Category Archives: #VanPoli Civic Politics

#SaveOurParkBoard | A Passionate, Reasoned, Well-Attended Town Hall

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This past Thursday afternoon, Green Party of Vancouver City Councillors Pete Fry and Adriane Carr, and One City Vancouver Councillor Christine Boyle organized a spirited Town Hall — with more than 200 passionate, reasoned citizens in attendance, who oppose the elimination of an independent, elected Park Board — the event taking place in the Joe Wai Room, on the main floor of Vancouver City Hall.


Vancouver City Councillors, l-r:  the Green Party’s Pete Fry and Adriane Carr + OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle

One of the most compelling speakers of the afternoon was Terri Clark, Vancouver Park Board’s Public Affairs Communications Manager from 1973 through 2008.

“In all my years at Park Board, our General Managers worked productively with Vancouver City Managers Fritz Bowers (1977-1990), Ken Dobell (1990-1998) and Judy Rogers (1999-2008). Ours was a relationship of mutual respect and co-operation.

Necessary funds were always provided by the City for the upkeep and maintenance of Vancouver’s parks, pools and community centres, in order to best serve the public interest.

               Photo credit: Elvira Lount
First row, above: l-r, Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby | John Coupar, former Park Board Chair | Tricia Barker, Commissioner, last term | Laura Christensen, current independent Commissioner; Bottom row, l-r. Michael Wiebe, former Commissioner, former City Councillor | Sarah Blyth, former two term Commissioner | Brennan Bastyovanszky, current independent Park Board Chair.

Recent maintenance problems at the Aquatic Centre or Kits Pool would never have been allowed to happen in Mr. Bowers’,  Dobell’s and Judy Rogers time as City Manager at Vancouver City Hall.

In September 2009, before Susan Mundick, Park Board’s General Manager (1998-2009), announced her “retirement“, City Manager Penny Ballem had stripped Ms. Mundick of all her duties, stating she would “help park board choose Ms. Mundick’s replacement”, a selection process City Hall had never previously been involved in.

If our pools and community centres are in disrepair today, as Mayor Sim has pointed out, such a circumstance arises from City Hall’s decision to cut Park Board out of any and all maintenance decisions, ceding those responsibilities to the City, which over the past dozen years has largely ignored the needs of what was once a world class parks and recreation system of which we were proud.”

Several past and current Park Board Commissioners addressed those who had gathered at City Hall last Thursday, including: Michael Wiebe, who spoke about the role of Park Board Commissioners in preserving the natural environment; past Park Board Chair, John Coupar, who addressed the role of Park Board in creating a livable city;  both Sarah Blyth and Tricia Barker reminded those present that “Ken Sim and his ABC Council were not given a mandate to abolish the Vancouver Park Board”; while formerly ABC Vancouver but now independent Park Board Commissioners Brennan Bastyovanszky, Scott Jensen and Laura Christensen committed to continuing their work in the community to preserve the invaluable 135-year legacy of an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board that serves the interests of all British Columbians and “those who visit our beautiful city”.

Several speakers referenced an article in The Vancouver Sun, written by Canadian gardening legend Brian Minter, who writes …

“The Vancouver Park Board maintains 242 parks that comprises 11% cent of Vancouver land. In addition, Park Board maintains 22 kilometres of seawall at Stanley Park, and walkways along False Creek. Park Board’s mandate includes 10 ocean beaches and a freshwater lake beach. Not only are they responsible for the city’s recreation programmes, services and community centres and facilities, park infrastructure comes under their jurisdiction.

In a time of significant climate change with the huge challenges of heat and drought, and the drive to expand green spaces, a high priority must be placed on the viability of parks. The importance of green spaces, the many proven benefits to both our health and wellness are well-documented, as our needs continue to grow.

The Vancouver Park Board is one of our region’s most important public assets and needs dedicated people and citizen engagement to ensure the long-term viability of  B.C.’s, and indeed, Canada’s, most spectacular green spaces, for generations to come.”

And then there’s the disposition of the 242 Vancouver’s parks, one hundred of which do not a have a protected park designation.


