Category Archives: Vancouver Votes 2022

#VanElxn2022 | VanRamblings’ Druthers Endorsement Ballot

October 6, 2022#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2022#vanelxn, #vanpoli, 2022 vancouver civic election, endorsement ballotRaymond Tomlin

The Druthers Endorsement Ballot you see above represents the names of 22 fine, skilled and hard-working candidates for Vancouver City Council, all of whom would make great City Councillors but, sadly, whose names will not appear on VanRamblings’ official endorsement ballot, to be published next Wednesday.

Still and all, each of the candidates we write about today are well worth considering casting a vote for, at the advance polls, or on Election Day, Saturday, October. Meet the 22 fine candidates for Vancouver City Council we write about today.

l – r: COPE’s Breen Ouelette, ABC Vancouver’s Brian Montague, and Forward Together’s Dulcy Anderson

Number 101 on the ballot you’ll receive when you enter the polling station to vote, Breen Ouelette is running with Vancouver’s second oldest political party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, Mr. Ouelette is a a Métis man, and as he describes himself, a “father, activist, and lawyer” who is also works in the labour movement as a union counsellor. Mr. Ouelette is running for Council to ensure there are …

“Renter redevelopment protections, universal vacancy control, the prioritization of non-market development, placing affordable housing levies on developers, while working to densify all detached housing zones.”

Number 103 on the ballot, ABC Vancouver’s Brian Montague served with the Vancouver Police Department for over 28 years until his recent retirement.

As a sitting member of Vancouver City Council, Mr. Montague commits to …

“Addressing the major challenges facing Vancouver residents, including increases in crime, and Vancouver’s out-of-control cost of living.”

Brian believes it is important to take pride in the places where we live and work. He wants to see City Hall revitalize neighbourhoods, build livable communities, and ensure Vancouver is a clean, safe, and welcoming place, for all families.

Number 104, Forward Together’s Dulcy Anderson holds degrees in Women’s Studies and City Planning from Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Anderson is running with Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s new civic party, and should she be elected to City Council — which from the polling VanRamblings has seen, she would seem to be all but assured of gaining a seat at the Council table. Dulcy Anderson has committed to work on resolving …

“Generational housing issues, working to build a healthy and vibrant community, responding to our climate emergency, ensuring more child care spaces are made available, while working with senior levels of government to ensure investment in housing, childcare, climate action, and transportation.”

Ms. Anderson has much work cut out for herself. Achievable, if you know Dulcy.

l – r: Forward Together’s’s Tesicca Truong, COPE’s Nancy Trigueros, and Vote Socialist’s Sean Orr

Number 105. All but assured a seat on Vancouver City Council, the former provincial New Democratic Party Vancouver-Langara candidate has emerged as one of the bright lights on the 2022 campaign trail, heartbreakingly eloquent, tough and on track to become a British Columbia Premier down the road. For now Ms, Truong’s candidacy involves getting youth involved. Make no mistake, though, Ms. Truong’s appeal spans demographics, as she has emerged as a woman who connects with the issues that are of most concern to you: affordable housing, responding to our climate emergency, and working co-operatively with senior levels of government to fund initiatives that will improve the quality of your life.

Number 107. VanRamblings wants working class women on our next City Council. Enough of the holier-than-thou virtue signalers we’ve currently got, the elitists who’ve never missed a meal. No, we want an immigrant, an émigré — immigrants comprise half of Vancouver’s population — a community advocate for immigrant rights, civil rights, and labour rights, an activist who believes that politics is a route to empowering the disenfranchised into action, must be placed in the hands of everyday citizens, rather than current crop of well-meaning but elitist do-gooders.

Number 108. Here’s what Vote Socialist Council candidate Sean Orr has to say …

“We can rebuild the City of Vancouver — for all of us, not just the wealthy few. In doing so, we can make our shared home the most livable, equitable, and sustainable city in the world. How do we get there from here?

Tenants can and should write housing policy. Workers can and should run their workplaces. Drug users should write drug policy. Public transit users can and should run our public transit system. People with disabilities can and should make decisions about building codes and accessibility.

We know what’s best for us; let’s fight for it.“

Vote for Sean Orr, the transformative candidate for Council in #VanExln2022.

l – r: Forward Together’s’s Alvin Singh, Green Party’s Michael Wiebe, and COPE’s Tanya Webking

Number 111. For the past four years, Alvin Singh — a longtime, much respected community activist — has taken on the arduous role of Director of Communications in Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s office — a job of critical importance — where’s he’s had to deal with media jerks like … hmmm, VanRamblings, which Alvin has always carried off with aplomb and a commitment to professionalism rarely found at the all-too-often partisan municipal level, but not with Mr. Singh, who personifies grace, wit, humanity and intelligence always. In 2022, Alvin Singh has joined the political fray, as a key Forward Together candidate for Vancouver City Council. Alvin Singh says his key priorities when he’s elected to Council would include …

Continuing his work as Chair of the City of Vancouver’s first-ever Renters Advisory Committee, where he fought to expand affordable housing and protect renters’ rights. During my time with the David Suzuki Foundation, Mr. Singh worked to secure a constitutional right to live in a healthy environment.

