Category Archives: Vancouver Votes 2018

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.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Be Nice, Be Kind, Support Your Candidates

October 10, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

The woman you see above is Danika Skye Hammond.
Danika was recently appointed Executive Assistant to Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the hard-working, industrious and principled Michelle Mungall, Ms. Skye Hammond employed in Ms. Mungall’s two Kootenay offices, centered in the Nelson / Creston area, in the region of our province where Danika was raised, loves and has long called home.
As VanRamblings has suggested to retired Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter / current Creston-based beekeeper, Jeff Lee, whenever he feels he needs a boost in his mood, a centering and hopeful presence in his life, he’ll want to make sure to visit Danika in Minister Mungall’s Creston office.
Danika Skye Hammond, a year and a half ago, a UBC student in her third year at the University of British Columbia and an activist / executive member of the BC Young New Democrats, was the volunteer co-ordinator on Vancouver Point Grey MLA David Eby’s 2017 campaign for re-election.

The tremendously wonderful, organized, exceptionally bright, principled and inspiring persons of conscience, Danika Skye Hammond and the always marvelous, Gala Milne

VanRamblings contends that Danika Skye Hammond’s presence on Mr. Eby’s campaign was, in significant measure, the reason he was re-elected to office, and now sits as British Columbia’s Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Minister of All He Surveys. Oh sure, Gala Milne (currently working in the AG’s office) was David’s able and organized and sterling campaign manager, and Megan Sali (now back east starting a law degree after spending a year helping the government to establish itself in power) and Duncan Watts-Grant did a laudable job on communications, and Erin Arnold — taking time off from her usual employment as a social worker — as the campaign’s organized office manager, with Susan Walsh, as always keeping the troops fed while an ever-present John Yano (current Vancouver civic election Mayoral candidate) performed his usual campaign ‘jack of all trades’ office worker to a fare-thee-well, but VanRamblings knows that …
Danika Skye Hammond was the beating, pulsing heart of David Eby’s absolutely necessary for us all 2017 campaign re-election bid. No Danika Skye Hammond on the David Eby re-election team, David may have eked out a victory & just barely at that, or perhaps even lost to James Lombardi.
As we say above, Danika Skye Hammond worked as the volunteer co-ordinator on David Eby’s 2017 re-election campaign — that meant Danika was responsible for recruiting volunteers to the campaign, and co-ordinating the work of the volunteers. What did Danika’s work entail?

Volunteers. 400 hundred of them. Large, organized blackboard, on the wall to the left and just a little bit north of Danika’s desk, names of 400 volunteers on the board, assigned to burmashaving, door knocking, street corner events with the candidate, supporting the candidate at all candidate meetings, and every outside the office ‘job’ you might imagine.

Now, as you might also imagine, co-ordinating 400 volunteers meant not only communicating and organizing those volunteers, but inspiring those volunteers to work harder, to work smarter, to keep notes, report back, and be ready to work to the best of their capacity the next day, full of spirit and dedication towards the goal of victory for our much-beloved candidate, David Eby in government proving to be the most dedicated Minister of Justice and Attorney General in British Columbia history.

As Gala Milne will attest, as will those 400 volunteers, Danika Skye Hammond was a transcendent force on David Eby’s 2017 re-election bid, the single most inspiring and welcoming presence on a political campaign VanRamblings has witnessed in 55 years of political campaigning.

There was not one volunteer on David Eby’s 2017 campaign re-election bid who would not have given their lives for Danika.

Every single day, Danika had at the ready for the volunteers, all of the appropriate flyers, signs and materials that would be required by the volunteers, all counted out, wrapped in recyclable elastic bands where necessary or in envelopes, with clipboards, pens and just the right campaign literature attached to those clipboards.

On a campaign that could, at times, tend towards the chilly (at least to some of us older folks), Danika was the smiling, organized, welcoming presence, 6am til midnight, seven days a week. VanRamblings didn’t see Danika break once (and we were in David’s campaign office ALL the time).
Late at night, in the dim light of early morning, we could see Danika organizing volunteer activities for the coming day, a beatific presence.
VanRamblings is unsure that we’ll ever see the likes of a Danika Skye Hammond on any political campaign on which we will work in the future, but migawd are we — every single person who worked with Danika — grateful that we were afforded the once in a lifetime opportunity to be inspired by and to work with Danika Skye Hammond in the spring of 2017.

