Category Archives: Vancouver

#VanElxn2022 | VanRamblings’ Druthers Endorsement Ballot

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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

Arts Friday | Attend the New York Film Festival Right Here in Vancouver

A & E, Arts Friday, Cinema, Pop Culture, Vancouver, VIFF 2022,

Every year towards the end of September, both our homegrown Vancouver International Film Festival and the heavily-juried New York Film Festival get underway, presenting the best in cinematic art to be found anywhere across the globe.

As occurs each year, both VIFF & NYFF share fifteen or more films, as is the case once again this year. Here are the 15 films on offer at the New York Film Festival that will also screen at the 41st annual Vancouver International Film Festival …

(film titles for each film link to VIFF’s website for the film, allowing you to purchase a ticket)

Aftersun

6:30pm, Friday, September 30th, International Village 9
9:15pm, Sunday, October 2nd, International Village 9

In one of the most assured and spellbinding feature débuts in years, Scottish director Charlotte Wells has fashioned a textured memory piece inspired by her relationship with her dad, starring Paul Mescal and Francesca Corio as a divorced father and his daughter whose close bond is quietly shaken during a brooding weekend at a coastal resort in Turkey.

Alcarràs

6:15pm, Friday, October 7th, SFU Woodwards
2:30pm, Sunday, October 9th, Vancouver Playhouse

Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Carla Simón’s follow-up to her acclaimed childhood drama Summer 1993 is a ruminative, lived-in portrait of a rural family in present-day Catalonia whose way of life is rapidly changing.

All That Breathes

12:30pm, Sunday, October 2nd, International Village 8
9pm, Wednesday, October 5th, SFU Woodwards

In this hypnotic, poignant, and beautifully crafted documentary, New Delhi-based filmmaker Shaunak Sen immerses himself with two brothers who for years have been taking it upon themselves to save the black kite, their city’s endangered birds of prey, which the general population largely sees as nuisances despite their essential role in the city’s ecosystem.

Corsage

6pm, Monday, October 3rd, Centre for the Performing Arts
6pm, Thursday, October 6th, Centre for the Performing Arts

In a perceptive, nuanced performance, Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) quietly dominates the screen as Empress Elizabeth of Austria, who begins to see her life of royal privilege as a prison as she reaches her fortieth birthday. Marie Kreutzer boldly imagines her cloistered world with both realism and fanciful imagination.

De Humani Corporis Fabrica

9pm, Thursday, October 6th, The Cinematheque
6pm, Saturday, October 8th, VIFF Centre – Vancity Theatre

In their thrilling new work of nonfiction exploration, Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Leviathan) burrow deeper than ever, using microscopic cameras and specially designed recording devices to survey the wondrous landscape of the human body.

Decision to Leave

9:15pm, Friday, September 30th, Centre for the Performing Arts
9pm, Thursday, October 6th, Centre for the Performing Arts

A Busan detective is increasingly obsessed with a murder suspect in a puzzling new case: a middle-aged businessman has mysteriously fallen to his death and his wife might be to blame. Park Chan-wook won the Cannes Best Director award for this twisting Hitchcockian detective thriller, one of his most enveloping and accomplished films.

EO

4pm, Sunday, October 2nd, Vancouver Playhouse
9:30pm, Saturday, October 8th, Centre for the Performing Arts

At age 84, legendary director Jerzy Skolimowski has directed one of his spryest, most visually inventive films yet, following the travels of a peripatetic donkey named EO who begins as a circus performer before escaping on a pastoral trek across the Polish and Italian countryside.

The Novelist’s Film

9:15pm, Tuesday, October 4th, International Village 9

For his playful and gently thought-provoking 27th feature, Hong Sangsoo takes on the perspective of a prickly middle-aged novelist, Junhee (Lee Hye-young), whose dormant creativity is stoked following a chance encounter with a famous actress (Kim Min-hee).

One Fine Morning

9pm, Sunday, October 2nd, Centre for the Performing Arts
6pm, Tuesday, October 4th, Centre for the Performing Arts

The intensely poignant and deeply personal latest drama from Mia Hansen-Løve (Bergman Island) stars Léa Seydoux as Sandra, a translator and single mother at a crossroads, torn between the romantic desire she feels for a married man (Melvil Poupaud) and her obligation towards her sick father (Pascal Greggory).