Former ABC, now independent PB Commissioners, l-r: Laura Christensen, Brennan Bastyovanszky, Scott Jensen

Perhaps the most articulate and moving participant in Thursday afternoon’s Town Hall was Laura Christensen’s month-old daughter, who cried throughout most of the proceeding, voicing the despair clearly felt by her mother — to whom Mayor Ken Sim had committed his support, when he asked her to run as a Park Board Commissioner on his ABC Vancouver slate — and the despair and frustration of those who had gathered together in common cause to, as one speaker, said “fight ABC’s undemocratic initiative to abolish our cherished, independent Park Board.”

#SaveOurParkBoard | Vancouver | Grassroots Democracy at Its Best

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Erin Shum | community centre advocate | One of Vancouver’s best ever Park Board Commissioners

In Mayor Ken Sim’s mad dash to eliminate the independent, elected and very much esteemed Vancouver Park Board,  over the past weeks there have been many issues that have been shunted to the side in the current debate surrounding the efficacy of an elected Park Board or, most egregiously, not considered at all.

As an overreaching, autocratic ABC Vancouver civic administration seeks to move inexorably forward in their shameful quest to eliminate an elected Park Board, Mayor Ken Sim seems intent on creating the conditions that will give an already overworked gaggle of Vancouver City Councillors even more work to do than is the already the case, respecting Vancouver City Council’s overstuffed civic agenda, such that no reasonable human being could possibly give the necessary consideration of the critically important issues that would come to the fore were our elected Vancouver City Councillors —  in addition to all of their other time consuming work — to take sole authority over Vancouver’s Board of Parks and Recreation.

There simply ain’t enough hours in the day.

Today on VanRamblings, we will set about to elucidate one threat to civic democracy in Vancouver that has, to date, been overlooked by the media, and most certainly not considered nor addressed by a contumacious Vancouver City Council.


Vancouver’s Killarney Community Centre, with a community pool and ice rink available to members

One of the important responsibilities of an elected Vancouver Park Board Commissioner is to fulfill their elected duty to act as liaisons to various Community Centres across the city — as assigned by the Park Board Chair — to attend the monthly meetings of the community centre Board of Directors, listen to what the elected directors have to say, and once back at the Park Board table advocate for each of the community centres to which they have been assigned responsibility.


Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Erin Shum, re-election bid, 2018 Vancouver municipal election

In all the years of VanRamblings’ coverage of Vancouver Park Board we are aware of no finer, no harder working, no more well-respected liaison to the community centres to which she had been assigned than was the case with Park Board Commissioner Erin Shum, a shining star in Vancouver’s political firmament.

In our many conversations over the years, Ainslee Kwan, President of the Killarney Community Centre’s Board of Directors, had nothing but praise for the work ethic, the integrity for all that she did, and most especially for Erin Shum’s commitment to community engagement, as well as her steadfast advocacy for Vancouver citizens living in every neighbourhood across our city, to create an environmentally sustainable and more livable city in which all of us might live, where we might raise our children with adequate green space and vibrant community centres.

From its founding in 1887 through 1955, Vancouver’s elected parks advocacy board was called the Board of Park Commissioners, for that was what they were, Commissioners responsible only for oversight of Vancouver’s lush, verdant parks.

In 1955, the Vancouver Board of Park Commissioners became the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, which it remains to this day.

Prior to 1955, neighbourhood associations built and ran neighbourhood-owned and operated community centres, in most neighbourhoods across our city. From the early 1950s through 1955, the Board of Park Commissioners engaged in a negotiation with the neighbourhood associations across Vancouver to cede jurisdiction to what would become the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.


The Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre, a facility for all ages and abilities, offering childcare, special needs activities, a youth centre, seniors’ lounge, ice rink, fitness centre, and outdoor pool.

Central to the final negotiation which led to the creation of the new Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation was the commitment of the Park Board Commissioners to involve the community centre associations as partners in the decision-making that impacted their community centres. In addition, the new body would assume fiscal responsibility for the operation of community centres, committing as well to a greatly expanded number of community centres, such that every neighbourhood would be well-served with vigorous community centres.

