Category Archives: Vancouver

Vancouver Votes 2018 | COPE Selects Candidates for Civic Office

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

Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) candidates in the 2018 Vancouver civic election Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) candidates for office in the 2018 Vancouver civic election. Clockwise, starting top left, activists & persons of conscience all: Jean Swanson, Anne Roberts, John Irwin, Gwen Giesbrecht, Barb Parrott, Diana Day, and Derrick O’Keefe

As part of the deal struck with the Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC), the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) selected three candidates for Vancouver City Council at a nomination meeting held at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, at 12th and Hemlock, this past Sunday afternoon, as well as two candidates for School Board and two candidates for Park Board, all of whom will be supported by the VDLC, and can reasonably expect to secure the votes of the 50,000 union members in the city of Vancouver. The “deal” and the fine candidates above represent a breakthrough for COPE — celebrating its 50th birthday this year — who are looking to elect their first candidate to office since the 2008 civic election.
COPE’s 2018 Vancouver City Council Candidates

Heading up COPE’s 2018 Council slate is Order of Canada recipient and veteran community and anti-poverty activist, Jean Swanson, who launched her campaign this past Saturday, as part of a raucous, enjoyable, fun and serious-minded reminder of what the core issues are that constitute “the city we need,” the banner under which Ms. Swanson is seeking office …

A four-year rent freeze, including the outlawing of renovictions;
Building the affordable and social housing we need across the city;
Working toward universal free transit, starting with students & low income workers, while also working to institute a city carbon tax to expand transit, and supporting car and bike share programmes;
Protecting the environment, including stopping Kinder Morgan, banning styrofoam and plastic bottles, and turning office lights off at night;
Universal child care, including making Vancouver a pilot city for universal $10/day child care, creating 7,500 new early child care spaces and 10,000 new after-school care spaces to meet need, and prioritizing provision of indigenous-centred child care.

Jean Swanson and COPE’s Council platform summary is available here.

Derrick O’Keefe, a prominent analytical voice on Vancouver’s left wing, as The Georgia Straight has described him, has officially entered politics, in the 2018 civic election.

COPE Council candidate, Anne Roberts, launching her campaign for civic office, Saturday

Of course, as we have written previously, Anne Roberts and Jean Swanson constitute two members of Vancouver’s holy trinity of progressive political figures and persons of conscience in our city, who mean to give us The City We Need (the other member: OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle), and as such represent three must-votes in this autumn’s Vancouver municipal election. In respect of Mr. O’Keefe, we will publish a column soon on what his near-revolutionary candidacy represents for Vancouver civic politics.
COPE’s 2018 Vancouver School Board candidates

COPE's 2018 Vancouver School Board candidates, Diana Day and Barb Parrott

2018 represents a 3rd time Diana Day has sought a seat on School Board.
The accomplished Diana Day, an Indigenous First Nations from the Oneida Nation, who graduated with an Honours B.A. in Psychology from the University of Windsor, and has worked as a leader in Aboriginal health, public education and community engagement over the past decade, and sat as Chair of the Vancouver Technical Secondary Schools’ Parent Advisory Council (PAC), when her daughter Angeline attended this east side school (and VanRamblings alma mater), graduating as an honours student.
Diana has broad support in the community, and in last autumn’s by-election came within only 900 votes of taking a seat on Vancouver School Board.
Diana also has friends who have great things to say about her …

“I have had the privilege of working alongside Diana Day in her capacity as executive on the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council and want to ask you to save a vote for her as a 2018 COPE Vancouver School Board candidate. Ms. Day is a skilled facilitator with a passion for equity and looking out for our most vulnerable students and families. She brings a warmth and humour to her position while being firm, clear and focused. Diana Day is an effective advocate and an empathetic listener and will make an excellent Trustee.”
— Claudia Ferris, Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) Media Coordinator

The single most frequent issue to come before the Vancouver School Board? Aboriginal education. Funding, resources, preservation or expansion of existing programmes for First Nations students enrolled in the Vancouver school system, liaison with the federal and provincial governments, First Nations student achievement (that while improving continues to be regrettably and woefully low), and protection of the interests of indigenous children enrolled in Vancouver’s school system, among a myriad of other concerns and interests. There is no more passionate and informed advocate of and voice for First Nations students than Diana Day — a vote for COPE Vancouver’s Diana Day on October 14th is an absolute imperative.
All of us need to hear Diana’s voice at the Vancouver School Board table.