What does all this palaver about Danika Skye Hammond have to do with the price of donuts, and the 2018 Vancouver civic election?
Listen up and listen tight.
At the outset of the 2018 Vancouver civic election, co-campaign managers on the OneCity Vancouver campaign, Deanna Ogle and Mary Leighton, called a meeting of the party’s candidates, part-time staff and volunteers, and members of the Board (who were instrumental in drafting a policy on campaign deportment), and instructed those who were gathered to …

“Be kind. Always be kind to one another. Be kind to the people you meet on the street when you’re out canvassing. Be kind to our fellow citizens who enter our office. Be kind when you’re delivering signs and dropping them off. Be kind, be especially kind, to the candidates running for office with political parties other than our own.”

“From the moment you begin work with our campaign of social justice and change for the better, from this moment on, you are a representative for the OneCity Vancouver campaign, from early morning til late at night. Support our very fine candidates for office. In a world of social media opprobrium, never seek to respond with bitterness, rather respond with reason and kindness, if at all. As a representative on the OneCity Vancouver campaign, from this moment on, it is incumbent on you to never, ever, ever, in any circumstance, or on any social media forum disparage any candidate running with a party that is not our own, anyone in the press, or any campaign volunteer on another party’s campaign.”

“For us, and for yourself, be your best self at all times.”

“And, please recognize that we are in an alliance with COPE, Vision Vancouver and the Greens — which means that always, always, always it is of critical importance that you remember that all of those candidates and persons who are working on the COPE, Vision and Green campaigns are our allies. We love, respect and honour their service to our community as we love our own families, and as we love one another.”

And you know what, even though they’re the “opposition” to the left-of-centre parties, Vancouver Non-Partisan Association campaign manager and VanRamblings’ good friend Patrick O’Connor, and his very fine campaign team of Wendy Hartley, John Manning and Mike Witherley gave near exact the same instruction as above to their party’s candidates and volunteers.
Vision Vancouver gave much the same speech to their candidates, and volunteers. And so did Mark Marrissen and Mike Wilson, on Hector Bremner’s Yes Vancouver campaign. Wai Young, too. All civic political parties but two have adhered to the campaign of kindness, personal responsibility and integrity political ethos in this civic election campaign.

Because, as anyone who has ever worked on a political campaign knows, campaign staff and volunteers never, ever, ever, under any circumstance or in any forum deride or disparage their “opponents” running for office in a campaign. To do so only serves to undermine the work that is undertaken by the campaign staff, the party’s Board of Directors, and the heart-filled volunteers of principle who often dedicate their every waking hour to helping achieve victory for the candidates whose candidacies they support.
And did we mention the Green Party of Vancouver’s campaign manager Ryan Clayton, and their absolutely superb and tremendously talented Director of Communications Alex Brunke? Well, as any person who has ever spent time around Green Party candidates for office, the members of their Board of Directors, and Ryan and Alex, in particular, know that the Green Party of Vancouver wrote the book on kindness in political campaigns.
You know how they say, ‘The meek shall inherit the Earth’? Well, VanRamblings wouldn’t exactly call the Green Party folks meek (cuz they’re activist persons of conscience), but we would call them principled, and kind, thoughtful and collaborative, and aim to do and be better, non-partisan change makers, as fine a group of folks as you’d ever want to meet.
Unfortunately, and very sad to say, there are two political parties whose candidates are seeking office in the 2018 Vancouver civic election where members of the paid campaign staff and volunteers (and in the case of one of the parties, candidates for the party) have gone online to disparage and name call and unwarrantedly, viciously attack candidates who have been endorsed, in one instance, by the Vancouver & District Labour Council, and with whose candidates and parties they are in an alliance. It is to weep.

Perhaps the most foul, acting out malefactor in the 2018 Vancouver civic election campaign — and that’s going some, considering who’s out there and what they’re doing — is a COPE operative, Samuel Holmes, who seems to derive great perverse pleasure and takes the greatest possible delight with ad hominem attacks on candidates in the COPE alliance, with the working press, and any other target of his mean-spiritedness, absolutely delighted in undermining the campaign of principle his party is running. Alas.