Now, imagine if you will, each of the 10 Vancouver City Councillors pictured above taking on a liaison position with two or more of Vancouver’s 24 community centres, committing to attending the monthly meetings of the community centre boards of directors, and advocating for the community centres for which they have been assigned liaison responsibility. At present, community centre association boards have regular, direct, in-person liaison with elected Park Board Commissioners.

Lemme tell ya: it ain’t gonna happen. The more likely circumstance …

Vancouver City Council’s autocratic, anti-democratic ABC Vancouver majority Council contingent, should they succeed in their quest to eliminate Vancouver’s cherished, 133 -year-old elected Park Board, will also more than likely dissolve the Boards of Directors of  each of Vancouver’s 24 community centres, making it all the easier to sell off Vancouver’s community centres to private developer interests, which developers will then seek to build unaffordable condominium or rental housing on the lush green space adjacent to our existing community centres.

Bad enough that ABC Vancouver wants to destroy the Vancouver Park Board, Metro Vancouver’s last bastion of grassroots civic democracy — even worse, perhaps, that ABC Vancouver will, in all probability, remove the voices of neighbourhood residents entirely in the decisions that impact not only on the recreational needs of those living in each of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods, but from the decision-making that impacts on the livability of the neighbourhood they call their home.

These are sad, desperate days for the citizens of Vancouver, all across our city.

Advance registration to attend the Town Hall is required.

Click on this link to register.

#SaveOurParkBoard | Forces Opposing Board Elimination Respond

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Movements are afoot to respond to Mayor Ken Sim’s shameful initiative to dissolve the 133-year-old independent, elected Park Board.

VanRamblings received the following Green Party of Vancouver press release.

MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JANUARY 29, 2024

Green Commissioner Seeks Legal Advice to Preserve Elected Park Board

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Today, Green Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby announced he is bringing a motion to the February 5th Board meeting entitled “Independent Legal Advice for Judicial Review of Mayor’s Motion”. The motion is to authorize the Board to retain a leading municipal law firm to advise on steps available to preserve Vancouver’s elected Park Board.

“The elected Park Board is preparing to respond to the Mayor’s surprise attack,” said Digby.

Vancouver’s world famous parks and beaches, including the iconic Stanley Park, have been built with direct citizen input via the elected Park Board since it was first established in 1890. Hundreds of supporters of the elected Park Board have sent messages to Commissioners, to the Mayor and City Council, and to Premier David Eby and his cabinet demanding that every effort be made to oppose the Mayor’s December 13, 2023 motion to abolish the elected Park Board.

“I share Commissioner Digby’s concern” said Brennan Bastyovanszky, Chair of the Park Board, and one of three independent Commissioners who were formerly members of the Mayor’s ABC party. “This issue was not on the Mayor’s election platform, and Council has no democratic mandate to abolish another elected body,” continued Bastyovanszky.

One remarkable outcome of the Mayor’s anti-democratic motion is the coming together of 30 former Park Board Commissioners spanning 1972-2022 under the multi-partisan banner #SaveOurParkBoard to defend the value and mission of the elected Park Board.

In related news, City Councillors Adriane Carr, Christine Boyle and Pete Fry have announced a Town Hall meeting to hear from the public on the future of the Vancouver Park Board.

Town Hall | Opposition to ABC Vancouver’s Initiative to Dissolve the Vancouver Park Board

Advance registration to attend the Town Hall is required.

Click on this link to register.

Mike Howell’s Town Hall report may be found here.


David Carrigg’s article in the Vancouver Sun may be found here.

Tom Digby’s motion (see below) will be put to a vote at the February 5th meeting of the Park Board.

#SaveOurParkBoard | The Saga of the Abolition of Vancouver’s Elected Park Board Continues

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Despair reigns across our land, as the inexorable move towards the dissolution of an independent, elected Park Board proceeds relentlessly, calamitously forward.

In today’s VanRamblings post, we’ll attempt to reason why Mayor Ken Sim and his super majority ABC Vancouver team of City Councillors arrived at the decision to eliminate the 133-year-old Vancouver Park Board, the role the administration of the David Eby government will play, why the provincial government supports the seemingly arbitrary initiative of the Mayor, and why we believe that it is inevitable that in months, Vancouver’s beloved, elected Park Board will fade into history.

