Category Archives: Politics

Vancouver Votes 2018 | City Council Endorsements

October 15, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

VanRamblings urges you to take this list to the polls when you vote, referring to the graphic while looking at your smart phone. Easy enough to copy the graphic, and place it into your photos app. Otherwise, you can print VanRamblings’ endorsement list — as hundreds have — and take it to the polls. We flat out guarantee that this is the City Council, School Board and Park Board you want to elect on Saturday, October 20th!

Progressive 2018 Vancouver City Council Endorsement Ballot

The names of the candidates in the 2018 Vancouver civic election at all three levels of governance in the city of Vancouver, those persons of character and integrity whose names are listed above on the VanRamblings progressive endorsement ballot are, we believe, the best choices for Vancouver residents to vote for to govern our city over the next four years.
We are in the midst of a housing crisis in Vancouver, from which no relief seems at hand. When your cast your ballot for the 10 Councillor candidates whose names you find above, you give yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbours the best possible opportunity to address the issue of affordability in our city, while at the same time addressing issues of social inequity and injustice. Each candidate selected by VanRamblings represent the most accomplished candidates on the 2018 Vancouver Councillor ballot.
Today, VanRamblings will — for your consideration — provide you with insight into who the 10 candidates we have selected are, their work in the community, and why it is that — if you believe it is long past the time to address the social and economic ills of our city — you must vote for each and every one of the 10 candidates selected for Vancouver City Council.
Candidates names are listed in the order on the randomized ballot.
2. BOYLE, Christine — a generational candidate for Vancouver City Council

As we have written numerous times, Christine Boyle is the single most important candidate for you to vote for in the 2018 Vancouver civic election. Quite simply, without Christine Boyle’s negotiation & interpersonal skills, and her ability to work not just across party lines but with any person of conscience who means well for our city, and the necessary choice you must make to cast a vote for Ms. Boyle, take heart that she will provide the citizens of Vancouver with the singular opportunity, as she works with others on Council, to cure the social ills that have long plagued our city.
Watch and listen to the video above, and see if you don’t come away believing as we do that Christine Boyle represents not simply a necessary choice to elect to Vancouver City Council in 2018, but perhaps the most transformative candidacy for Vancouver City Council in a generation.
This upcoming Thursday, VanRamblings will publish a full-throated endorsement of Christine Boyle’s candidacy, listing her many accomplishments, while providing a rationale for our endorsement of the most transcendent candidate for Council we have witnessed in our lifetime.
7. FRY, Pete — a must, must, must-elect to Vancouver City Council

This past week, VanRamblings published an expressive and necessary endorsement of the Green Party of Vancouver’s Pete Fry, a candidate for Vancouver City Council who, along with his Green Party colleagues, and Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe (see below) — Pete, Christine and Derrick representing the historic trinity of change candidates in the 2018 Vancouver civic election — are, we would suggest, the must-elects for City Council in 2018, if we are to preserve the livability of our city.
VanRamblings has known Pete Fry for a good long time.
Quite simply, there is no finer person of our acquaintance, no better candidate for office, no more informed and passionate a citizen, no greater an urban life philosopher and inspiring community activist (think Jane Jacobs) in the city of Vancouver than Pete Fry, who is an absolutely necessary candidate for you to vote for in the current municipal election.
If those of us who live in Vancouver are to have any chance at all of building the affordable housing we need and making ours a more just city, it is Pete Fry — working with his Green Party colleagues, and Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, and Mr. O’Keefe’s COPE colleagues — who will, working together, deliver on the promise of building the city we need.
16. ROBERTS, Anne — a seasoned pro who knows how to get things done

Awhile back, a veteran civic affairs reporter expressed concern to VanRamblings that, “it’s going to take the new Councillors a year and a half to even find where the washrooms are,” which means with at least an unprecedented seven new Councillors elected to Vancouver City Council on Saturday, October 20th, in order to get anything done, it will be incumbent on the seasoned City Councillors — Anne Roberts sat as a ‘can do’ COPE Councillor of conscience on Vancouver City Council from 2002 – 2005 — to actually ‘get things done’, while her Council colleagues find their feet.
Ms. Roberts’ moral voice of probity, and the lessons she learned while in power in civic government at the start of the millennium will be central to the success of the newly-elected City Council, if anything at all is to be achieved in the next two years. Anne Roberts knows how to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s, knows the power structure at City Hall like the back of her hand, and knows how to consult, to formulate policy and legislation, to make a difference. Anne Roberts is destined to be an invaluable resource to her newly-elected colleagues, who in working together to bring much-needed change for the better to our city will be instrumental to, and a key figure in, the realization of the just and affordable city we all want & need.
40. KIRBY-YUNG, Sarah — a generational democratic candidate

Sarah Kirby-Yung launching Holiday Heights at the Bloedel Conservatory, at QE Park

VanRamblings’ favourite elected official this past four years, Sarah Kirby-Yung, as we wrote earlier this week on our blog, and as quoted by our friend & outdoor pools advocate, Margery Duda, can be described thusly:

I agree with Raymond Tomlin on this quote from his VanRamblings blog today: “Sarah Kirby-Yung — the most important, action-oriented, democratic Park Board Chairperson in living memory — is on a mission to reform how right-of-centre parties respond to the needs & expectations of the electorate. Sarah Kirby-Yung is a once in a lifetime candidate.”