Barb Parrott, a veteran BCTF activist & 2018 COPE candidate for Vancouver School Board

A former Vancouver Elementary School Teacher’s Association 1st Vice-President and BCTF Annual General Meeting Chairperson, Barb Parrott has worked her entire adult life in support of public education. In the coming days and weeks, VanRamblings will interview the accomplished Ms. Parrott, and publish the interview on this site. Clearly, as a staunch defender of public education, Ms. Parrot represents a must-vote for Vancouver School Board this upcoming autumn electoral season.
COPE’s 2018 Vancouver Park Board candidates

Former COPE Park Board Chairperson Anita Romaniuk introduces Park Board platform

Flat out, Gwen Giesbrecht — a veteran member and recent Chairperson of the Britannia Community Centre on Vancouver’s eastside — is one of our favourite people on the planet, and the person who during the 2017 Women’s March in Vancouver, when I marched even though I was seemingly at death’s door, helped to define for me all that had occurred with me in the months prior to the march during my arduous, seemingly terminal — and determinedly inoperable — cancer journey, saying to me …

“Raymond, both you and I are opinionated people, and when you’re as opinionated as we are sometimes you get to thinking, ‘People must really hate me.’ But what you’ve discovered these past months is what I discovered only a short while ago — as opinionated as we are, activists in our community respect and even love us. With the 400 persons of conscience, from across the political spectrum, who have come to your aid, clear-headed and strong-minded, and made a difference in your life, giving it a meaning that has sustained you during this very difficult, even tragic, time in your life, perhaps the outpouring of love you’ve felt will not only sustain you during your illness, but give you a new life, and a second chance at life.”

And so it was, as only two months later, my cancer not only went into remission, but disappeared entirely, a miracle (although, I still attend at the B.C. Cancer Agency for MRIs and CT scans, as I will do later this month, and next). Now, what do you think the chances are that I’ll be supporting Ms. Giesbrecht’s bid for a seat on Vancouver Park Board? Just could be that I’ll be talking about little else in the coming months! Vote Gwen Giesbrecht!

Gwen Giesbrecht, a must-vote for Vancouver Park Board in the 2018 municipal election

Dr. John Irwin, a respected professor of geography at Simon Fraser Univerisity, specializing in sustainable urban development, has sat as a member of COPE’s Parks & Recreation Committee for the past three years, and is one of the architects of the 2018 Park Board platform. Dr. Irwin is a director of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC), a Vancouver environmental organization that protects urban green space and promotes community gardens across the city, and a founding member of the South East False Creek Working Group that helped develop the sustainable community and foreshore park that is now rising along the south shores of False Creek. Dr. Irwin has also worked as a policy analyst for the Tenants Rights Action Coalition and the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
In the coming weeks and months, VanRamblings looks forward to interviewing Dr. Irwin on what he sees as the priorities for the Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation in the coming term, where he stands on the contentious VanSplash proposal, and on the currently proposed and extremely contentious asphalt bike path the city seems wedded to implementing through Kitsilano Beach Park — both of which issues will come before Park Board next February for final determination.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | TeamJean’s Winning Team | Jean Swanson

June 11, 2018BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018Raymond Tomlin

Jean Swanson launches her 2018 campaign for Vancouver City Council, on June 9th

Perhaps the most heartening development in Vancouver civic politics over the course of the past year is the emergence of veteran community activist Jean Swanson as a viable — and necessary — candidate for civic office.
Surrounded and supported by a team of sophisticated community activists, who have come to identify themselves as TeamJean, in last autumn’s Vancouver civic by-election #TeamJean activists catapulted Jean Swanson to a rousing and hopeful second-place finish in the October 19th Vancouver City Council by-election to fill a seat left vacant by Vision Vancouver City Councillor Geoff Meggs, who had resigned his position on Council to take on the job of Chief of Staff to, then, newly-elected NDP Premier John Horgan.

Jean Swanson at a rally in 2012 speaking out on behalf of resident of the DTES

Most people’s first impression of Jean Swanson relates to how much she doesn’t sound like a radicalized and vitriolic rabble-rouser, her manner of speech and presentation quiet, respectful, self-deprecating, warm and engaging. As our region’s leading anti-poverty activist, Jean Swanson has spent a lifetime sparring with property developers, SRO-managers and politicians — more often that not emerging victorious in her struggle to ensure our region’s most vulnerable citizens are cared for, their interests championed, and the quality of their homes and their lives improved.

Jean Swanson, the must-elect for Vancouver City Council in 2018. Vote Jean Swanson!

Little wonder, then, that Jean Swanson was invested into the Order of Canada last year by then Govenor General David Johnston during a ceremony that was held in Ottawa this past Friday, August 25th, 2017.