That such egregious conduct is extant among only some of the party’s high profile operatives only serves to undercut and undermine the very fine campaigns that their party’s candidates are running for office in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election — the very best campaign for office by their party in more than a generation, with the best grouping of candidates of principle we can recall seeking elected office dating back to the 1980s.
Yesterday, VanRamblings wrote that we were livid at the conduct of some campaign operatives in going after candidates, woman candidates in particular (which we consider to be woman-hating misogyny, or self-hating misogyny, as the case may be). We have expressed to campaign operatives how egregious and counterproductive to victory we find the conduct of the few miscreant operatives working on their party’s electoral campaign.
Most political parties would fire the campaign operatives who are acting out immediately, and disavow their conduct as contrary to the aims of their party during the election process. Unfortunately, those in decision-making positions with the one party to which we refer are not exactly known for integrity of purpose, intelligence and humanity — we hold out feint hope that those campaign operatives who are acting out will held to account.

The above said, VanRamblings is heartened that the vast majority of persons of conscience working on this party’s campaign, and all other 2018 Vancouver civic election campaigns, and most candidacies in Vancouver’s 2018 civic election, have conducted themselves with integrity of purpose, a sense of joy and community service, and an opportunity to learn, to engage, to be afforded time to get to know our community better, and better familiarize themselves with determinedly achieving the city we need.

Advance polls run today through October 17th — if you decide to cast your ballot early you choose one Mayoral candidate out of 21, & for City Council you’re to elect 10 Councillors, 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 in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, October 10th – 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. Full VanRamblings election coverage is available here.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Prescription for a Sane Election Process

October 9, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

The 2018 Vancouver civic election is the most punishing election VanRamblings has ever covered, and we’ve been doing this for 55 years.
We’ve encountered candidates inconsolable and in tears, with another prominent candidate seemingly in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Grueling doesn’t tell half the story, there’s something more at play.
We live in a new millennium, when social media has come to play an outsized and increasingly ugly role in our political discourse.
Not to mention: too many candidates seeking office — 71 candidates for Vancouver City Council alone … puh-leeze, give us and the candidates a break, will ya? — too little time on the election trail, too little voter interest, and far too many all-candidates meetings packed into any given night.
The 2018 Vancouver civic election has emerged as the nightmare of all nightmare scenarios for an increasingly beleaguered and put-upon candidate core. Goodness gracious, Thanksgiving occurred at the most opportune time, providing candidates an opportunity to spend time with their families and loved ones — and, hopefully, enough time to recharge their batteries and reinstate their sanity as we head into the final 11 days of the election. Hallelujah and love a duck, it’ll all be over soon.
Today’s VanRamblings’ post-holiday post concerns reformation of our civic electoral system.
To that end, we’re going to reference and do a take-off on our friend Mike Klassen’s 2012 Huffington Post column, 10 Ideas To Re-Engage Vancouver’s Reluctant Municipal Voters …

Move the election back to the third week of November. Most folks didn’t realize that there might be an election going on until near the end of September. And three weeks later there’s gonna be an election? Gimme, and give the candidates for office, a break!

No wonder candidates are falling apart — they’re having to squeeze too much activity into too little time. It’s not fair, for the candidates, for the campaign staffs, for the campaign volunteers, and for the voters. Saturday, November 17th would have been a much better date for the 2018 civic election. In 2022, let’s move the election back … to the third Saturday of the month, November 19th!
Hire an election administrator to co-ordinate campaign forums. Six candidate meetings in a single night, night after night after night. We hate to repeat ourselves, but puh-leeze. Over a longer election period, with an election meeting administrator in place, those organizations proposing to hold all-candidate forums would have to register with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer. Those organizations holding unsanctioned meetings would be considered to be rogue organizations; candidates would be encouraged not to attend those forums.
We’re not saying that any organization who wishes to hold an all-candidates meeting would be restricted from doing so. On behalf of the candidates, VanRamblings is simply looking to impose a little order into an unwieldy — and for this election, we’d say morbid, chaotic and particularly challenging — all candidate forum night selection process;
Hire a social media monitor (or social media moderator team). This year’s Vancouver civic election has proved to be one ugly election. Trolls dominate the discussion on Twitter — they’ve learned their lessons well from Donald Trump. And lest you think there’s a conspiracy of right wing malefactors attempting to influence this election, put that thought out of your head — the blame falls mostly on the left side of the political spectrum. VanRamblings will address this repugnant phenomena at some greater length in tomorrow’s column.
The social media monitor would scan Twitter for malefactors associated with candidates or parties, root out the malefactors, contact the individual or parties involved, and advise them that they’re in breach of the protocol concerning proper conduct as contained in existing electoral legislation. Any candidate, campaign staff person or volunteer would be given one warning; after that the individual or party would be fined.