Says Margery, “Sarah Kirby-Yung has been a champion at Park Board this last term.”

You know how there are no more whales and dolphins in captivity at the Aquarium? Well, that’d be due to Sarah Kirby-Yung during her tenure as Park Board Chairperson, going against her own party policy, calling for, and holding, an extensive public consultation, and arising from that consultation, working with Park Board General Manager Malcolm Bromley to find a way to have Park Board ban cetaceans in captivity.
Mr. Bromley and Commissioner Kirby-Yung discovered an obscure 1902 Park Board bylaw that would empower Park Board to prevent the importation of more whales and dolphins into Stanley Park. Subsequent work was needed to convince her Park Board colleagues that the 7 elected Park Board Commissioners had a moral obligation to act on the wishes of the public, and enact a by-law giving Park Board jurisdiction that would, in practice, ban cetaceans in captivity in Stanley Park.
Around these parts, we call that democracy in action, and responsible civic government. Ms. Kirby-Yung’s achievements while in office are legion.
Please, please save a vote for Sarah Kirby-Yung — you’ll be glad you did!
45. SWANSON, Jean — the conscience of the next Vancouver City Council

VanRamblings hardly needs to introduce you to Vancouver’s pre-eminent social justice advocate, and Order of Canada recipient. Decades of activism in the Downtown Eastside has also earned Jean the People’s Order of BC.
On the next City Council — and you can take it to the credit union that Jean will be elected to Council this upcoming Saturday — Jean Swanson will emerge as, and be, the conscience of Council. VanRamblings wants that, Jean’s colleagues and fellow activists want that, and perhaps the most important constituency of all in the 2018 Vancouver civic election, voters, want that. There’ll be celebrating aplenty Saturday night when we can call our friend, “Councillor Swanson” — long overdue and absolutely necessary.

55. MCDOWELL, Rob — your diplomatic, collaborative ‘can do’ City Councillor

Rob McDowell, independent candidate for Vancouver City Council, was the first person VanRamblings endorsed in this campaign, which we did on Monday, October 1st. We urge you to read our endorsement, and allow yourself an opportunity to get to know the finest, bright, kindest, most thoughtful, brilliant democrat and friend and humanitarian difference maker its has been our privilege to meet and work with.
VanRamblings believes the citizenry will fall head over heels in love with two Councillors in this next term of office: Christine Boyle & Rob McDowell — both of whom are the smartest folks we’ve ever met, down to earth, kind, generous of spirit, action-oriented activists of conscience. Some of you, and some of the candidates we’re endorsing today, aren’t all that familiar with Rob McDowell. But, boy oh boy, when Rob’s Council mates and the citizens of Vancouver get to know Rob McDowell, and watch him bring legislation to the floor of Council chambers that will change your life for the better, in innumerable ways, a love affair will break out with Rob McDowell.
And, let us tell you: that’s just how it should be & we guarantee, it will be!
59. O’KEEFE, Derrick — in Vancouver, the activist voice of a generation

Derrick O’Keefe is one of the members of the historic trinity of must-elect candidates in the 2018 Vancouver civic election — the other two members? Christine Boyle and Pete Fry, of course, about whom we write above.
All three are young, action-oriented, activist go-getters of conscience, who working in concert and collaboratively together with their civic party colleagues will build the affordable housing we need; engage in a reconciliation process with our indigenous peoples (we are, after all, living on stolen land); build on our city’s greenest action plan; fight racism, intolerance, xenophobia, and discrimination while building a city that belongs to all of us, and not just a wealth elite; work to end homelessness; create new parks and renew our existing community centres, while properly funding Vancouver’s underfunded by Vision Vancouver for 10 years parks and recreation system; and develop a real solution to the opioid crisis that has plagued our city for the past three years. And that’s just for a start!
Did we mention that all three are committed to lowering property taxes for small business owners (while getting corporate business to pay their fair share), reining in the city budget while re-aligning the city’s spending priorities, properly supporting and funding our arts community (and not picking ‘favourites’ as an administration we won’t name has done for 10 years), consulting and working together with citizens in all of Vancouver’s neighbourhoods to build the city we need, but do so in a manner that respects the wishes of residents in all 23 neighbourhoods across our city.
This past Friday, VanRamblings formally endorsed Derrick O’Keefe for Vancouver City Council. We urge you to read more about our town’s Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, John Sewell, Kshama Sawant, and Ben Isitt.
65. YAN, Brandon — the activist voice of diversity on Vancouver City Council