On an episode of the Air Quotes Media podcast, Hotel Pacifico, that aired just before Christmas, former Vancouver City Councillor / Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan , Geoff Meggs, posited that the move to abolish the Vancouver Park Board was part of a dastardly plot by B.C. United Party leader Kevin Falcon.

Apparently, Mr. Falcon had convinced the Mayor and his ABC Vancouver Councillors — all of whom are members and supporters of B.C. United — that a move to eliminate the elected Park Board would create discord within David Eby’s New Democratic Party caucus, heading into this year’s October 19th provincial election.



Vancouver’s 9 duly-elected New Democrat Party Members of the Legislature in Victoria

Given the likelihood many in the NDP caucus would be opposed to the Mayor’s initiative to have the provincial government amend the Vancouver Charter to allow the dissolution of an elected Park Board — a move that could jeopardize the re-election chances of many of the New Democratic Party government’s Vancouver-based members of the legislature — working hand in hand, Kevin Falcon and Ken Sim devised a plan to turn the tables on the re-election chances of Vancouver’s NDP MLA’s, which very much includes Premier David Eby himself, who is in his 11th year as the elected representative in the riding of Vancouver Point Grey.


Geoff Meggs, Vancouver City Councillor 2008 – 2017 | Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan, 2017 – 2022

Alas. As much as VanRamblings enjoys a good conspiracy theory, in point of fact, privately, Mr. Meggs was telling his intimates that he had proposed the Kevin Falcon “theory” arising from his concern that, given the polling that has the NDP riding high in the polls and seemingly undefeatable, he is concerned that NDP supporters very well may not volunteer at their MLA’s campaign offices once the writ is dropped this upcoming September, and further that New Democratic Party voters will stay home, and not vote at the advance polls or cast a ballot on election day.

Every vote counts. New Democratic Party supporters will have to work as hard as ever in the lead up to, and during the course of British Columbia’s 43rd provincial election, if we wish to ensure the re-election of the David Eby NDP government.


Mayor Ken Sim announces Park Board transition working group

The story of the decision of the Ken Sim-led majority ABC Vancouver administration to eliminate Vancouver’s independent, elected Park Board goes back to March of last year, when Premier David Eby made a proposal to Vancouver’s Mayor to move B.C. Place from its current home adjacent to Rogers Arena to Hastings Park.

While it is true that David Eby has stated that it is probable his government will spend between $300 and $400 million dollars on a renovation of B.C. Place to meet the requirements of the bodies bringing the Invictus Games to British Columbia in 2025, and the FIFA World Cup to Vancouver in 2026, in fact reliable sources have told VanRamblings that the long term plans for B.C. Place involves moving the aging stadium to Hastings Park, over which the City of Vancouver has jurisdiction.

As you might well expect, development and growth — and an expansion of our transit system — is at the heart of the decision by the Premier.

In addition, in eliminating the independent, elected Park Board, ABC Vancouver’s financial backers’ fondest wishes will be realized, as whole tracts of previous park / open green space will be available for development, to build, build, build …

And, of course, the mega-developer Aquilini family is very much involved, as well.

Here’s the plan: a David Eby government would work closely with the members of Vancouver City Council, and the Aquilini development corporation, to redevelop the B.C. Place site where, conceivably, the 7 hectare / 17-acre site would become home to three or more 70-to-95 storey towers in a newly designated “downtown village”, providing more than 3,000 residential condominium units in what will soon become, as planned, the heart of the downtown core of Vancouver.

The monies derived from the sale of the 3,000 luxury condominium units — in which the government would co-develop the B.C. Place site with the Aqualini family, where the completed condominium units would sell for up to $125 million on the top floors, many of the condominium units sold offshore, with the provincial government realizing billions of dollars in profit — would not only pay for the construction of a new stadium on the race track grounds at Hastings Park — a covenant prevents the construction of housing at Hastings Park, but not a sports facility — but for a new light rail system, as well, from Vancouver’s city core, along Hastings, down Renfrew to McGill / Hastings Park,  and over to the North Shore.

ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim pledged support for a North Shore rapid transit line less than two weeks before the 2022 Vancouver civic election.

Late last year, on October 4, 2023, Vancouver City Council endorsed making a formal request to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council to perform a rapid transit study of Hastings Street between downtown Vancouver and Hastings Park /PNE. Following up on his pre-election pledge to support rapid transit to the North Shore, newly-elected Mayor Ken Sim met with North Shore Mayors last February to re-state and reinforce the pledge he had made during his 2022 campaign to support a long-sought-after rapid transit line to the North Shore.


Park Board transition working group: Catherine Evans, Gregor Young, Jordan Nijjar, Shauna Wilton, Jennifer Wood

The person on the left in the photo above is Catherine Evans, former Library Board Chair, Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, most recently the senior constituency assistant in federal MP Joyce Murray’s Vancouver Quadra office, and although Ms. Evans is a card carrying member of the federal Liberal Party,  provincially she is a staunch supporter of David Eby, and his NDP administration in Victoria.

In the past, Catherine Evans has worked on David’s Eby’s campaigns for office and, in fact, on E-Day, while working in Mr. Eby’s campaign office, has been VanRamblings’ no nonsense Get Out The Vote “boss”.

A story — a digression and and an aside — to help explain why Catherine Evans has joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board Transition Working Group.


George Puil, 14 years as a Park Board Commissioner, then for 26 years, a Vancouver City Councillor

In 2001, B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won an overwhelming victory at the polls, securing 77 of 79 seats in the Legislature, leaving the NDP with two seats: Joy McPhail in Vancouver Hastings, and Jenny Kwan in Vancouver Mount Pleasant.

As is always the case with a change of government, there are 5,000 or more positions to be filled by the winning party’s supporters, with positions on college and university boards, regulatory authorities, as well as Crown agencies and commissions, and much more. Having retired from his job as an educator at Kitsilano Secondary School, and after 40 years in elected office, Mr. Puil — a man of experience, and a mentor to Gordon Campbell — following his ignominious defeat at the polls in the 2002 Vancouver municipal election, found himself at loose ends.

Within six months of taking office, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed his good friend George Puil to three regulatory bodies in his government, not requiring too much from Mr. Puil in respect of time, certainly much less time than had long been the case when Mr. Puil  sat as a Vancouver City Councillor. Annual compensation for these “out of the public eye” regulatory bodies came in at $250,000, a pretty penny that came in addition to Mr. Puil’s healthy teachers’ pension.

Catherine Evans, one of the loveliest persons of VanRamblings’ acquaintance

As Ms. Evans lives in VanRamblings neighbourhood, we run across one another frequently, and chat volubly and at length about the state of the world, and more often than not federal politics (as it happens, VanRamblings is a Justin Trudeau fan).

If you know David Eby, you know that he likes to have “his people” in place — thus, Ms. Evans’ placement on Mayor Sim’s Park Board transition working group. David Eby wants a close eye kept on the machinations of that contentious Park Board working group.

In our various conversations, Ms. Evans has made it clear — arising from a tragic personal circumstance — that she wants out of politics, has no interest in seeking political office, and would find solace and peace travelling with her husband to various locales across the globe, far away from the political maelstrom.

Why has Catherine Evans joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board transition working group? Quite simply, because her good friend David Eby asked her to.

To know Catherine Evans — who is exceptionally bright, one of the strongest, most principled and hardest working women we know — is to know that her role as a low key change maker for the better is how she brings herself to the world.

Enter David Eby, who should he be re-elected to government in October, will set as a priority the appointment of his confidante Catherine Evans to the provincial bodies of her choice, where she can make a difference, out of the public eye, compensated fairly for her contribution, and for her many many gifts.

The word VanRamblings is hearing out of Victoria is that David Eby will not move forward this spring on the request of ABC Vancouver to amend the Vancouver Charter, to eliminate an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board.

Which means that those of us who love the Vancouver Park Board, live Park Board deep in our soul, and cherish Park Board, although we have our work cut out for us this next year, we may have an outside chance of moving the David Eby government away from making the fatal decision to dissolve the Vancouver Park Board.