That several of VanRamblings favourite persons in the universe, and favourite candidates in our current civic election, have been subject to loathsome social media posts turns my stomach, and makes me livid !!!
Candidate entry fee. My friend, Vancouver Courier columnist Mike Klassen wrote in 2012 …
“In 2011, there were 40 candidates for 10 spots on city council, and the number has been even higher in previous elections. A council candidate is only required to get signatures of 25 nominators and pay a $100 deposit (which is refunded after the election). I suggest the city clerk should require 100 signatures and a $500 deposit. While this may seem fair to some, it might be perceived as prohibitive by others. Nonetheless, let’s consider it.”

We agree wholeheartedly with Michael’s suggested prescription for a saner candidate registration process. But we’d go even further: any candidate failing to secure at least 5% of the vote would not have their registration monies refunded. If a candidate for Mayor is not confident that s/he can secure 5% of the vote, cannot secure 100 signatures in support of her / his candidacy, and cannot secure $500 as a registration fee, that candidate cannot be considered to be a serious candidate, and we believe has forfeited her / his “right” to run in the civic election.

For City Council, VanRamblings would change the registration fee to $250, and 100 signatures, and do the same thing at School Board and Park Board, refunding monies only to those candidates who had secured 5% of the vote or better. 21 candidates for Mayor. 71 candidates for City Council — that’s a recipe for insanity and candidate breakdown.
Dump the random ballot. In June, COPE candidate for City Council Anne Roberts came out against the randomized ballot. Had we only listened. Nope, instead we were all full of ourselves, and thought, “Gee willikers, that’s something new and shiny bright.” Uh, huh. And then when Vancouver City Manager Sadhu Johnston put the kibosh on numbered entries on the ballot, he consigned voters to a fresh new hell in the voting booth. Thanks Sadhu — you’ve done us a real favour. Not!
Adopt a neighbourhood representation system for the next election. Sometimes called a ward system, electing representatives to City Council who represent the interests of citizens resident in Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods? Gosh, what do we call that?.
Okay, I know: S-A-N-E.

Voter turnout in our current civic election is projected to be low, the lowest in a generation, at under 30%. Studies have shown that over time lower voter turnout in certain neighbourhoods is a byproduct of a stacked system where voters see their favoured candidates lose election after election. West side voters get out to vote anyway. East side voters tend to stay home, leading to social and political inequity, anomie and isolation, and a disenfranchised working class and immigrant electorate.

The solution? Adopt a neighbourhood representation system for the next election: one Councillor for each of the following neighbourhoods: Kitsilano / West Point Grey; Dunbar / Southlands; Kerrisdale / Oakridge; Sunset / Marpole; Grandview Woodland / Hastings Sunrise; Arbutus Ridge / Shaughnessy; Fairview / Downtown / West End; Victoria / Fraserview / Killarney; Kensington / Cedar Cottage / Renfrew Collingwood; Riley Park / South Cambie; Mount Pleasant / Strathcona.

Rather than stay isolated in their offices on the third floor of City Hall, virtually inaccessible through the maze of offices and forboding front reception that all but screams, “You’re not welcome here. What do you want, anyway? Security, c
all security!” causing a firightened citizen to feel as if s/he is entering a forbidding inner sanctum where their presence is neither wanted nor desired.

Instead, elect Councillors by neighbourhood.

Councillors would set up neighbourhood offices, as our MLAs and MPs do, where citizens are greeted warmly and in a welcoming manner. Councillors elected by neighbourhood would be responsible to the neigbourhood electorate, while doing the wheeling and dealing necessary in Council chambers to achieve amenities, programmes, housing and recreation centres for their electorate, while trading votes to support an initiative put forth by a Councillor in another neighbourhood.