Have you noticed that most of the endorsement lists you run across on social media, or friends share with you — and this, woefully, applies to VanRamblings’ endorsement list, as well — are missing representation from members of our gender variant and LBGT communities, our indigenous peoples community, and Vancouver’s majority Asian or ethnic populations?
One would think that we’re living in the 1950s.
Brandon Yan’s lived experience as a gay man, and as an activist member of Vancouver’s Chinese population, is not the experience of any other one of the candidates VanRamblings is endorsing today. We’re not engaging in identity politics here, we’re just saying that there’s something very wrong when out and proud voices, and a voice to represent Vancouver’s diverse Asian population, not to mention young people, may be missing from the next City Council. We don’t want that to happen — and neither should you.
VanRamblings formally endorsed Brandon Yan on October 5th. When we did so, we focused on Brandons’s education (a Masters in Urban Studies from SFU); his quiet life in Kitsilano with his partner Sam, and their dogs; Brandon’s work as the Education Director for Out on Screen, and with youth; and his work on transportation issues at Surrey City Hall.
VanRamblings did not ask, nor did we explore to the extent we should have, Brandon Yan’s lived experience, as a person of colour and a gay man, and how his lived experience informs his bid for Vancouver City Council.
The 2018 Vancouver municipal election has been “unusual” for two reasons — and, here, we’re not referring to the surfeit of under-qualified candidates seeking office this very strange and off-putting election year.
Rather, we’re referring to what we perceive and have experienced as the viciously and openly racist and openly misogynist conduct of those trolling our social media feeds — in fact, a related law suit will be filed today. Our Sunday column was initially meant to explore this ugly 2018 Vancouver civic election phenomenon — we wrote that column, but we chickened out, and instead wrote and published an entirely new ‘upbeat’ column.
After the election, VanRamblings will write about this hideous racist / misogynist phenomenon that has plagued the 2018 Vancouver civic election, lead for the most part by white, mostly older, and often prominent men within our community — who just damn well oughta know better.
If you’re thinking, “Oh, Brandon Yan. No, I’m not going to vote for him. He’s with OneCity, and I’ve “heard” terrible things about him.” Yeah, really? We would ask that you closely examine your motives for denying Brandon Yan his agency in this year’s civic election. We’re willing to bet that when you look inwards, you will be both embarrassed and mightily ashamed.
VanRamblings? We have already cast a vote for Brandon Yan — and did so with clear eyes, and a full heart. Because we knew that by filling in the oval opposite Brandon Yan’s name we couldn’t lose — and neither will you.
66. CARR, Adriane | 68. WIEBE, Michael — electoral locks for City Council

If you don’t know who Adriane Carr is, if you’re unaware that she topped the polls in in 2014, besting her closest competitor by more than 10,000 votes, if you’re unaware that Adriane Carr is Vancouver’s most beloved civic politician, who for the past 7 years on Vancouver City Council has been our champion at City Hall, and in the governance of our city, who will top the polls again in 2018 — well, there’s just not that much we can tell you.
Either you love the city you live in, and are aware of the critical role Adriane Carr has played in championing the democratic engagement of the citizens of Vancouver, how she has been your voice on Vancouver City Council, or maybe you’ve never heard of Adriane Carr, or simply have some passing notion about her contribution to the livability of our city.
In which case, we would ask that you do a little research on your own. A Google search of Ms. Carr’s name is a good place to start. If you haven’t attended an all candidates meeting, there are still a few left. Best of all, I think: drop into the office one day this week, where you’ll find campaign manager Ryan Clayton and the Green Party’s superb Director of Communications, Alex Brunke (who is a woman, by the way), and we’re willing to bet that they’d make arrangements for you to speak to and meet with her — heck, you’ll probably find Adriane in the back room collating bunches of flyers to give to the volunteers (of which you could become one) for the canvassing of Vancouver neighbourhoods.
There’s no finer endeavour than being involved in an election campaign.

You can read all about Michael Wiebe on the Green Party of Vancouver website, where you can watch all of the videos Mr. Wiebe has made during the course of this election campaign, and where you’ll read all about Michael’s (we refer to Mr. Wiebe by his first name because we, and everyone he meets, find him to be friendly, open, welcoming and engaging, often the first words out of Michael’s mouth being, “Call me Michael. How can I help you? Do you have any questions can I answer for you.”
That’s Michael Wiebe: open, friendly, hard-working, dedicated to the greater good, a superb and accomplished Chairperson of the Vancouver Park Board throughout 2017, respected by his peers and those with whom he works who are more than twice his age — heck, you’ve probably noticed, Michael is a ‘young person’. Michael Wiebe: an old soul in a young person’s body, wise beyond his years, with a brilliant mind and warm spirit.
If you visit the Green Party website, you’ll read that Michael Wiebe created the Art House Society, playing a critical role in saving The Rio Theatre, that he owns the eight ½ restaurant lounge at 153 E. 8th Avenue, that he’s President of the Mt. Pleasant Business Improvement Association, and that he sits on the Persons with Disabilities Advisory / the Indigenous Peoples Advisory / and the LGBT2+/TGV2S committees at Vancouver City Hall.
That Michael Wiebe: a laggard, I tell you. There are 24 hours in a day, and he’s busy 20 hours of each day on his community involvements and his thriving small business. Heck, he’s young; Michael doesn’t need any sleep.
All joshing aside, Michael has emerged as a Kennedy-esque star during the course of this election campaign, articulate, passionate, informed, possessed of deep and abiding insights into all the issues candidates are facing in this election, absolutely dedicated to resolving our city’s affordable housing crisis, while working on a climate justice plan (and preparing Vancouver for the inevitable and challenging results of our climate change crisis) — and all of the issues that are of concern to you, and to him.
Michael Wiebe is a difference maker. We are proud to write that we enthusiastically endorse his candidacy for Vancouver City Council, and if those of you who are reading today’s VanRamblings get out to the advance polls, or vote this upcoming Saturday, your vote could very well lift Michael Wiebe onto Vancouver City Council, his true home while working for us.

