on VanRamblings, I call for a return to civil municipal government.
In 2014, let us enjoy a renewed civic discourse.
To our elected politicians in Vancouver municipal government, a plea: please, reach across the table to members of all the parties on the body on which you sit, who were elected to office and who are not your own, so that together you might work in the interests of all those who elected you, let us witness a return to an approach to civic government in Vancouver that once was, and can be again, an achievable and necessary goal.
Of course, there will be disagreements on policy — that is to be expected, and desirable. Socratic discourse, the exchange of ideas in service of the public good is a necessary component of a thriving and vital democracy.

Today, I call on John Coupar, a friend and one of the most humble and good men of my acquaintance — who soon will lead one of the two civic bodies where a civic party holds a majority — to reach out to the newly-elected Green members of Park Board, Stuart Mackinnon and Michael Wiebe, and to Vision Vancouver newly-elected Park Board Commissioner, Catherine Evans, and assure them your administration will dedicate itself to a civil discourse, and respect for the opinions of all Park Board Commissioners who will sit around the Park Board table this next four years.
Let the divisiveness of the past be just that, in the past.
John Coupar: Ensure that your message of a new era of co-operation is a clarion one, one that safeguards against the utterly regrettable, perceived arrogance and meanness that for many defined the previous Vision Vancouver Park Board civic administration, that in the forthcoming John Coupar-led Park Board administration, all the elected NPA Park Board Commissioners will work towards a new era of co-operation and accommodation around the Park Board table, in the interests of all Park Board Commissioners, and in the interests of all the citizens of our city.