Pacifiction

9pm, Saturday, October 1st, International Village 9
5:30pm, Sunday, October 9th, Vancouver Playhouse

Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra reconfirms his centrality in the contemporary cinematic landscape with this mesmerizing, slow-building fever dream about a French bureaucrat (a monumental Benoît Magimel) drifting through a fateful trip to a French Polynesian island with increasing anxiety.

R.M.N.

9:30pm, Saturday, October 1st, Vancouver Playhouse
9pm, Thursday, October 6th, Vancouver Playhouse

Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days), who dramatizes the tensions of a modern Romania still beholden to dangerous traditions, returns with a gripping, mosaic-like portrait of a rural Transylvanian town riven by ethnic conflicts, economic resentment, and personal turmoil.

Scarlet

3:30pm, Thursday, October 6th, International Village 10
9pm, Saturday, October 8th, International Village 9

One of contemporary cinema’s most versatile talents, Pietro Marcello (Martin Eden) proves again he is as comfortable in the realm of folklore as he is in creative nonfiction with this enchanting period fable that delicately interweaves realist drama, ethereal romance, and musical flights of fancy.

Stars at Noon

9pm, Monday, October 3rd, Vancouver Playhouse
1pm, Saturday, October 8th, Centre for the Performing Arts

In Claire Denis’s surprising contemporary thriller, a dissolute young American journalist (Margaret Qualley) and an English businessman (Joe Alwyn) with ties to the oil industry meet by chance while on different, mysterious assignments in modern-day Nicaragua and tumble into a whirlwind romance.

Stonewalling

9pm, Saturday, October 1st, The Cinematheque
2:45pm, Tuesday, October 4th, The Cinematheque

A young flight-attendant-in-training’s plans to finish college are thrown into doubt when she discovers she’s pregnant. Not wanting an abortion, she hopes to give the child away after carrying it to term, while staying afloat amidst a series of dead-end jobs. Beijing-based wife-and-husband team Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka’s film is an urgent critique of a modern-day social structure that has few options for women in need of care.

Triangle of Sadness

9pm, Monday, October 3rd, Centre for the Performing Arts
9pm, Sunday, October 9th, Centre for the Performing Arts

Ruben Östlund’s wildly ambitious Palme d’Or–winning Buñuelian satire follows two hot young models (Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean) who rub elbows with the super-rich on a luxury cruise gone haywire.

VanElxn2022 | The Latest Behind-the-Scenes Campaign Scumbuggery

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Edward Charles Kennedy Stewart. Vancouver’s next Mayor. The same Mayor as there always was.

See that photo of the guy above? That’s Kennedy Stewart, feckless Mayor of Vancouver since 2018. Why’s he smiling if he’s so feckless, you ask? Because, dear and constant reader, Kennedy Stewart is about to get re-elected to a second term as Vancouver’s once-and-forever Mayor. “How can that be?” you ask. Read on …

The provincial NDP, despite all, have decided that Kennedy Stewart is their guy.

A week or so ago, a letter went out to constituency associations telling NDP members that it’s Kennedy Stewart, or no one.

“We know that you’re not a big fan of Mayor Kennedy Stewart. We’ve not been, either. But here’s the thing: unless you cast your ballot for Kennedy, we’ll all be looking at a Council where the Mayor will be a right-of-centre, B.C. Liberal supporting opponent to everything the NDP stand for — equity, human rights, building a diverse British Columbia that is dedicated to inclusion, while building a diverse economy dedicated to job growth, and fulfilling our commitment to build 117,000 units of affordable housing.