VanRamblings endorsed Shauna Sylvester for Mayor way back on September 18th. We enthusiastically endorse Shauna for Mayor.

VanRamblings’ School Board endorsement rationale is available here.
VanRamblings’ Park Board endorsement rationale may be found here.
VanRamblings’ all women slate for Council may be found here.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Meet Your New City Council | Woe is Us

October 13, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

2018 Vancouver civic election | Internal Party Polling, October 13

As per usual, VanRamblings will bury the lede at the outset of today’s post.
We’re also going to provide you with a civic affairs history lesson, revolving around the formation of Vision Vancouver — who have held power for the past 10 years — and the Non-Partisan Association, our city’s legacy, right-of-centre political party, formed in 1937 by corporate interests to “keep the socialists out of power,” a measure that has met with much success. Sigh.
We intend first to provide a bit of context before we engage in a breakdown of the latest internal party polling results — a conglomeration of words we’ll also explain — the latest iteration of which you see in the graphic above.
We imagine there are some very happy civic candidates seeing the polling results above, while others are suffering heart palpitations. Not to worry.

Every election cycle, the pollsters come out of the woodwork to predict whatever election is taking place, municipal, provincial or federal.
Now, whether it be the Mustel Group, Mario Canseco’s Research Co., Quitto Maggi’s Mainstreet Research, or Shachi Kurl’s Angus Reid Institute, these folks run public opinion research companies for corporate business, as their core bread and butter raison d’etre, and bottom line revenue generator.
None of the companies above are in the election prediction polling game, as a source of revenue that drives the sum and substance of their companies.
The research companies identified above emerge during elections for public relations value, and public relations only, supplying their polling information to the media at a nominal cost, as entertainment value for the “consumer”, and increased readership or viewership for the media companies involved, who also employ the polling information for its entertainment value to their “subscribers”, all of which serves to turns the serious endeavour of democratic engagement into a “race”, devoid of cognitive value to citizens.
During the election cycle, the companies above, or others like them, will “survey” a bit more than 200 potential voters — 236 seems to be the magic number in the 2018 Vancouver civic election cycle — reporting out the far from intensive polling results to a breathlessly anticipatory waiting public.
Internal Party Polling | An Accurate Snapshot of the Public Mood

Bob Penner’s Stratcom, on the left, above (politically, as well), and Dimitri Pantazopoulos’ Maple Leaf Strategies, on the right (ditto) are the “party” pollsters providing accurate polling results to their respective employers.
When philanthropist and former Tennessee resident Joel Solomon decided in 2002 that he wanted to form a Vancouver municipal party to realize his ‘500 year plan’ (don’t ask), he recruited Mike Magee from Stratcom to form a Vancouver civic party that would go on to be called Vision Vancouver. That meant, of course, hiving off elected COPE Councillors Raymond Louie, Tim Stevenson and Jim Green from the civic government of the day.
Long story short, in the 2005 Vancouver civic election, Louie, Stevenson and recent Visionite recruit, Heather Deal (formerly a COPE Park Board Commissioner) were elected to City Council under the Vision Vancouver banner, with Jim Green as the nascent civic party’s mayoral standard bearer. Jim Green lost in his Mayoral bid — widely thought to be the result of dirty tricks by incoming Mayor Sam Sullivan — resulting in a search for the “perfect Mayor”, who turned out to be the cycling advocate / Fairview NDP MLA, Gregor “Hollywood” Robertson. The rest, as they say, is history.
Suffice to say that Stratcom has found employment as the left-of-centre pollster to Vision Vancouver and the labour movement ever since.

Meet Dimitri Pantazopoulos, longtime Stephen Harper pollster, hired by the B.C. Liberals in 2013 to suss out an election where Premier Christy ‘Crusty’ Clark was destined to go down to defeat — public polling had her at a nausea-inducing 33% — until the arrival of the affable Mr. Pantazopoulos, considered to be Canada’s most accurate public opinion research pollster.
Early on in 2013, after intensive province-wide research, Mr. Pantazopoulos determined there were 50 ridings the B.C. Liberals could win. Maple Leaf Strategies polled each of 50 “winnable” provincial ridings daily, identified voters issues of concern, and developed a communications strategy for the rding’s Liberal candidate to address the identified issues of voter concern.
On election eve, May 13th 2013, Dimitri Pantazopoulos told a near suicidal B.C. Liberal party election campaign team that on Tuesday, May 14th Christy Clark would ride to victory with an increased majority government.
At the time, the public polling — you know, media pollsters like Angus Reid — had the BC NDP at 47% and on their way to a massive majority government, with Ms. Clark’s prospects in the doldrums at a woeful 33%.
Only a half hour after the polls closed, at 8:30pm on that chill tenebrous March evening, Global TV projected a majority government for a now ebullient Christy Clark. Dimitri Pantazopoulos projected 50 seats for the B.C. Liberals, Dimitri Pantazopoulos delivered 50 seats for the B.C. Liberals.

