For VanRamblings the core election issue in Vancouver’s upcoming civic election, as it is across our province, our nation Canada, and the developed & developing world is simple to identify: child poverty, wont and need.
All of the other issues of importance that we as voters will see addressed over the course of the next five months, the issues that we care about that will serve to determine how we cast our ballot at the polls, stem from the core family issue of child poverty: the construction of affordable housing, inclusion, and social and economic justice for all of our fellow citizens.
Not to mention, the promotion of active transportation through the construction of more bike lanes and inviting pedestrian walkways, the renewal of our access to all community centre system and the proper, well-funded husbandry of our parks system across the city — because, just in case you didn’t know, parks are the backyards for tens of thousands of our fellow citizens in our little paradise by the sea, and more importantly, for the children living in condominiums, apartments or townhouses, or who live in the more economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods across our city and who call Vancouver home — as well as for human-scale development over development geared to please offshore buyers, who see our city as a commodity market, and not our most cherished and beloved home.
Compassion vs selfishness and greed. Children who go hungry, and who live in sub-standard housing vs the provision of a childhood for our most vulnerable citizens, and governance that works to eliminate wont and need while seeking to provide access to and equality of opportunity for all the children who live in our city, in every one of our 23 neighbourhoods.
Pretty simple calculus, huh?
Think with your heart as well as your mind, look to the future, ensure the protection of our environment and the livability of our city for all — and come Saturday, October 20th you’ll know which candidates to vote for.
Category Archives: Politics
Vancouver Votes 2018 | Celebration for a City of Reconciliation
Some days you arise from your slumber, and from the time you open your eyes, you know it’s going to be a great day. Today is one such day.
At a regularly scheduled Vancouver City Council Finance & Services Committee meeting yesterday afternoon, our City Councillors voted unanimously in favour of a motion brought forward by veteran, and soon to retire, Vision Vancouver City Councillor Tim Stevenson, that would prohibit businesses from operating within the City of Vancouver that would seek to provide services or counseling intended to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
In unanimously passing the motion at the Council table and in Council chambers, our elected Vancouver city councillors’ decision to ban conversion therapy makes our city the first city in the country to do so.
Conversion therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness & suicide
An essay published by the Human Rights Campaign says this about conversion therapy …
So-called “conversion therapy,” sometimes known as “reparative therapy,” is a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades, but due to continuing discrimination and societal bias against LGBTQ people, some practitioners continue to conduct conversion therapy. Minors are especially vulnerable, and conversion therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide.
Peter Gajdics, the driving force behind the banning of conversion therapy, and himself a survivor, said he’s proud to see the city take this stance, nearly crying when he saw all Councillors voting in favour of the motion.
“I feel victorious. I actually didn’t think it was going to happen; I kept thinking something was going to get in the way,” Gajdics said. “This is huge for Vancouver to take this position,” as he went on to say that he wasn’t expecting such a move, “I was overwhelmed and thrilled that they changed it from minors to adults. I had wanted it to be adults cause I was an adult when it happened to me,” he said, his voice quivering. “I think they will not only have set a precedent, they will really draw the attention of jurisdictions for this reason.”
The bylaw was initially written to protect minors from conversion therapy, but a last-minute amendment by Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Councillor George Affleck made it apply to people of all ages.
NPA City Councillor George Affleck serves notice to conversion therapy businesses
Again, note should be made that it was Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Councillor George Affleck who sought to amend Councillor Stevenson’s initial motion that would apply to minors only, to extend to all persons.
Note should also be made that NPA City Councillors Melissa De Genova, Elizabeth Ball and Hector Bremner all voted to support both Councillor Affleck’s amendment, and Councillor Stevenson’s initial motion to ban conversion therapy. Much is made of how “right wing” are the NPA City Councillors, and of how they mean ill for our city. Yesterday’s unanimous approval of the banning of conversion therapy businesses within the City of Vancouver gives the lie to the notion that our elected NPA Councillors are not social justice warriors. Make no mistake, they are — along with their Green Party and Vision Vancouver colleagues on Vancouver City Council.