Clearly, after four years of working inside City Hall, he has come to possess an intimate knowledge of how municipal politics functions. Supporting Mayor Kennedy’s vision for an affordable, sustainable, caring, and prosperous Vancouver. Alvin Singh looks forward to serving you.

Now it’s all up to you. All you have to do is mark your ballot for Alvin Singh, at spot 111 on the ballot you’ll receive when approaching the appropriate table within the polling station, where you’ll cast your ballot to elect Vancouver’s next Council.

Number 114. The Green Party of Vancouver’s Michael Wiebe has transformed into the most serious-minded, feet-on-the-ground and near our streams, the hardest working, most detail-oriented — and, dare we say, most independently-minded — member of Vancouver City Council. Mr. Wiebe should be assured of re-election to a 2nd term, but polling results see him in the 12th spot, which to VanRamblings is little short of unbelievable. How is it that Michael Wiebe is not topping the election polls? Well, you can change that by not only casting a vote for Michael Wiebe, but telling all your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to vote for Michael Wiebe, and darn it to heck, donating to Michael Wiebe’s re-election campaign.

Number 118. Tanya Webking is Dene/German from the Tlicho Nation, who began working in the Downtown Eastside 25 years ago. With a background in mental health and addiction issues, counseling, advocacy, mediation, research, and grassroots community organizing, Ms. Webking is currently employed as the Indigenous Health Promotion Case Manager at AIDS Vancouver. In addition, Ms. Webking is Co-Chair of the City of Vancouver’s Renters Advisory Committee, and another VanRamblings favourite, a working class heroine and woman of the people if there ever was one. At last Wednesday’s Women Transforming Cities campaign event, she just blew everyone away with her expression of heart, commitment to building a better world, and a better city for all.

The key issues that Tanya Webking would address as a City Councillor …

Responding to the toxic drug overdose rates have gone up over 400% in the past seven years;;
Removing property tax exemptions on all churches and directly allocate those funds towards decolonizing housing and eradicating homelessness;;
Transitioning our current policing model to a community-led model of safety; and
Working at the forefront of an Indigenous-led revolution.

In this era of Indigenous reconcilation, Tanya Webking’s voice as a Vancouver City Councillor is absolutely critical to our collective future.

l – r: Progress Vancouver’s Morgane Oger, Green Party’s Adriane Carr, ABC Vancouver’s Peter Meiszner

Number 121. Long one of VanRamblings favourite candidates for office and accomplished beyond all measure — Morgane Oger, a former Vice President of the BC NDP, Ms. Oger fights tirelessly for human rights, and is recognized across Canada as a champion of LGBTQ rights and representation. Morgane Oger is a powerful voice for safer communities and transformative government.

In 2022, Morgane Oger’s priorities should she be elected to City Council:

Housing affordability so our kids can afford to live here
Addressing the opioid crisis
Making Vancouver more livable for families

Number 122. Adriane Carr is Vancouver’s longest serving Vancouver City Council, first elected in 2011, and topping the polls in both 2014 and 2018. At present, Councillor Carr chairs Council’s Policy and Strategic Priorities Committee, represents Council on three advisory committees, and continues her work on Vancouver’s UNDRIP Task Force, and Metro Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Innovation Centre. Ms. Carr also represents Vancouver on Metro Vancouver’s Board of Directors and Finance Committee, and Chairs Metro’s Climate Action Committee.

When Adriane Carr is re-elected to a fourth term on Vancouver City Council — take our word for it, it’s a given — Councillor Carr plans to continue the work she has lead tp improve housing affordability, reduce our city’s greenhouse gas emissions to achieve what scientists say is required to avoid a pending climate catastrophe, while continuing to genuinely engage with the citizens of Vancouver towards the creation of a vibrant, resilient and livable city.

Number 126. Peter Meiszner is a name you may have run across previously, during his employment as an online news producer and reporter with Global BC — when pretty much anytime between 2008 and 2014 when you surfed to the Global BC website, you’d find Peter’s name atop a story. At present, Mr.Meiszner is publisher at Urban YVR, and senior Digital Strategist at the University of British Columbia.

As an architecture buff, Peter Meiszner has served as the vice-chair of the Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee. Peter’s priorities when he’s elected to Vancouver City Council includes tackling the affordable housing crisis, working with senior levels of government, and cutting permit wait times and red tape to deliver the housing Vancouverites need.