The affable, very bright Peter Armstrong just can’t seem to help the NPA secure victory

In 2014, then Non-Partisan Association President Peter Armstrong hired Mr. Pantazopoulos (he’s back again this election cycle) as the NPA pollster.
Dimitri Pantazopoulos was having none of this, “Gosh, let’s poll 236 voters once a week” nonsense. Nope, Maple Leaf Strategies polled 1000 voters in the neighbourhoods, and more accurately in the area surrounding winnable polling stations, nightly. If you’re a candidate for office, or a campaign staff official for one of the 10 civic parties, and you’ve read this far, take heart — we’re about to give the lie to the polling results you see atop today’s post.
Saturday morning, November 15th, 2014 — election day — VanRamblings met with a Vancouver Non-Partisan Association official, who told us …

“Dimitri polled 4000 respondents on Thursday and Friday, and was up all night collating the results. I just got his election prediction outcome. Kirk LaPointe has a 15-point lead over Gregor Robertson. On Council, Dimitri predicts five, maybe six seats. Raymond, the NPA is going to ride to victory tonight. It’s about time!”

Alas and alack that’s not what happened after the polls closed at 8pm.
At 4pm, Mr. Pantazopoulos provided the NPA campaign team with exit poll results. The news was dire for NPA officials and candidates: the Non-Partisan Association was going down to defeat yet again. The tears flowed.
Exit polling had voters responding in this manner: “Vision Vancouver and the NPA having been saying much the same thing on transit, on the subway down Broadway, and on housing. Where’s the difference between the two? Better to vote the devil you know, than the one you don’t.” Thus Gregor Robertson secured victory, 83,529 votes to Kirk LaPointe’s 73,443 ballots cast. Melissa De Genova, then a recent NPA Park Board Commissioner won election to Council, joining incumbents George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball.

Gregor Robertson: the thrill of victory. Peter Armstrong: the hurtin’ agony of defeat

NPA candidate for City Council, Ian Robertson, while leading most of the evening in the 10th and last spot for Council, went down to defeat when the last two polls reported in, strong Vision polls that went 80% or better for incumbent Vision Vancouver City Councillor, Geoff Meggs, who defeated a sanguine Ian Robertson by a mere 519 votes: 56,831 votes for Councillor Meggs, and 56,319 ballots cast for Mr. Robertson. And the heavens wept.
The Latest Internal Party Polling Results | What Does It All Mean?
According to the internal party polling, the public polling is largely correct.

With a 53% voter intention of voting Green, as above, Adriane Carr’s Green Party of Vancouver will sweep to victory next Saturday night, Ms. Carr showing coattails in 2018, with urban life philosopher Pete Fry, Park Board Commissioner Michael Wiebe, and architect David Wong set to join Vancouver’s most popular politician on City Council in the next term.
COPE City Council candidate Jean Swanson has sat near or atop the internal party polls since polling began in March.
At number 6 on the “ballot” above, current Park Board Commissioner Erin Shum — long one of VanRamblings’ and the community’s favourite electeds — has run a skookum campaign, skillfully managed by her husband and loving father to their new daughter, B.C. Liberal apparatchik Gavin Dew.
Last evening, after voting at Kits Community Centre, we sauntered over to Choices, and were surprised to see the streets lined with large Erin Shum signs, particularly observable on West 16th Avenue, the number of Ms. Shum’s Building a Vancouver for Families election signs easily outstripping all of the signs for members of her former NPA political party combined.

Note should be made that new mom Erin Shum is running as an independent. Four years ago, we predicted a sterling political career for Ms. Shum. We have to ask — is VanRamblings ever wrong?
And what about this Ken Charko guy? We’ll tell you a secret: we’ve talked (or met) with the populist Trump supporter every day (or evening) for the past month. Although Ken Charko is running with Wai Young’s Coalition Vancouver party, in fact he’s running a Ken Charko victory campaign, having raised more money than most of the Mayoral candidates.
And let us tell you: Ken Charko plays to win. We’re not going to go into detail because, in 2018, as 2014 COPE City Council candidate (and one of our favourite people in the whole wide world), Jennifer O’Keefe, was telling us on Thursday evening, as we stood blocking the produce table at Whole Foods, “Raymond, you’re being nice to everyone in this election. I guess that cancer thing has made you a new man, huh?” Yep, Jennifer, yep.
You know how Grace Vanderwaal sings, “I don’t play by the rules of the game.” Neither does Ken Charko.