None of that will come to pass if you elect right-wingers like …

Mark Marissen — His campaign’s senior advisor, that’d be his ex-wife, former B.C. Liberal Premier, Christy Clark. Mark is deep in the pocket of developers, dedicated to his own self-interest, and not yours. Electing Marissen as Vancouver’s next Mayor would be like Christy Clark redux. We don’t want that. You don’t want that;

Ken Sim, who is that much deeper in the pocket of developers than any of the other candidates seeking to become Vancouver’s next Mayor, who’s a front man for Lululemon multi-billionaire Chip Wilson, and some guy named Peter Armstrong, who locked his Rocky Mountaineer workers out for a year. Not only would Ken Sim turn Vancouver into a city for the ultra-rich, in the process, he’d fire union workers while attempting to destroy the union movement;

Fred Harding, who doesn’t even live in Vancouver. He calls China home. He’d be a commuter Mayor from halfway across the globe were he to become Vancouver’s next Mayor. Let’s face it, Harding is just visiting Vancouver during the current Vancouver civic election, stoking fear in the same manner as a PIerre Poilievre or Donald Trump — we think that’s despicable, something you don’t want;

And last, but certainly not least, Colleen Hardwick, who would turn Vancouver back 50 years and seek to create a paradise for the rich, while attempting to build a Vancouver that never was …

All four of these right-wing Vancouver Mayoral aspirants would do their level best to undo all that our government has achieved during the course of these past five years in government. Your only choice for Mayor in 2022: Mayor Kennedy Stewart.”

Other news of note concerning the Mayor’s Forward Together campaign for office. The provincial NDP has put the full weight of the party behind the candidacy of Tesicca Truong who, in the 2020 provincial election, came within a hair’s breadth of defeating B.C. Liberal incumbent, Michael Lee.

The BC New Democratic Party feels that Tesicca Truong represents the future of the BC NDP, and has set about to ensure a win for Ms. Truong — an immigrant, a refugee and a climate change activist — at the polls on Saturday, October 15th.

Of course, in promoting Ms. Truong’s candidacy, along with that of the Mayor, BC NDP stalwarts Alvin Singh and Dulcy Anderson are being left out in the cold.

Politics, as you may have gathered, is a dirty business, where no one really wins.

Soon-to-be defeated in her re-election bid, wrongheaded, unprincipled City Councillor, Christine Boyle.

In the meantime, in-between time, ain’t we got fun!

Not so much for Councillor Christine Boyle, who’s lost the support of the BC NDP.


Atiya Jaffar (left) and Anjali Appadurai. Jaffar volunteered to pay membership fees for prospective BC NDP leadership election voters while on an Instagram live event hosted by NDP leadership candidate Appadurai. The NDP leadership candidate and supporter Jaffar are under internal investigation for alleged vote buying. Ms. Jaffar is also active in the OneCity Vancouver civic party. | Photo: Instagram

Although Ms. Boyle has, for some while, been the fair-haired golden child of incoming B.C. Premier David Eby, seems that the NDP party brass are far from thrilled with OneCity Vancouver Councillor and candidate for re-election Christine Boyle’s association with Atiya Jaffar, the woman behind Premier-aspirant Anjali Appuradai’s campaign to unseat Mr. Eby and lead the BC New Democratic Party to oblivion, this same U.S.-based activist a major fundraiser for The Cult of Christine Boyle … er … we mean, OneCity Vancouver Councillor Christine Boyle.

Neither are British Columbia New Democratic Party brass particularly thrilled that Ms. Boyle has not disavowed her association with “volunteers” on her campaign for re-election, those volunteers allegedly planning a campaign of terror …

“Maybe we give (Rohana Rezel) a taste of his own medicine and openly wonder why he’s associating on Twitter with possible pedophiles?” asks Tim Ell, who’s been door knocking with OneCity’s incumbent Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle during the campaign.

In a ThinkPol article published on Tuesday, Mr. Rezel wrote that he had obtained chat logs that show OneCity Vancouver volunteers plotting to destroy their opponents by fabricating damaging rumours — including rumours about pedophilia. Their targets involve affordable housing advocates, academics, journalists, and lawyers. Mr. Rezel writes that, “What they intend to do to us is jaw dropping.”

Yet Christine Boyle refuses to disavow her association with, as VanRamblings reported on September 13th, “volunteers” on her campaign for re-election, rife with alt-right white supremacists with a “history of racism, misogyny and violence.”

Christine Boyle’s new status? Persona non grata with the B.C. New Democrats.

The man you see above is Christopher Richardson, the best man we know.