As a West End resident, Mr. Meiszner downtown resident, he is committed to a strong advocacy for downtown residents and businesses, with a focus on improving our neighbourhoods, ensuring public safety and creating vibrant public spaces that animate our city.

l – r: Green Party’s Dr. Devyani Singh, Vision Vancouver’s Lesli Boldt, and ABC Vancouver’s Lisa Dominato

Number 128. VanRamblings first ran across Dr. Devyani Singh — climate scientist, and an economist with expertise in energy and climate policy, energy transitions, natural climate solutions, environmental finance, and sustainable forestry — when she was running with the provincial Green Party to unseat Vancouver Point Grey MLA David Eby in 2020, and scared the beejuzus out of him that she might very well do so — given that she is the energy bunny of British Columbia politics — if you’ve never heard Dr. Singh speak, you’re in for a treat — tireless in her devotion to transform British Columbia into a greener province.

“We are in the middle of multiple crises — climate crises, a global pandemic (it’s not over yet!), and housing affordability. The past few years have shown us how societal inequalities have a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities — BIPOC, LGBTQ2+, seniors, people living in poverty, and those with disabilities.

As a climate scientist, an immigrant, a woman of colour, and a renter in Vancouver, I understand the struggles faced by us all, and will dedicate myself as an elected Vancouver City Councillor to collaborating across party lines to build a sustainable city which is affordable and livable for all.”

You’ve got your marching orders: save a spot on your ballot for Dr. Devyani Singh.

Number 129. A seasoned marketing communications and public affairs professional with over 20 years of experience in the industry, and over a decade of consulting experience for clients in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, Lesli Boldt founded her own boutique communications agency, Boldt Communications, in 2001. Over the years, Lesli has taken on municipal government-related roles, including managing Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Games-related communications, and communications for the Vancouver Public Library

Before founding Boldt Communications, Ms. Boldt worked in public affairs with the Vancity Credit Union, and held several progressively senior communications positions with the B.C. government in Victoria and Vancouver, when the New Democratic Party was in power, between 1992 and 2001.

Living yours values. Lesli Boldt is passionate about environmental protection and climate action. Between 2012 and 2020, she was a member of the Board of the Georgia Straight Alliance, a B.C.-based environmental advocacy organization, serving two years as president. In her professional life, she’s also worked with leading environmental and climate action organizations like the David Suzuki Foundation, Clean Energy Canada, Climate Smart and more. As is the case more and more these days, and is the case with VanRamblings, future Vancouver City Councillor Lesli lives without a car, and walks, cycles, takes transit or as the situation warrants uses the popular local car share services of Modo, or Evo (or hitches a ride).

Why is important for you to consider when casting your ballot for Lesli Boldt when you decide who will sit on Vancouver’s next City Council? Because Lesli Boldt lives like we do, frugally yet joyfully, the pace of her life is slow and considered while getting a tonne of stuff done, Ms. Boldt is do-er, committed as she is to responding to and actually doing something to rectify the often times quite dire climate emergency in which we increasingly find ourselves, she communicates and resonates like mad when you meet her in person, as she would as a City Councillor — and gawd knows it’s critical to communicate if you’re an elected official, for whom it’s a duty of obligation to constituents. We urge you: cast your vote for Lesli Boldt.

Number 131. ABC Vancouver’s Lisa Dominato has served with distinction, first as an outstanding Trustee of Vancouver’s Board of Education, and over the past four years, as a Vancouver City Councillor. On Council, Councillor Dominato has proved an effective collaborator and a community champion, bringing Vancouver citizens together on the complex issues of our time and their impact on the city we love, facilitating authentic engagement with citizens that has lead to positive solutions. Lisa Dominato currently serves as Chair of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), and also serves on the Metro Vancouver Board, in her roles as Chair of the Performance and Audit Committee, and Vice-Chair of Metro Vancouver’s Liquid Waste Committee.

With a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Burgundy in Dijon, France, Lisa Dominato is fluent in both of Canada’s official languages, and a past recipient of the Premier’s Annual Innovation and Excellence Award. Did we mention that she is a role model and mom to two girls, soon to be women (kids just grow up way too fast), and stepmom to an outstanding young woman. When not changing the world, Lisa Dominato enjoys the outdoors, and whenever possible opts for two wheels or transit, runs a pretty decent marathon, is a swimmer (her favourite pool at New Brighton park), and on the rare days when she’s not too busy, even manages to squeeze in a hike along one of Metro Vancouver’s many trails, or up into the mountains. And, oh yeah, did we say: re-elect Lisa Dominato to Vancouver City Council!

l – r: NPA Vancouver’s Cinnamon Bhayani, COPE Vancouver’s Jean Swanson, and the NPA’s Ken Charko

Number 134. A member of the Vancouver Métis Community Association and the Urban Indigenous Peoples’ Advisory Committee, to which she was appointed by Vancouver City Council, Cinnamon Bhayani takes great pride in her Métis Heritage. In addition, her family is active in her husband’s Ismaili Muslim community.