Ken Charko with Coalition Vancouver candidate for Park Board, Olga Zarudina

Ken is running the best ground game of any candidate for Council in the 2018 Vancouver electoral campaign. A 2011 NPA Council candidate who fell just shy of attaining victory, the owner of the Dunbar Theatre is back with a vengeance in 2018. Ken’s team (and he has a team, a paid team of four people, out delivering signs, crunching the numbers, meeting with voters in the polls where Ken’s own internal polling indicates strong support — Dunbar, naturally, and a surprise to Mr. Charko, the West End, with the area north of the Cassiar connector solidly in the Ken Charko camp).
Ken Charko has acquired phone lists, and cell numbers of thousands of Vancouver voters likely to go to the polls. Each and every day, Ken phones and speaks (briefly) with 847 — must be his lucky number — voters on their cell phones, which development has led to dozens of calls from VanRamblings’ friends asking, “How did Ken Charko get my number?”
Will Ken’s numbers hold? As Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith might intone, “Don’t count Ken Charko out — he’s not to be underestimated.”
Melissa De Genova — who, for the record, we both respect and admire — will ride to victory on her City Council incumbency, while Colleen Hardwick looks to achieve victory on the coattails of her father Walter Hardwick’s name, Dr. Hardwick, a multi-term alderman in the 1960s and 1970s, and a distinguished and much-beloved academic and community leader whose work shaped both the Metro Vancouver region and the Fraser Valley.
VanRamblings was fortunate enough to work with Dr. Hardwick on The Livable Region Plan in the late 1980s, the published document responsible for shaping almost every aspect of urban life in our region.
And what of the straggly few challenging for the 10th spot on Council?
If you’ve read VanRamblings at all, you know we’re pulling for Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe. On Monday, we will enthusiastically endorse Sarah Kirby-Yung (you think we gush over Christine Boyle? You ain’t read nuthin’ yet, til you read what we write about British Columbia’s nominally right-of-centre generational candidate & future British Columbia Premier).
Lately, VanRamblings has been thinking, “Omigosh, we’ll be despondent if Christine Boyle doesn’t attain a seat on Council,” and we will be verklempt because everything we’ve written about Ms. Boyle we believe into the deepest fibre of our being. Note to all: this ain’t our first rodeo.

Truth to tell, it is the possibility of a defeat for Sarah Kirby-Yung on the evening of Saturday, October 20th that would cause us the most concern, and bring us to tears. Christine Boyle will live on to fight another day, were she to lose. Sarah Kirby-Yung — the most important, action-oriented, democratic Park Board Chairperson in living memory — is on a mission to reform how right-of-centre parties respond to the needs and expectations of the electorate. Sarah Kirby-Yung is a once in a lifetime candidate.
Sarah Kirby-Yung’s victory at the polls in our current Vancouver civic election is critical to the future of British Columbia. John Horgan, David Eby and the NDP are not always going to be in power. If Ms. Kirby-Yung is to become a future Premier — we would note in passing, the polar opposite of Christy Clark — she must achieve victory next Saturday night (although, we suppose, she could run in the next provincial election — but, honestly, in order for her to realize her goal of leading the province, victory on the 20th would go a long ways towards becoming a future British Columbia Premier).
Believe me when I say, “You want Sarah Kirby-Yung as a BC Liberal Premier over any other candidate in the party, now and long into the future.”
Will the numbers hold as you see them at the top of today’s post hold?
Doubtful.
We’re holding out for victory for all three of our favourites in this election: Christine Boyle, Derrick O’Keefe and Sarah Kirby-Yung. Perhaps the electorate will come to their senses, tune into the election, and elect all three of these transformational candidates to City Council — although, truth to tell, Pete Fry must be included in this life-changing, must-elect group.

We are 7 days away from election day 2018, 7 days away from knowing who will comprise our next Vancouver City Council, Park Board and School Board. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to how things will turn out.
The Straight’s Charlie Smith wrote yesterday that he thinks there’ll be a decent, if not good turnout at the polls. We’re less sanguine about that possibility, particularly given the record low turnout at the advance polls.
Still, you never know what’s going to happen, when it comes to elections.
You know what they say, “A week in politics is a lifetime.”

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Derrick O’Keefe Endorsement | Must-Elect

October 12, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Video credit. Eliot Galan. @collectivista