A former Vancouver School Board Chairperson, Mr. Richardson was seeking re-election to Vancouver’s Board of Education, under the ABC (A Better City?) banner, until he got unceremoniously dumped as a candidate for Vancouver School Board.

The above the line story, as reported in a September 26th CBC story is …

“Late Friday afternoon ABC Vancouver was made aware that a charitable organization that Christopher Richardson was a board member of had its charitable status revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency on Sept. 10,” the statement by Kareen Allam read.

“On Saturday, ABC conducted several queries. At the conclusion, ABC sent an email at 8 p.m. Saturday evening to the chief election officer that ABC’s endorsement of Christopher Richardson be removed, knowing that the deadline to do so may have passed.”

The statement did not reveal the name of the charity or why its status had been revoked. However, on Sunday evening ABC spokesperson Kareen Allam said that Richardson was let go after ABC was contacted by local writer Vivian Krause advising them that a charity Richardson was affiliated with had its charitable status revoked.

A human note should be made at this juncture: Two minutes before Christopher Richardson received the call from ABC Vancouver campaign manager Kareen Allam advising him he was being “let go” from the campaign and his candidacy for School Board revoked, Mr. Richardson had taken a call from the care home where his mother-in-law was resident, advising him that his wife’s mother had passed.

With Ms. Richardson in tears and inconsolable, Mr. Richardson reluctantly took Mr. Allam’s call, which call when it ended was followed by hours of reporters camped outside his door, while he attempted to console his beloved and bereft wife, at the same time somehow finding the strength to participate in a number of incredibly difficult — and dare we say, unfeeling — interviews with the press, where he was put on the defensive, during which interviews he felt doggedly under attack.

The behind-the-scenes story is this: Christopher Richardson, who is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Charitable Gift Planning Consultant & Philanthropy Advisor, has worked since 2005 with Blake Bromley, a Vancouver-based lawyer, considered to be

As you might well expect, Mr. Bromley does not work exclusively with Mr. Richardson. From time to time, Mr. Bromley has taken on work for Joel Solomon, a philanthropist, real estate magnate and founder of Vision Vancouver — the civic party which held power in Vancouver between 2008 and 2018 — and who is also a co-founder of Hollyhock on Cortes Island, about which Shannon Rupp, a reporter for The Georgia Straight, has written …

“I assume this artificial feeling of love and acceptance is what people are paying for, but I have to admit I find these get-togethers oppressive. Perhaps the most annoying aspect of Hollyhock is its culture of conformity – Goddess forbid anyone should question anything. After five days here, I’ve found Hollyhock is really two places: the site itself is delightful, but the half-baked spiritual and psychological concepts it peddles make me uneasy.”

Vivian Krause, conspiracy theorist, given to arch-villain, under-researched, unsupported narratives.

For years, Vivian Krause, a controversial researcher and writer critical of Canada’s environmental charities and, we think it is fair to say, a rabid critic of Joel Solomon, who Ms. Krause has spent a good portion of her life “exposing” as a charlatan, a fraud and a ne’er-do-well, and for whom she has long had a hate on. Anyone even remotely associated with Mr. Solomon is persona non grata in her book, a despicable evil creature deserving of the worst she might visit upon him.

And so she does.

Ms. Krause’s undeserving and unwitting “target” in the 2022 Vancouver civic election: Christopher Richardson, because of his loose affiliation with Joel Solomon, through his work with Vancouver charitable foundations lawyer Blake Bromley. For the past decade and more, Vivian Krause has dragged out every and any untoward, unsupported and unsubstantiated allegation of wrong-doing concerning Mr. Richardson, in some ways making his life on Earth, at times, a living hell.

For weeks in the current election campaign, Ms. Krause has attempted to peddle her scurrilous allegations about Mr. Richardson — who in the cutthroat world of civic politics is a beloved figure — to every campaign in the 2022 election, which entreaties by Ms. Krause by each and every one of the Vancouver civic parties — much to their credit — save one, was rejected. Seems that Ms. Krause has a relationship of longstanding with one of the ABC candidates for election, and it is this candidate who stuck the knife in Mr. Richardson’s School Board candidacy.