Holder of a degree in Criminology from Simon Fraser University, a graduate of the Executive Development Programme at Columbia University, who completed work with the Postgraduate Certificate Programme for Women in Leadership from Cornell University, Ms. Bhayani’s passion for knowledge is one she hopes to pass down to her children, and put to good use when she is elected as a Vancouver City Councillor on Saturday, October 15th. Cinnamon Bhayani lives in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood with her two children, husband, and jack russell, Griffin.

Number 136. What is there to say about Jean Swanson that hasn’t already been written? Champion of the underprivileged — of which there are far too many in our city — when you speak with her, Jean Swanson doesn’t sound like a rabble-rouser, her voice quiet and cautious, her words becomingly self-deprecating. A mainstay among anti-poverty activists in Vancouver who has spent more than 40 years sparring with property developers, SRO-managers and politicians, Jean Swanson with COPE Vancouver, for a second term on Vancouver City Council.

Over the past four years, Councillor Swanson has introduced motions for tenant protections, rent control, social housing, free transit, workers’ rights, anti-racism, safe supply, and decriminalizing poverty. In 2016, she was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour, for “her long-standing devotion to social justice, notably for her work with the residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.” Jean Swanson’s voice on City Council is critical and necessary. When you cast your ballot, please save a vote for Jean Swanson.

Number 138. VanRamblings has known and liked Ken Charko, dating back to 1996, when he purchased the lease on the Dunbar Theatre, on Vancouver’s west side. In 2011, when running for Vancouver City Council he fell just shy of being elected to Council. Running on a platform of investing in new and existing community centres, developing a comprehensive public safety plan, and building affordable housing co-operatives across the city.

Ken is convinced that in 2022, the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) — the city’s oldest electoral organization — has a winning campaign theme around the twin issues of safety and affordability. Crimes affecting small businesses, especially break and enters has emerged as an issue of importance to this potential Vancouver City Councillor.

“Crimes against small businesses hurt hard-working Vancouverites,” Ken recently told Carlito Pablo, in an interview published in The Georgia Straight.

“No one in city hall cares about crime and small businesses,” he told Mr. Pablo.

There’s a level-headed, grassroots, plain spoken appeal to Ken Charko that resonates with Vancouver voters. If you want a champion at Vancouver City Hall, cast a vote for Ken Charko!

Many years ago, UBC political scientist Paul Tennant, when asked what it takes to get elected to Vancouver City Council, said the following …

“The first five slots on the ballot,and the final five slots on the ballot, are the golden ticket to getting elected as a City Councillor in the City of Vancouver.”

And over the years, such has proved to be the case again and again and again.

To conclude today’s Vancouver City Council’s Endorsement List post of candidates for you to consider casting a vote for in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election,

Russil Wvong is running with Mayor Kennedy’s Forward Together civic party …

https://youtu.be/2GTBje6HODU

#VanElxn2022 | Three Outstanding Women Candidates for Office

October 5, 2022#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver Votes 2022#vanelxn, #vanpoli, 2022 vancouver civic election, arezo zarrabian, stephanie smith, tesicca truongRaymond Tomlin

Stephanie Smith, 2022 Green Party of Vancouver candidate for Vancouver City Council

At the outset of the campaign, when taking in the Chinatown Festival on Keefer Street, VanRamblings was introduced by Green Party of Vancouver incumbent City Councillor, the gregarious Pete Fry, who all but took us by the hand to meet Stephanie Smith, who Pete told us is running in her first election for a Council position at Vancouver City Hall. After an in-depth and utterly humane discussion of the core issues in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election, this President of the Lore Krill Housing Co-operative in Gastown, catapulted herself into the position of VanRamblings’ favourite candidate in the 2022 civic election campaign for office.

A labour and social justice activist living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, since the late 1990s, Stephanie Smith has worked in the non-profit sector as a front line legal advocate across the city and most recently in the Downtown Eastside at First United, providing legal advice to those who’ve come to her expressing a concern about the conditions of their lives.

“What that’s meant is that representing tenants on the DTES, we’ve worked to save one tenancy at a time, one eviction hearing at a time. In labour terms, ‘One job, one grievance.’ One person’s income, one person’s disability benefits appeal at a time. Over the years, my colleagues and I have won countless battles, but sometimes it feels to us like we’re losing the war.”

For Stephanie Smith, entering this campaign as a Green Party candidate for Council, she has come to feel a new sense of possibility, of optimism in places that she hasn’t felt it for a long time.

“This is a terrible moment in a lot of ways. The forces aligned against people seem so overwhelming, and there’s so much suffering. So many people in Vancouver feel like they’re on the bubble, they’re one eviction notice, one demoviction, one renoviction away from never being able to come back to the city.

If they’re artists, their studio space has been purchased and converted, and they can’t produce their work here.

That profound insecurity is destructive to people, destructive to community, and destructive to our city.