Vancouver A, B, C Elections To Be a Thing of the Past
On voting day, you arrive at the polling station, register and sign in, and are then given a ballot, the names of the candidates for City Council listed alphabetically by surname. Easy peasy nice and easy. Not in 2018, though, when you arrive at the advance polls, or go about casting your ballot on E-Day, Saturday, October 20th. And a good thing it is, too.
In Vancouver, voters tend to take a look at the ballot, and vote a, b, c.
During last autumn’s Vancouver School Board by-election, the top vote-getters: Joy Alexander, Fraser Ballantyne, Carrie Bercic, Ken Clement, Lisa Dominato — do you notice a pattern there? I recall my friend Michael Klassen — now a very fine civic affairs columnist with the Vancouver Courier, and the go-to Global TV guy for all things civic affairs — grousing to me on election night 2005, “Raymond (ed. note, I like being called Raymond, cuz that’s my name — being called ‘Ray’, not so much), look at the results tonight: Suzanne Anton, Elizabeth Ball, David Cadman, Kim Capri, George Chow, Heather Deal,” after which I believe I heard him collapse. Michael had campaign-managed Valerie Jenkinson’s bid for a seat on City Council — he thought she was just great, bright, socially aware, knew tonnes about municipal governance and all the issues that she would face as an elected civic official, dedicated, hard working, and one of the most accomplished people he’d ever met. But her last name started with the letter “J”, and her ascension to Vancouver City Council was not to be.
Alas.
So, Michael (he calls himself Mike now, but I like to call him Michael) oughta be thrilled with the ground-breaking decision taken by Vancouver City Council yesterday to adopt a randomized ballot, about which Michael’s fellow Vancouver Courier journalist, Naoibh O’Connor writes, “The City of Vancouver will switch from an alphabetical to a randomized name order on the ballot for the 2018 civic election.”
Council: motion on randomized ballots goes to a vote. Councillors Ball, Carr and De Genova opposed but the motion passes. Municipal election ballot for Mayor, Council and Park Board will be randomized. Over to you @VSB39
— Andrea Reimer (@andreareimer) June 6, 2018
Of course, not all Vancouver City Councillors were on board for the motion to adopt a randomized ballot, the initiative passing seven to four. Strange thing that those opposed were: Elizabeth Ball, Adriane Carr and Melissa De Genova. Imagine. I wonder why? Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact their surnames represent b, c & d on the ballot. Could it? Nah, perish the thought. You can read Naoibh O’Connor’s Vancouver Courier column to read what the three dissenting Councillors have to say on the matter, and the wrong-headedness involving the adoption of a randomized ballot.
Meanwhile, responding to retiring City Councillor Andrea Reimer’s good-natured poke, the Vancouver School Board elected officials are indeed taking a look at — or “mulling”, as Vancouver Courier reporter John Kurucz wrote in a column yesterday — adopting a randomized ballot, although as Mr. Kurucz notes in his story, “Seven of the nine board trustees have last names that start within the first seven letters of the alphabet. Only Green Party trustee Judy Zaichkowsky and Vision’s Allan Wong fall outside of the first third of the alphabet.”
Joy Alexander has no problem with a move to randomization, Janet Fraser hasn’t made her mind up yet, and Judy Zaichkowsky thinks the change would be “chaotic.”
At the VSB, you can already tell who’ll like the idea of a randomized ballot: OneCity Vancouver’s Carrie Bercic (not least because it’ll help give her OneCity colleague Jennifer Reddy — who’ll run alongside Ms. Bercic — a better shot at gaining a seat on Vancouver’s Board of Education, both of which 2018 civic election candidates will be joined by Erica Jaaf on seeking a seat on the 2018 – 2022 Vancouver School Board — casting a ballot for these three accomplished women of principle, an absolute necessity for all those going to the polls), Ms. Bercic’s Vision Vancouver colleagues Joy Alexander (who will not seek another term on School Board — recovering one’s sanity after the past four years of B.C. Liberal provincial government shenanigans is sort of important, don’t you think?), colleague and progressive Ken Clement, and the incredibly wonderful veteran School Board trustee, the one, the only — I wouldn’t have made it through my cancer battle without him, he was so incredibly good to me — Allan Wong.