“It’s a little higher echelon than I’m used to hanging out with, that’s for sure,” Swanson said, adding she was pleased to sit beside the “amazing” Tanya Tagaq, a fellow Order of Canada inductee and award-winning Inuk throat singer from Nunavut, during the ceremony. Swanson said she “helped get me through the whole thing.”

On Saturday afternoon, June 9th, in a raucous, fun yet serious-minded and wildly successful bit of political theatre — of which we see far too little in our town — Jean Swanson launched her absolutely necessary for the people of Vancouver 2018 bid for a seat on Vancouver City Council come the evening of Saturday, October 20th.
On Sunday, Jean Swanson’s candidacy for City Council was acclaimed at a Coalition of Progressive Electors Nomination meeting. Ms. Swanson will be running alongside her able COPE Council candidates, community activist and writer, Derrick O’Keefe and former COPE City Councillor, Anne Roberts.

Jean Swanson launches her bid for City Council, offering tax therapy for the wealthy

In the days and weeks and months to come, VanRamblings will provide intensive coverage of Jean Swanson’s run for Vancouver City Council, about whose candidacy we feel as strongly about as we do that of OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle — about whom we have written in the past numerous times, as will be the case with Jean Swanson going forward, Jean Swanson, Christine Boyle and Anne Roberts constituting the ‘holy trinity’ of people-oriented progressive politics in Vancouver, absolutely necessary candidates for Vancouver City Council in 2018, and absolutely necessary members of Vancouver City Council, 2018-2022, creating the city we need.

A few photos taken at the TeamJean campaign launch
Photos provided by the kind folks affiliated with the Jean Swanson campaign

Photo credit: Duncan Martin. TeamJean 2018. For the Jean Swanson campaign.

The following photos taken by Sid Chow Tan.

Vancouver Votes 2018 | Child Poverty, Wont and Need

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

For VanRamblings the core election issue in Vancouver’s upcoming civic election, as it is across our province, our nation Canada, and the developed & developing world is simple to identify: child poverty, wont and need.
All of the other issues of importance that we as voters will see addressed over the course of the next five months, the issues that we care about that will serve to determine how we cast our ballot at the polls, stem from the core family issue of child poverty: the construction of affordable housing, inclusion, and social and economic justice for all of our fellow citizens.
Not to mention, the promotion of active transportation through the construction of more bike lanes and inviting pedestrian walkways, the renewal of our access to all community centre system and the proper, well-funded husbandry of our parks system across the city — because, just in case you didn’t know, parks are the backyards for tens of thousands of our fellow citizens in our little paradise by the sea, and more importantly, for the children living in condominiums, apartments or townhouses, or who live in the more economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods across our city and who call Vancouver home — as well as for human-scale development over development geared to please offshore buyers, who see our city as a commodity market, and not our most cherished and beloved home.
Compassion vs selfishness and greed. Children who go hungry, and who live in sub-standard housing vs the provision of a childhood for our most vulnerable citizens, and governance that works to eliminate wont and need while seeking to provide access to and equality of opportunity for all the children who live in our city, in every one of our 23 neighbourhoods.
Pretty simple calculus, huh?
Think with your heart as well as your mind, look to the future, ensure the protection of our environment and the livability of our city for all — and come Saturday, October 20th you’ll know which candidates to vote for.

Arts Friday (well, sort of) | Radio Ratings | Whither Thou Goest

June 8, 2018A & E, Pop Culture, Radio, Vancouver, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

One in six people are listening to CBC Radio One in Vancouver at any given time

As I have written previously, in 1957 I received a transistor radio on August 11th, the date of my 7th birthday, which gift not only engendered a love for radio, but changed my life in significant ways.
By the time the mid-1960s rolled around, I had been hired as a rock ‘n roll deejay at the pop radio station of the day, CFUN 141, where I worked the occasional on-air shift, and read the news as directed by the news director, the late Jim Neilsen — who would go on to become British Columbia’s first environment minister, in the Socred government of Bill Bennett — as well as producing the Sunday evening foreground programming.
In 1966, a young upstart pop radio station sprung up in Vancouver — that had adopted a ‘hot clock’ format created by programme director Bill Drake for the lowest-rated radio station in the Los Angeles market, KHJ. Within three months of adopting what was called the ‘Drake format’ — which was also often referred to as Boss Radio — KHJ shot from last place to first in a Los Angeles radio market with over 70 radio stations.
Drake exported his Boss Radio format to hundreds of radio stations across North America, including 730 CKLG Vancouver. Within six months of adopting the BOSS radio Drake format, 730 CKLG shot from last place to second place in the Vancouver market, just behind powerhouse CKNW 98.
Within a year, CFUN was no more, converting to CKVN, the Voice of News.