Lots would get done, it’d get done in a proper — and probably more fiscally responsible — manner, while providing the citizens in the neighbourhoods a sense of buy-in to the political process, and consequent gains for the citizens in the neighbourhoods Councillors represent. And you know what: Councillors wouldn’t even need a referendum to make it happen — all they’d have to do is make application to the province for a change in the Vancouver Charter.

The advance polls open tomorrow, 8am to 8pm. Election day, Saturday, October 20th is a mere 11 days away.

Advance polls run through October 17th — 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, 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 in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, October 10th – 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. Full VanRamblings election coverage is available here.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | VanRamblings Endorses Brandon Yan

October 5, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Brandon Yan was born in Vancouver, moving to Langley as a child — a city where his family was one of the few families of Chinese origin.
As an adult, Brandon lived in Burnaby while attending the Simon Fraser University campus in Surrey, graduating with a Masters in Urban Studies.
For the past four years, Brandon has called Kitsilano home, where he rents in a pet-friendly apartment building with his partner Sam and their dogs.
Since completing his Masters degree, Brandon has served on the City of Vancouver’s City Planning Commission. At present, the truly accomplished Mr. Yan is employed as the Education Director for Out On Screen.
VanRamblings Endorses Brandon Yan for City Council

Today, VanRamblings heartily endorses OneCity Vancouver’s Brandon Yan as a must-elect candidate for Vancouver City Council. We urge you to vote for Brandon for just a few of the following reasons …

Brandon Yan, as an out and proud queer man, represents an absolutely necessary and critical voice on the next City Council to speak for the interests of Vancouver’s activist LGBTQ community;
With Brandon Yan’s background in transportation issues, ranging from regional planning to development and land use, Brandon Yan would be a key voice on City Council and the Metro Vancouver Board, working with elected officials across the region to develop and deliver on an improved transit system across our region to meet the needs of citizens, while contributing to the sustainability of life on the Lower Mainland;
The next City Council, and our Mayor, are likely to be almost exclusively Caucasian, with few if any persons of colour represented on Council. As such it is critical that a City Council member with the lived experience as a person of colour, and particularly a person of Chinese origin given that 35% of Vancouver’s population is Chinese, is elected to City Council.
Brandon Yan is an activist, accomplished person of colour and conscience who it is absolutely necessary we elect to City Council October 20th;
Youth. There is a youth revolution going on. We see it in the United States with the students of Parkland, we see it in our own city.
In Vancouver, Brandon Yan is the voice of his generation, a voice that must be heard on the next City Council.
Competence. There are City Council candidates seeking office in the 2018 Vancouver civic election who possess one per cent of the understanding of civic governance that Brandon innately incorporates into his daily lived experience.
As a member of Vancouver’s Planning Commission from 2014 to 2016, Brandon Yan was provided with a keen opportunity to understand how the development process at City Hall functions — and to say that he was unhappy with the experience is to understate the matter.

Brandon Yan wants to shake things up a City Hall, incorporate respectful community consultation in development in neighbourhoods across our city, and ensure that the voices of the community are not just heard, but that citizens in neigbourhoods across Vancouver will determine the livability of their neighbourhoods, to serve citizen interests and not the interests of members of the city’s planning department;
Brandon Yan is a disruptor, a man in hurry to ensure that purpose built rental construction, co-and-co-op housing built on city land, and a regional transit system that meets the needs of citizens comes to pass sooner than later. Being a young man with a plan for change, and the wherewithal, intelligence, commitment and experience to make it happen, Brandon Yan is one of the stars in the shining firmament of the current election cycle, a man so accomplished that he puts many of his well-meaning but underqualified competitors for City Council to shame.
When we go to the polls, we want to elect the best of us, a City Councillor who will work towards the realization of a fairer, a more just, a more responsive, a more environmentally sound, a more consultative and a more respectful plan for our neighbourhoods that meets the needs, desires and aspirations of our citizens.

Make no mistake, Brandon Yan is that person.

When you go to the polls, either next week when advance polling stations open, or on election day, Saturday, October 20th, remember the name Brandon Yan, OneCity Vancouver.
Vote YAN, Brandon, the seventh name from the end of the Councillor ballot and easy to find, a must, must, must vote when you go to the polls.