Except for Vancouver School Board Green Party of Vancouver trustee Dr. Judy Zaichowski (who also won’t be running again) — who is, unsurprisingly, opposed — we have no idea how the others will vote on the issue. Over to you Lisa Dominato, Fraser Ballantyne & Estrellita Gonzalez.
Municipalities across British Columbia and in other parts of Canada — including Calgary, Winnipeg, White Rock, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and Langley Township — long ago adopted a randomized ballot, with little fuss or muss, or distress to voters. No doubt, there’ll be some confusion at the polls this autumn — as such, Council assigned an additional $235,000 to the office of the Election Returning Officer at City Hall to inform and help citizens adjust to the newly-adopted randomized election ballot.
Yesterday afternoon, Vancouver Non-Partisan Association City Councillor George Affleck, TeamJean 2018 community activist and Coalition of Progressive Electors Board of Directors member, Tristan Markle, eastside community activist, Jak King and your favourite VanRamblings blogger, among other participants, found ourselves involved in a lively, respectful and good-natured cross-partisan Twitter dialogue, a portion of which is available here, a response to yesterday’s VanRamblings column on the VDLC negotiated progressive “coalition” electoral settlement. Worth a gander, if you’re interested in how politics is done in this town.
Vancouver Votes 2018 | Brokered Progressive Deal Set
VDLC President Stephen Von Zychowski announces a quintet of left-of-centre Vancouver civic parties have reached a brokered agreement-in-principle, that would see them work together to avoid vote splitting in the upcoming October municipal election.
On March 17th of this year, Vancouver & District Labour Council President Stephen Von Zychowski announced that the labour group that has has long played a role in local politics, would attempt to broker an arrangement among Vancouver’s five progressive parties — OneCity Vancouver, the Green Party of Vancouver, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, Vision Vancouver, and TeamJean 2018 — as to how many candidates each progressive civic party would run, with the aim of keeping the traditionally right-leaning Non-Partisan Association from winning power at City Hall.
On May 5th, representatives from the five Vancouver progressive civic parties met at the Croatian Centre — at an event called the Crossroads Conference — to see if it might be possible to hammer out a deal where combined Vancouver’s progressive parties would run no more than 10 candidates for Council, 9 candidates for School Board, and 7 candidates for Park Board, which represents the number of open seats on each civic body.
Last evening, the Vancouver & District Labour Council announced a brokered deal had been negotiated with the five progressive civic parties.
Anna Chudnovsky, a co-chairperson of OneCity Vancouver, said her party had agreed to limit the candidates it would run to two for Vancouver City Council, and three for Vancouver School Board.
Hypothetically, had an agreement not been reached, OneCity may have decided to run more candidates, she told Sun reporter Matt Robinson.
The purpose of the deals Ms. Chudnovsky told the Sun reporter was …
” … to indicate to voters that it is possible to defeat the NPA and other emerging right-wing forces in the city, and that voters can do that by following the recommendations of the Labour Council.”
Michael Haack, a Vision Vancouver co-chair, called the agreements a great deal both for his party as well as for progressive voters across the city. He said Vision had agreed to limit its candidates to five for Council, three for school board and two for parks.
“This agreement is really important because the issues that are facing Vancouverites are big enough that we need to keep working together to solve them with bold and progressive leadership,” Haack said.
The brokered deal came the day after the right-of-centre Non-Partisan Association members chose local entrepreneur Ken Sim to represent the party as its mayoral candidate in the upcoming October civic election.
If prospective Vision Vancouver mayoral aspirant Ian Campbell is nominated on June 19th to carry the party’s banner, and should he win the Vancouver civic election race, the party would retain control City Hall.
One would imagine that Vision Vancouver retaining a stranglehold on city governance likely won’t sit well with members of Vancouver’s four other progressive parties, but for the moment no left-of-centre civic party is weighing in on the prospect.
In a phone interview with Georgia Straight civic affairs reporter Carlito Pablo, the Green Party of Vancouver’s Pete Fry told The Straight that his party’s agreement with the VDLC involves three Green candidates each for council, school board, and park board.
Current Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr, Mr. Fry and Michael Wiebe, recent Park Board Chair, and current Commissioner, are widely expected to emerge as the Green Party’s candidates for Vancouver City Council.