A 1968 CKLG aircheck of J.B. Shayne, and various Boss radio station jingles. Hint: you’re gonna want to listen to the KRLA jingle (it’s the last one), which I acquired in 1972 from KRLA afternoon announcer, the legendary Shadoe Stevens. The jingle was played at the beginning of each announcer’s show, every three hours, from 6 a.m. til midnight.

All the jocks at CFUN left for CKLG, and LG-FM, including me: Terry David Mulligan, Don Richards, Daryl B., Fred Latremouille, and John Tanner, just to name a few. J.B. Shayne was already employed at the station, as he’d been hired in 1965 to do overnight on Lions Gate radio, playing classical music — which was, as you might imagine, a joy for the inimitable Mr. Shayne (not!). After adopting the Boss Radio format, Shayne remained at the station, continuing on overnights, becoming a Vancouver radio legend.

Courtesy of Ricardo Zborovszky. What has always impressed me about Top 30 music charts from the 1960s is the diversity of the music that was being played on radio, everything from Motown to pop, middle-of-the-road music for parents from Englebert Humperdinck, to trippy local psychedelia from The Collectors and their 1968 hit Lydia Purple to blues rock from the Rolling Stones & Americana folk from Simon & Garfunkel

In time to come, in VanRamblings Stories of a Life feature, I’ll write about my days in radio, including the very public broadcast throughout the entire Kootenay region of the loss of my virginity, a fond memory even to this day.

Believe it or not, there are actually people who listen to radio in this day and age of iPhones and iPods, loaded with 128GB of your favourite music downloaded onto your smartphone device with thousands of songs available at the call of Siri or Google Assistant, bluetooth, and streaming music services like Spotify, Apple Music and SiriuxXM — and, heck, it’s not all old fogeys like the publisher of this blog, either, who listen to radio.

Host Stephen Quinn dominates the radio market mornings Monday to Friday in Vancouver, on CBC Radio One’s The Early Edition, having taken over from longtime host Rick Cluff, when after some 20+ years, Mr. Cluff retired to his West Vancouver home during the holiday season that ended 2017, as it did Mr. Cluff’s 40+ year celebrated history in public radio.
If you want to know what’s going on in our city, our region and the province of British Columbia, you tune into Quinn’s The Early Edition, over the lunch hour on BC Today with Michelle Eliot, or Gloria Mackarenko’s re-invented On The Coast afternoon show — any and all issues of interest and concern are addressed on these three locally-produced broadcasts, featuring interviews with the broadest range of political figures, commentators, academics, and activists in our region and our province.
Little wonder that CBC Radio One dominates Vancouver’s radio market.
Although, CKNW comes in second in the Vancouver radio market in this last ratings “book,” the audience for that station is mainly 55+, hardly the demographic the advertisers want to reach, or so we keep being told.
QM/FM, although it’s ratings dropped a bit from the last time ratings were calculated, Vancouver’s oldest and most reliable music station continues to dominate the traditional radio market, as has been the case for more than 30 years, with its playlist of soft rock and classic radio favourites, with the occasional middle-of-the road contemporary song thrown into the mix.
Otherwise, Virgin Radio, Z95.3 and and KiSS Radio continue to compete for the ears of young listeners, a job they’re mostly successful at achieving.

Courtesy of Broadcast Dialogue magazine, David Bray, June 7th 2018
Vancouver: CBC Radio One continues its dominance of the Vancouver radio market, grabbing the #1 spot for A12+ with a 15.3% share of hours tuned (down from 15.7%). Taking the top spot for F25-54, QM-FM, posting a 16.5% share (down from 19.6% last book). FOX grabs the lead for M25-54 listeners, delivering a 13.8% share (up from 11.4%). The FOX is out in front for M18-34 with a 22.0% share of hours tuned (up from 15.8%). Women 18-34, QM-FM dominates, taking top spot with a 16.8 % share.

Even given its low ratings, TSN 1040 dominates the radio market, men aged 25 – 44, and 45 – 64, so for advertisers who want to reach that target market, TSN 1040 is the station that they’ll turn to more often than not.
Well, that’s it for this sort of Arts Friday VanRamblings post. Feels good to take a bit of break from the ever-so-satisfying maelstrom of local politics.