I feel like, working together, we can change that dark scenario. There are things we can do together, if we are bold, if we are thoughtful, and if we are collaborative, that will bring security and a sense of belonging, a sense that we’re going to be able to remain here and not be pushed out of the city we love by a cabal of developers, and the politicians they have in their pocket.”

Stephanie Smith believes with all her heart, and will dedicate every waking moment as a Vancouver City Councillor to working towards creating housing in our city that is genuinely affordable housing for wage earners, for the working poor, for seniors and single parents, for all those who are in need, priced at half of the market rate, where no tenant or co-operative housing member would pay more than 30% of their income to be housed, and real tenant protections would be assured.

“Despite everything, I believe we are all here together in a moment of profound optimism & a sense of the possibilities in front of us.”

Imagine having a well-experienced, grassroots community activist and people’s advocate, like Green Party of Vancouver’s Stephanie Smith, as a City of Vancouver Councillor, sitting in Chambers at City Hall. You can make that happen, you must make that happen, by marking your ballot for Candidate #141, for the people’s advocate, Stephanie Smith — to help transform Vancouver into a City for All.

Arezo Zarrabian, NPA candidate for Vancouver City Council, in which Ms. Zarrabian blows the roof off the rafters at the Vancouver Police Department’s all-candidates forum! Watch. Listen. Cheer!

NPA Vancouver candidate Arezo Zarrabian, running for a seat on Vancouver City Council is, by far, the loveliest, the strongest, the best informed, the most articulate and the candidate with the most commanding presence that we’ve come across and become acquainted with during the 2022 Vancouver civic election season.

Does the fact Ms. Zarrabian just so happens to be a lovely human being detract from the fact she is exceptionally strong-minded and a phenomenally committed and principled community activist, that Arezo Zarrabian is one of the most accomplished candidates in the 2022 civic election, that she is a woman who loves her husband and child with all her heart — and her very fortunate friends, too — or that Ms. Zarrabian is a person who enjoys her Arbutus Walk neighbourhood?

Hell, no!

Just watch and listen to the video at the top of this second portion of today’s VanRamblings column, where we introduce you to Vancouver’s première crime data analyst, a decorated 13-year veteran of the Vancouver Police Department, where in the video she blows the roof off the rafters because she, and she alone, knows what’s going on in our city, was the first to identify that there are four random, unprovoked attacks occurring in our city, across every one of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods, on unsuspecting, innocent victims, each and every day.

As if the video above, featuring Arezo Zarrabian as she goes up against Mayor Kennedy Stewart and ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim — where she calls them out for their hapless foolishness and divisiveness — is not impressive enough — and we’re here to tell you that it’s damned impressive — when Arezo Zarrabian, a first generation Iranian-Canadian born citizen, spoke at last Wednesday evening’s University Women’s Club of Vancouver all-women candidates Women Transforming Cities forum, as she began her address to the audience, she broke down as she spoke about Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody in the jails of Iran, has triggered nationwide and worldwide protests, recovering to give the strongest, most well-received candidate speech of the evening.

Impressive and moving.

TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver Mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick approached Ms. Zarrabian as the event drew to a close, so impressed was she with Ms. Zarrabian’s impassioned and reasoned expression of her opposition to both the Broadway Plan and The Vancouver Plan, how implementation of both developer-initiated plans would prove detrimental to the interests of Vancouver’s citizens.

If you haven’t already voted at an advance poll, or are holding off to vote on Election Day, Saturday, October 15th, we strongly encourage you to save a vote for Arezo Zarrabian, number 150 on your ballot. Quite simply, we need more persons of character and integrity, informed decision-makers like Arezo Zarrabian involved in the life of our city. Believe us when we write: Arezo Zarrabian is a difference maker, from whom you will be hearing much in the months and years to come.

Meet Tessica Truong, the outstanding Forward Together candidate for Vancouver City Council!

Meet Tesicca Truong, the single most eloquent — and we’re here to tell you, heartbreakingly so — candidate for civic office in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election, a must-elect candidate to Vancouver City Council, a transformative candidate who — although Ms. Truong will be Premier of British Columbia one day (we just hope we’re around to experience that glorious, certain-to-occur day) — at present is seeking your necessary support to elect her to a seat around the Council chambers table, for the next four years, as your advocate at Vancouver City Hall.

An Environmental Science Honours graduate student, at present, Ms. Truong works in the field of community engagement, her passions meeting at the intersection of youth empowerment, citizen engagement and resilience building.

A co-founder of City Hive, a non-profit on a mission to transform the way young people shape their cities and the civic processes that engage them, Ms. Truong also co-created the inaugural Vancouver School Board Sustainability Conference, currently in its tenth year and kick-started the Vancouver Youth4Tap Coalition, a city-wide campaign which led to the installation of new water fountains in every public high school in Vancouver. As she makes clear in the video above, Ms. Truong has also worked closely with British Columbia’s Minister of the Environment, George Heyman, working not just municipally and provincially, but also federally.