In addition to Vision, OneCity and Green Party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the TeamJean 2018 activist group — named for 2017 Vancouver by-election candidate and community activist, Jean Swanson — are expected to sign respective agreements with the VDLC following meetings with members.
Informed sources tell VanRamblings that COPE will run two candidates for each of Council, Park and School Board, while TeamJean 2018 will run only a single Council candidate, likely Jean Swanson.
Seeking COPE nominations as Park Board candidates are SFU lecturer John Irwin and Gwen Giesbrecht, president of the Britannia community services centre’s board of management. Looking to run for school board are indigenous advocate Diana Day, and retired teacher Barb Parrott.
UBC planning professor Patrick Condon will likely make a run for Mayor, joining a crowded left-of-centre field that includes former Vision Vancouver board member Shauna Sylvester, now former Burnaby South NDP MP Kennedy Stewart, and Vision Vancouver mayoral nominee Ian Campbell. The Greens’ Adriane Carr is not expected to announce a run for Mayor.
The VDLC negotiated agreement will allow candidates for the five progressive civic parties to criticize one another.
Tickets, at $100, for COPE’s 50th anniversary celebration are available here.
Vancouver Votes 2018 | NPA Choose Their Mayoralty Candidate
Ken Sim, The Once and Forever Saviour | Part 1
Forever Cagey Peter Armstrong Chooses NPA Mayoral Hopeful
Results of the Non-Partisan Association Mayoral nominee contest …
1. Ken Sim: 977 votes;
2. John Coupar: 602 votes;
3. Glen Chernen: 379 votes.
There were 2 spoiled ballots.
Novice political candidate Ken Sim chosen as 2018 NPA Mayoral candidate
Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 5th, VanRamblings will explain what the sub-headlines above mean for the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, for Vancouver’s progressive parties, and for the voters of Vancouver.
On Tuesday, at the top of the column, we’ll also run newly-chosen Non-Partisan Association Mayoralty candidate Ken Sim’s victory speech.
Today, we’ll post the speeches for the three candidates vying for the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Mayoral nomination. Order selected alphabetically, by surname, first up: Glen Chernen, who while dressed to the nines gave one of the best speeches we’ve ever heard him give. Not good enough for a victory, nor anything close to it, garnering only 20% of the nearly 2,000 votes cast, chances are Mr. Chernen will get to be the disruptor he wants to be as a Non-Partisan Association candidate for Vancouver City Council, where he’ll shake things in his inimitable fashion.
Introduced by NPA Board of Directors President, Gregory Baker …
3. Glen Chernen ask NPA party members to select him as their Mayoral nominee
Next up was the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association establishment candidate — not necessarily a bad thing, Mr. Coupar our favourite of the three NPA nomination Mayoral nominees, and the only one who spoke about affordable housing, the homeless, a culture policy for the city and support for the arts, and continuing the progressive initiatives undertaken by the current civic administration, while returning services to the people for which monies were either cut or eliminated, as a class issue of prominence for all persons of conscience, proper funding of renewal of our community centres, construction of pools, and ensuring more park space.
VanRamblings apologizes for the shaky camera work in the John Coupar video below. We’ll acquire a tripod soon to ensure steadier recordings of the 2018 municipal candidates for Vancouver civic office, going forward …
John Coupar seeks support from NPA members to become party’s Mayoral nominee
And here he is, the successful, winning candidate for the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association mantle for the party’s 2018 Mayoral nominee, Ken Sim, a novice candidate for political office, but an astute businessman, family man, life long Vancouver resident, who by this time next month will emerge as the single most-informed candidate for Mayor ever, after a series of tutoring sessions by 2014’s NPA Mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe, current Park Board Commissioners and in both cases likely Vancouver City Council candidates, John Coupar and Sarah Kirby-Yung, and a raft of NPA electeds and veteran party political politicos, who will turn Ken Sim into the winningest NPA candidate for Mayor this century.
Businessman Ken Sim emerged as the NPA’s 2018 Mayoral candidate, on June 3rd 2018
See ya back here tomorrow for analysis of what Mr. Sim’s win means.