Some weeks ago Blake Bromley and Mr. Richardson submitted a renewal of the application for charitable foundation status for one of the foundations Mr. Bromley and Mr. Richardson represent, the every five year re-application in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency guidelines, as required under law. Apparently, the documentation submitted by Mr. Bromley and Mr. Richardson was incomplete — one or more boxes was left unchecked — leading the CRA to reject the application, and revoke the charitable status of the foundation re-applying for certification.

Upon being advised of the revocation, Mr. Bromley immediately launched an appeal, which appeal is under review, the corrected and fully completed application now in the hands of the Canada Revenue Agency. Mr. Richardson advises VanRamblings that he believes the re-application will be successful, after which he has been assured by Mr. Allam, once all outstanding matters have been resolved, he may once again resume his ABC candidacy for Vancouver School Board.

Oh, there’s more, so much more. But not today. We’re already over length.

Chances are that as you are reading this, VanRamblings is attending the much-looked-forward-to announcement of the TEAM for a Livable Vancouver housing policy — finally, with UBC urban geographer, VanRamblings’ most beloved Patrick Condon one of the presenters — where we’ve been assured that our dreams about an affordable housing policy, which we have written about ad nauseum and to distraction during the course of the current civic election campaign — will be realized.

Colour us thrilled and over-the-moon. I believe that there’s a lunch with Mr. Condon & Ms. Hardwick, in the Olympic Village, in each of our respective futures.

#VanElxn2022 | Andrew Johns’ Coastal Front Election Pundit Panel

#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2022, , , , ,

Above, a pundit panel gathered by Coastal Front’s Andrew Johns, featuring …

  • The eminence gris / the doyenne of Vancouver civic affairs reporting, Frances Bula — who has covered the civic scene dating back to 1994, first for the Vancouver Sun (where she worked for 20 years), and since then for The Globe and Mail,  as a “stringer”. For awhile now, Ms. Bula has written for Vancouver Magazine, where she is a featured columnist. In addition, Frances Bula is a past Chair of the Journalism Department at Langara College, where she continues to teach, and is also an adjunct professor in the School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia. Phew, we know — where does she get all that energy, and just how many hours are there in a day that affords Ms. Bula the opportunity to be such a productive citizen, and invaluable member of our community? Fortunately (or is that, unfortunately) the no-nothings, the disrespectfuls, the “basket of deplorables” in our community gain much pleasure in their meaningless lives by deriding the incredibly humane Ms. Bula online, and sometimes in her appearances on panels, unlike the one above.
  • Then there’s the first of the two good guys: multi-term Non-Partisan Association (NPA) — when Vancouver’s oldest municipal party was a functioning civic party, a party mostly beloved by Vancouver citizens — Vancouver City Councillor, George Affleck. At one time an on-air host with the CBC and, for many years the CEO of Curve Communications, a successful full service digital marketing agency, Mr. Affleck is the president and CEO of the agency. Politics: between 2011 & 2018, Mr. Affleck served as a Councillor at Vancouver City Hall. Yes, we’re talking accomplished. Did we mention that he’s a bright guy, a kind guy, an engaging guy, and a politically adept fellow, possessed of a wry sense of humour? Well, he is, as well as many more good things.
  • That handsome, erudite fellow of good cheer, and much élan — by far the hardest working, best researched and most humanely engaging “podcaster” in British Columbia — we have the multi-talented and engaging Mo Amir. Possessed of a Bachelor of Business Administration, and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Simon Fraser University, Mr. Amir launched the This is VANCOLOUR podcast in 2018, as an exploration of culture and politics in Vancouver and B.C. — and what a massive hit this ‘must listen to’ (and now, must-watch on CHEK-TV) podcast has become.

You couldn’t ask for a better informed, more engaging, more erudite and — when you get right down to it — more non-partisan panel of civic election pundits than the accomplished Frances “don’t try to put one over on me” Bula, George “hey, let’s get real … you can’t be serious” Affleck, and Mo “I may appear affable, but I’m not going to let you get away with a darned thing” Amir. So, that’s what we’re presenting for your edification today — where the 2022 Vancouver civic election campaign is at, how the Mayoral candidates and the civic parties they’re running with are faring, and predictions as to how this whole meshuggeneh election will turn out!