Says Tesicca Truong about her current candidacy to become a City Councillor …

“What I know is that political decisions are made by those who show up, and I want to show up for Vancouverites.”

Tessica Truong currently works as the Manager of Engagement and Social Enterprise at Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

In the latest internal party polling shared with us by the various campaigns, Arezo Zarrabian has come out of the blue, and currently sits in the fifth spot, a seeming lock to be elected to Vancouver City Council come the evening of Saturday, October 15th. Meanwhile, Tesicca Truong currently sits at 8th, while pollsters have registered Ms. Truong’s fellow Forward Together Council colleague, Dulcy Anderson at 9th. There are 10 open seats on Vancouver City Council.

Here are a few more internal party polling results …

The Greens’ Adriane Carr, ABC Vancouver’s Sarah Kirby-Yung, and COPE’s Jean Swanson — incumbents all — are the only true locks for Council, hunkered down as they are in the top 3 slots. ABC’s Mike Klassen is in at #4, the NPA’s Arezo Zarrabian has a lock on 5, while TEAM’s Bill Tieleman sits in the 6th spot. Currently sitting at 7th, outstanding TEAM candidate for Council, Sean Nardi. Eight and ninth spots you know. The 10th spot?

At the moment, there’s a wide gap between the 9th and 10th spots. Vying for the final seat on Council: incumbent Greens’ Pete Fry and MIchael Wiebe, ABC Vancouver incumbents Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato, and the NPA’s Ken Charko and Melissa De Genova. Still and all, 10 days out, the election is far from over.

Most pundits, and most campaign staff VanRamblings has spoken with believe the election will be decided in its final three days. Anything could happen, we are told.

Here’s a story we shared with Tesicca Truong and Arezo Zarrabian …

One fine sunny day in late September 2015 during that autumn’s federal election, VanRamblings made a point of visiting each of the campaign offices in Vancouver Centre, where our friend Constance Barnes was the NDP candidate running against incumbent Liberal Hedy Fry; Constance’s office was on Granville Street. We also visited the Green Party office on Denman Street.

Meh, to both.

We then visited Hedy Fry’s campaign office where, much to our surprise and astonishment, we were welcomed with open arms (and this was on a day when we’d published a rousing endorsement of the federal NDP … that went viral, with 100,000 hits by noon our time) … anyway, there we were in the Liberal Party’s Vancouver Centre campaign office, when we were waved over by Hedy’s campaign manager — to save our life, we can’t remember his name — when we sat down for a great 15-minute discussion. And, let us tell you … he was busy … but somehow, he still found time to engage in a conversation with us.

Here’s the piece of wisdom he imparted, which will be good advice for all candidates to follow in the final 10 days of the campaign — particularly those candidates we mention above as being in, or close to, one of the top 10 spots. When we suggested to Ms. Fry’s campaign manager that we’d seen the polls, and that Ms. Fry was running far ahead of her rivals ….

“Raymond, in every campaign I’ve ever managed, and that includes this campaign, no matter how far ahead the polls show us to be, I always, always, always instruct my staff to work like we’re 10 points behind. I work like the dickens, no matter what the polls say, as if my candidate is running 10 points behind. My campaign team and I work through until late election night, at which time we can begin to think about resting, but not til then.”

VanRamblings’ advice to all candidates running for office in the 2022 Vancouver civic election: enjoy yourself, work hard on the campaign trail but find some time for family & friends, try not to take the whole thing too seriously — VanRamblings is constantly surprised at how zealous supporters of various candidates are in responding to the maelstrom that is this election, than is the case with the candidates themselves, who are almost universally far more sanguine about the potential outcome of the election than is the case with their supporters — and cherish the opportunity with which you have been provided to offer yourself for that most important of endeavours: service and fealty to the people of the city you love.

VanElxn2022 | Women Transforming Cities | University Women’s Club

October 3, 2022#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver Votes 2022#vanelxn, #vanpoli, 2022 vancouver civic election, arezo zarrabian, stephanie smith, team for a livable vancouverRaymond Tomlin

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, the University Women’s Club of Vancouver hosted a Women Transforming Cities gathering of women representing all 10 parties offering candidates for office in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election.

As has long been the case — given that the UWC has held this event every civic election for decades — the Women Transforming Cities event proved lively, moving and informative, with great and provocative grassroots organizing going on right before the audience’s appreciative eyes and ears — thanks in the main to COPE Vancouver candidates for Council, the entirely tremendous Nancy Trigueros and Tanya Webking, and the Green Party of Vancouver’s Stephanie Smith.

VanRamblings wants to live in the workers’ paradise for all that Ms. Trigueros, Ms. Webking and Ms. Smith espouse, conceive of, insist on, and will realize for all of us.