Derrick O’Keefe’s candidacy for Vancouver City Council represents the most heartening and principled candidacy in Vancouver civic politics since the rise of our city’s multi-term, cherished top vote-getter, Harry Rankin.
Over the years, new candidates have emerged on the political scene, barely gaining power at City Hall as they sought office, squeaking in by the narrowest of electoral margins, yet once in office going on to become our most beloved and venerated civic representatives.
In Vancouver, in 2011, Adriane Carr won elected office by a mere 909 vote margin, in an election where more than 135,000 votes were cast. In 2014, Councillor Carr topped the polls with more than 74,000 votes. Same thing in Seattle with socialist professor Kshama Sawant, squeaking to victory over incumbent Richard Conlin, running on a $15 an hour minimum wage platform, in 2013. One year later, as is the case with our very own Ms. Carr, residents of Metro Seattle and Washington state voted Kshama Sawant the Seattle region and Washington state’s most popular political figure.
VanRamblings has known committed community activist Derrick O’Keefe for 15 years, dating back to the early 2000s, when Derrick and his best friend, author and humourist Charlie Demers, emerged on Vancouver’s political scene with the boldly imagined Seven Oaks arts & politics magazine.
A well-considered, well-written and conceived activist academic journal, in every issue Seven Oaks laid out for its readers a road map for change, in order that working people would no longer get the short end of the stick. During its halycon years of publication, Seven Oaks was a much anticipated must-read each month for its legion of appreciative activist readers.
Derrick was recruited by Canadian feminist icon Judy Rebick to edit the online journal she had created, rabble.ca, with Derrick O’Keefe on the masthead as editor-in-chief, as always keeping his activism a fundamental aspect of how he brings himself to the world, as a peace activist, a renter’s and affordable housing activist, and one of Canada’s finest political writers (after leaving rabble.ca, Derrick co-founded and edited ricochet.ca, widely considered to this day to be Canada’s leading public interest journal).
Of course, as is the case with all activists of conscience, Derrick O’Keefe loves baseball. Sitting in the bleachers in Section 3 at Nat Bailey Stadium on a revivifying summer’s eve, his children and Andrea nearby, the warm breeze of the early evening wafting through the crowd, the feint scent of beer and popcorn in the air, baseball at The Nat is Derrick’s idea of heaven.

And now Derrick O’Keefe finds himself on the ground fighting for all of us who live in the city of Vancouver, in the midst of an affordable housing crisis and a looming environmental crisis on the near horizon, running as an absolutely necessary candidate for Vancouver City Council, with COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors. Not a moment too soon, Derrick O’Keefe.
When you cast your ballot at the polls, placing a checkmark beside the name of O’KEEFE, Derrick, allowing Mr. O’Keefe to be elected to Council, the fate that awaits Mr. O’Keefe is popularity among the citizens beyond all measure — and in 2022, the prospect of topping the civic election polls in the next municipal election. Because Derrick O’Keefe is a difference maker.

The prospect that awaits us? Deliverance from the ills of our city, when we cast a vote for Derrick O’Keefe for City Council, as we head to the polls.
As we wrote yesterday, in identifying the historic trinity of civic election candidates that are must-elects, who in working together on Vancouver City Council will build the city we need, OneCity candidate Christine Boyle, Green candidate Pete Fry, and the tremendous ‘on our side’ Derrick O’Keefe represent the three most charismatic, thoughtful, educated, action-oriented urban planning democrats to run for City Council in four decades.

“While the Greens’ Pete Fry is the visionary, COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe is the take no guff charismatic, truth-telling spokesperson, with One City’s Christine Boyle the democratically-engaged, collaborative, ‘get things done’ negotiator with stakeholder groups, Derrick O’Keefe, Pete Fry and Christine Boyle all working together to implement their plan for change: more truly affordable housing — co-and-co-op, rental and social housing built on city land — and soon; a socially just city that serves the interests of all; better, less expensive and more frequent transit; more child care, less expensive and more accessible; enhanced public safety throughout the city; an environmental plan that will serve the interests of our children and future generations; unprecedented support for the arts and creative community, as well as for Vancouver’s parks and recreation system.

In order for the change that we all need to occur, when you go to the polls this next week, you’re going to have to place a check mark beside the name of O’KEEFE, Derrick — 13th from last on the randomized Councillor ballot — the most important and critical to our collective future decision that you’ll make in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, a commitment in support of your family, your neighbours, your colleagues & your friends.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Pete Fry Endorsement | Must-Elect

October 11, 2018Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Pete Fry has run for civic office twice previously. This time around could be third time lucky. The lucky ones, of course, will be us.
VanRamblings knows that Pete Fry would be a transformational City Councillor, who would spend his every waking moment working to build a livable city for you, for your neighbours, your friends and your family.
We know Pete Fry to be Vancouver’s pre-eminent city building philosopher, and at this critical juncture in Vancouver’s history, Pete Fry is not only a necessary candidate for whom to cast your ballot, but an absolutely critical candidate to elect to Vancouver City Council if your needs, and the needs of your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours are to be met.

The Greens’ Pete Fry, OneCity’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe constitute an historic trinity of civic election candidates who, working together, will build the city we need, the three most charismatic, thoughtful, educated, urban planning democrats to run for City Council since the days of renowned urbanists Walter Hardwick, Fritz Bowers, Setty Pendakur, William Gibson and Art Cowie, who made up Council’s sagacious academic quintet of respected urban planners and landscape architects in the early 1970s, establishing a livable region plan that lives on to this day.
What does all of the above mean for you, for your life in the city, and the livability of Vancouver going forward? As is the case with must-elects Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, Pete Fry is committed to …