As always, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick, was heartbreakingly brilliant. Watch & listen to the video — you’ll see for yourself.

Meanwhile, Ms. Hardwick’s TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s colleague and candidate for Vancouver City Council, Cleta Brown — a former president of the University Women’s Club of Vancouver — simply outdid herself …

… bringing her wealth of knowledge having earned degrees in biology and law, culminating in a Masters of Laws from the London School of Economics, and her work in the non-profit and charitable sector, as President of the Board of Directors of MOSAIC; Vice-President on the Board of LEAF — the Women’s Legal, Education and Action Fund, Canada’s leading women’s legal champion at the Supreme Court of Canada protecting women’s constitutional rights; and as a Board Director with the Vancouver YWCA, the BC Kidney Foundation and a Director with the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Did we mention that Ms. Brown is also Secretary of the Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir Society?

Whoops, forgot to mention that Cleta Brown was an investigator and general counsel for the Ombudsman Office of BC, and worked as a Crown Prosecutor in the Provincial Courts, and was an alternate Chairperson on the Review Board of BC.

Does the word accomplished resonate with you? Does the phrase must-elect to Vancouver City Council, mark your ballot for Cleta Brown also resonate with you?

VanRamblings must say that we — not to mention, the entire audience present for the UWC forum — had their socks knocked off upon hearing each and every one of the women speakers present for the Women Transforming Cities event.

Arezo Zarrabian, Non-Partisan Association (NPA) a must-elect candidate for Vancouver City Council

You know who our favourite speaker of the evening was?

Arezo Zarrabian. You’ll see why when you watch and listen to her introducing herself to those gathered this past Wednesday evening at Hycroft Manor. What do you think the chances are that Ms. Zarrabian will emerge on VanRamblings’ Council endorsement ballot, to be published on Wednesday, October 12th?

Stephanie Smith, Green Party of Vancouver — a must-elect candidate for Vancouver City Council

You can read more this upcoming Wednesday about Ms. Zarrabian, and another one of VanRamblings’ very favourite candidates in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election — the Green Party of Vancouver’s Stephanie Smith — both of whom are bright beyond all measure, possessed of uncommon wit and compassion, mean well for our city, and understand you and the concerns of your life, and are absolute MUST-ELECTS to Vancouver City Council, on Saturday, October 15th.

Another standout at the Women Transforming Cities event was Ms. Smith’s Green Party of Vancouver colleague and fellow candidate for Vancouver City Council, Dr. Devyani Singh, whose energy and passion is nothing less than infectious. May we say, as well, that those in attendance at the Last Candidate Standing event held on Saturday, absolutely fell in love with Dr. Devyani Singh, as well they might have!

VanRamblings must say, as well, that we were pretty knocked out by Vision Vancouver’s Honieh Barzegari and Lesli Boldt. VanRamblings has been following Ms. Boldt’s career for years — safe to say that you can colour us mightily impressed. What a thrill it’s been for us to meet her on the campaign trail — please forgive us for saying so, but kind of a dream fulfilled for us.

And wouldn’t it be lovely and appropriate and overdue to elect two accomplished Middle Eastern women to Vancouver City Council, in the form of Iranian compatriots, the outstanding Honieh Barzegari and Arezo Zarrabian? Necessary, we’d say.

You know who else knocks us out? Incumbent Vancouver City Councillors Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh, who on occasion we are afforded the great pleasure and privilege of speaking with. On a Council where, sometimes, egos have run rampant — much to the chagrin of voters, from what we’ve heard — Ms. Dominato and Ms. Bligh have always kept their feet planted firmly on the ground, while giving new and salutary meaning to the word humility. Yes, yes, it’s true — Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato consider themselves servants of the people, servants of the public interest. Imagine that. Miracles do happen in Vancouver civic politics.

And last, but by no means least, one of our favourite people in the world — and accomplished beyond all measure — Morgane Oger, a former Vice President of the BC NDP, Ms. Oger fights tirelessly for human rights, and is recognized across Canada as a champion of LGBTQ rights and representation. Morgane Oger is a powerful voice for safer communities and transformative government.

Accompanying Ms. Oger to the Women Transforming Cities event was her Progress Vancouver colleague and fellow candidate for Vancouver City Council, Asha Hayer, a third-generation Vancouverite and a sixth-generation Indo-Canadian woman, who knows Vancouver is founded on the strength of its diversity. Listen to what Ms. Hayer has to say about why she got into the run for civic office in 2022.

All and all, a very good night was had in our city at the not-to-be missed campaign event of the election season, the University Women’s Club of Vancouver hosted Women Transforming Cities event, with women candidates representing all 10 civic parties offering candidates in the Vancouver civic election.

#VanElxn2022 | TEAM Announces Innovative Affordable Housing Plan

September 29, 2022#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver Votes 2022@vanp, #vanelxn, colleen hardwick, housing plan, patrick condon, team for a livable vancouverRaymond Tomlin

Yesterday morning, Vancouver civic election Mayoralty candidate Colleen Hardwick, and members of her TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver slate of Council candidates introduced their viable and innovative affordable housing plan.

Within 18 months of being elected to office, a majority TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver Council would bring forward a binding referendum to ask the citizens of Vancouver to allow TEAM to borrow $500 million dollars — amortized over a 35-year borrowing plan — to build 2,000 co-operative housing units in neighbourhoods across the city, providing homes for up to 5,000 Vancouver residents (many of those who would reside in Co-op housing would be families with children — as a rule of thumb when constructing new housing a 2.5 multiplier is employed).

Co-operative Housing Built By Bosa Development as a Community Amenity Contribution

Ms. Hardwick also suggests that should the federal and provincial governments come on board to support and match the expenditure of monies proposed by TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver, as most assuredly would be the case, we’d be looking at 6000 new units of Co-op homes, housing up to 15,000 Vancouver citizens, before the end of the next municipal term of government — that means affordable housing for you, your children and your grandchildren, low income seniors, wage earners, and more, who are currently underhoused, or are considering leaving the city because there’s simply no affordable housing to be found.

As you will hear in the video of the press conference located at the top of today’s post, Mayoralty candidate Hardwick expresses the housing mix of future Co-op owners (co-op housing is owned collectively, under Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation guidelines) as one-third, one-third, one-third.

Here’s what the one-third, one-third, one-third mix of residents in a housing co-op means: one third of members who live in a housing Co-op receive a deep subsidy — this group usually involves seniors on a meagre pension income, those persons in single parent households, and persons with disabilities. The second one-third grouping consists of wage earners, and persons in the creative industry, who earn an income of under $60,000 annually. Subsidy is provided to Co-operatives across Canada through a Federal Housing Co-operative Subsidy Fund.

The final third in the housing co-operative resident mix are those earning between $60,000 and $80,000 a year. These persons pay a low-end of median market rental rate — an explanation of which is available in VanRamblings’ Sept. 6, 2022 post. The CMHC-determined median market rental rate is generally half of the market rate.

As VanRamblings has resided in a housing co-operative for forty-plus years, allow us to explain how Co-ops work, and what TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver intends.

Co-operative housing was developed by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau-led federal Liberal government in the 1970s as a means of providing affordable housing for wage earners, members of the creative community, seniors and persons with disabilities, as well as for persons earning under $80,000 a year — the latter group paying a low-end-of-market housing charge rate, subsidizing those with lower incomes. 2500 housing co-ops were developed across Canada over a 10-year span, providing affordable housing to 135,000 Canadians, in every region of our nation.

Here’s how housing co-ops work. Each member of a co-op is owner of her or his home — sometimes it’s a townhouse, other times it’s row housing, or an apartment / condominium style housing typology. A member makes a refundable share purchase on being accepted into the Co-op — generally, the share purchase amounts to one month’s housing charge. For those who struggle to pay the share purchase, often the Co-op will add a portion of the share purchase to a household’s monthly housing charge — alternatively, the CCEC Credit Union offers a no interest share purchase loan to prospective Co-op members.

Housing co-operatives require member participation in the operation of the Co-op.

An Executive Committee — a President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer — are elected at the Annual General Meeting of the Co-operative. The Executive is the Co-operative’s legally responsible body, under British Columbia’s Society Act, that ensures the good operation of the Co-operative. The Executive is responsible for the economic rectitude of the Co-operative, and must arrange for the conduct of an annual audit of the Co-operative’s fiscal operation. Every member — often, that includes children — must participate in the life of the Co-operative, and sit on one of three Co-op Committees: the Finance, Membership or Maintenance Committee.

Generally, there are work parties twice a year, collective Co-op cleaning activities, usually held in the autumn, and again in the early spring. The work required of members is rarely onerous — rather it’s a grassroots means for members to participate in the affairs of the Co-op that contributes to the livability of the Co-operative.

Phase 2 housing co-ops: co-operative housing built along the south shore of False Creek in the 70s/80s

Quite honestly, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s affordable housing plan is the only viable affordable housing plan VanRamblings has seen published as policy in any of the 10 civic party’s policy handbooks, whose affordable housing policies are little more than a chimera, an ephemera trotted out as a faux election promise only.

Tomorrow, VanRamblings will be writing about the Vancouver International Film Festival, which kicks off its glorious, much-anticipated 41st annual edition today.

As we won’t be back writing about the election until Monday, October 3rd, for perusal over the upcoming weekend, we’ll leave you with …

Video of the Business in Vancouver Mayoral Forum held at The Terminal City Club on Tuesday evening, September 27th, with all five Mayoral candidates on hand, the event moderated by Kirk LaPointe.