Public amenities. After 10 years of woeful underfunding of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, Pete Fry is committed to the growth and renewal of this critical public infrastructure, and greater, less expensive and universal access to these critical community resources.
Affordable housing. Pete Fry is committed to recognizing the right to housing in the Vancouver Charter, and defining affordability relative to local incomes, such that Vancouver’s citizens would pay not more than 30% of their income on meeting their housing needs.
In addition, Pete Fry on City Council would work with his Green Party colleagues, and with Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, as well, to set a goal of 50% below-market-rate housing overall for all new multi-residential development, while launching a city-funded, city-built housing programme on city-owned land, as well as provincial and federal Crown land, on a leasehold basis, construction costs to be paid through developer community amenity contributions, federal and provincial tax, and a speculation land value capture tax.
Small business. Pete Fry and his Green Party colleagues — must-elects Adriane Carr, out city’s most beloved and most cherished City Councillor; the estimable and surprising and charismatic Michael Wiebe, a democrat and arts and small business advocate extraordinaire; and David HT Wong, an architect, long an advocate of heritage preservation, and slow growth, respectful of the needs, wants and desires of citizens in neighbourhoods across our city — all of whom are committed to lowering small business tax, while having major corporate business pay a fairer share of tax. In respect of housing, the Green Party’s commitment to 3500 units of rental, social, co-and-co-op housing built on city, federal and provincial land, each and every year for the next 10 years — with no one paying more than 30% of their income for housing — would mean not only would lower income workers be able to afford to live in city, small businesses would find it easier to recruit employees.
Have you noticed lately while walking down the streets of our city, the number of businesses that are shuttered due to the lack of staff. The Green Party housing plan, along with lower small business tax, would enable small business to pay higher wages to employees housed nearby on affordable city-owned rental, or co-op housing.

Pete Fry, along with his Green Party colleagues, Christine Boyle and her OneCity Council candidate colleague, Brandon Yan, in concert with Derrick O’Keefe and COPE’s Jean Swanson and Anne Roberts will work with the provincial government to shorten the timelines for rollout of $10-a-day child care, while also requesting more money for transit, community shuttle bus, and overnight Skytrain service on the weekends.
Child care centres established in housing co-op developments, as is the case at the 135-unit Railyard Housing Co-op, built on city land, the construction and materials paid for by Concert Properties through an arrangement with Vancouver’s Community Land Trust, a re-opening of The Playhouse as a year-round theatre company servicing all other theatre companies in Vancouver, continuity of care seniors housing built in every neighbourhood, keeping our streets and our boulevards clean and groomed so it might said once more that Vancouver is not only the most beautiful city on the continent, but the cleanest and most welcoming city.

And let us not forget, either, that Pete Fry is committed to — unlike the right-of-centre NPA, Vancouver 1st, Yes Vancouver, Coalition Vancouver civic parties — the negotiation of a fair collective agreement for Vancouver’s 3500 city workers, organized within CUPE 1004 and CUPE 15 bargaining units. Negotiations begin later this autumn.
Make no mistake, Pete Fry is a key element in the success of any reformation plan that will be undertaken at Vancouver City Hall.

Pete is the visionary, Derrick is the take no guff charismatic, truth-telling spokesperson, while Christine Boyle is the democratically-engaged, collaborative, ‘get things done’ negotiator with stakeholder groups, the Council member who will ensure that things will actually get done, and that Pete Fry, Derrick O’Keefe and her plans are fully realized and implemented.

As remarkably well-qualified & livable city building candidates for Vancouver City Council in our city’s 2018 municipal election, the Greens’ Pete Fry, OneCity’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe are uniquely positioned as the holy trinity of civic governance, the magnificent trio who will transform our city into the paradise by the ocean we know it can once again become.
At the advance polls vote, under the Councillor ballot near the top in the lucky number 7 position, you’ll find the name FRY, Pete all ready for you to fill in the oval by his name. You might as well do the same for BOYLE, Christine, given her second place placement on the ballot.
As Christine Boyle’s father told Pete when he met him for the first time at the Kerrisdale Community Centre all candidates meeting awhile back, “Boyle and Fry, now there’s a recipe for success at the polls.”
And so it is, and so it must be.

Lucky you. The advance polls are open today through until next Wednsday, October 17th — you can cast your vote today for #2 BOYLE, Christine on the randomized ballot, skip down to 7th place, FRY, Pete, and place a check mark by his name. You might as well check O’KEEFE, Derrick, at lucky #13th from last place at the bottom of the Councillor ballot.
You’ll sleep better tonight, we promise!
If you decide to cast your ballot early, you choose one Mayoral candidate out of 21, and for City Council you’re to elect 10 Councillors in total, at Park Board there are 7 Commissioners to elect, and at School Board, 9 trustees.
We’d ask that you please, please please keep yourself informed, and being partisan for just one moment, we’d ask that you please vote for the progressive candidates running for office with the Greens, COPE and OneCity in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, today thru October 17th, 8am til 8pm …

Vancouver City Hall, 453 W 12th Avenue
Roundhouse Arts & Rec Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews
Britannia Community Services Centre, 1661 Napier Street
Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings Street
Renfrew Park Community Centre, 2929 East 22nd Avenue
Killarney Community Centre, 6260 Killarney Street
Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive
Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street
Marpole | Oakridge Community Centre, 990 West 59th Avenue
Kerrisdale Community Centre, 5851 West Boulevard
Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre, 2690 Larch Street
West End Community Centre, 870 Denman Street

We’ll see you back tomorrow for another critical endorsement.
Full VanRamblings election coverage is available here.