Category Archives: VanRamblings

#BCPoli | The Knock Down, Drag Out Fight in Vancouver-Yaletown

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One of the more interesting battles for office in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election will occur in the new, redistributed riding of Vancouver-Yaletown.

Vying for supremacy on election night, Saturday, October 19th, are Conservative Party of BC candidate for office, Melissa De Genova, and the recently recruited British Columbia New Democratic Party candidate, Terry Yung.

As we say above, Vancouver-Yaletown is a new British Columbia electoral riding that was created from a 2022 re-drawing of electoral riding boundaries.

Previously, the area was part of the Vancouver-False Creek riding, which is a geographical area that includes the False Creek South neighbourhoods.

Between 2013 and 2020, the riding of Vancouver-False Creek was held by former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. Currently, Vancouver-False Creek is represented by the BC NDP’s Brenda Bailey, who is the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development, and Innovation. In 2024, Ms. Bailey will seek elected office as the BC NDP candidate in the newly-created riding of Vancouver-South Granville.


Melissa De Genova, her VPD officer husband, Blair, and daughter, Lili — who just entered Grade Two

B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad, upon successfully recruiting Melissa De Genova as a party candidate, had this to say …

“Melissa brings valuable experience regarding getting housing built, with her deep understanding of the challenges of actually getting housing built, from all perspectives. In her tenure as a two-term Vancouver City Councillor, and her work in the private sector, Melissa worked to get both market and non-profit housing built. The Conservative Party believes Melissa De Genova’s expertise in housing is critical to tackling the affordability crisis in BC.”

The Conservative Party website adds about their Vancouver-Yaletown candidate.

Ms. De Genova was named one of the top forty under forty by Business in Vancouver for her work in creating affordable housing. She has volunteered for numerous community-focused charities, including the Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre, the Salvation Army in the Downtown Eastside, Odd Squad productions, Honour House and the Italian Day Festival Society.

What is true about Melissa De Genova is that she is a fighter, a community activist and elected official who doesn’t put up with any guff.

When Melissa De Genova fought for the construction of the Killarney Seniors Centre —  despite members of the majority Vision Vancouver City Council dragging their heels on approval of the needed seniors facility — Melissa was relentless in working to get the seniors facility built, as she moved the sun, the moon, the Earth and the stars to achieve her goal.

VanRamblings, and anyone who has worked with Melissa, can tell you, this three time elected official (Melissa sat as a Park Board Commissioner from 2011 to 2014, before being elected to two terms on Vancouver City Council) is no one to mess with when she sets her mind to serving the best interests of the community.


Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, and her beloved husband Terry Yung, BC NDP candidate.

Retired Vancouver Police Department (VPD) Inspector Terry Yung — who recently left the VPD after three decades of distinguished service — on August 28th became the British Columbia New Democratic Party candidate for office in the newly-created Vancouver-Yaletown riding, ready to fight for victory in the October 2024 provincial election.

“I know Terry is values driven.

He readies action any time someone is pushed around, exploited, taken advantage of, or left behind,” said BC NDP Premier David Eby, when Terry Yung secured the nomination.

“He knows we need to be tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime. These values led him to an exceptional career in law enforcement, and have called him to public life as a BC NDP candidate. Terry will join two other senior police officers on our candidate team, all of whom have spent their careers dedicated to delivering safe and strong communities. The people of Vancouver-Yaletown can count on him to be in their corner,” continued Eby.

Terry Yung was also the longtime board Chair of the non-profit social service organization SUCCESS (United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society), and involved with other organizations such as the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver, the Vancouver Cambie Lions Club, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. Terry is a recipient of the BC Medal of Good Citizenship and a Melvin Jones Fellow.

“City cores across North America are facing crises with homelessness and addictions, and the impact on public safety that follows. Here in B.C., we’re focused on keeping people safe and getting to the root causes of crime — it’s starting to make a difference,” Yung told those gathered for the Vancouver-Yaletown BC NDP meeting where he was acclaimed the party’s candidate.

“As a former VPD officer, I know B.C. can be a leader in successfully taking on these challenges with kindness and compassion, recognizing the roles of poverty and mental health in creating these conditions. And that’s the approach David Eby’s government has taken: hiring new police officers to take on organized crime, launching mental health crisis response teams, while opening more homes and treatment facilities. B.C. is tackling our public safety challenges on every level. It’s work worth doing — and worth being a part of, which is why I came forward. I can’t wait to get to work in the British Columbia Legislature.”

The emergent, central, defining election issue in Vancouver-Yaletown: crime.

VanRamblings sources tell us that …

  • When recruiting Terry Yung, the Premier made a commitment to Mr. Yung he would appoint the decorated VDP Inspector as our province’s next Solicitor General, and …
  • According to internal party polling, from both the Conservatives and NDP, Melissa De Genova currently enjoys a substantial lead over her opponent. But believe us when we say, with 46 days to go until Election Day, it is waaayyyy too early to predict the outcome of the electoral race to represent the residents of Vancouver-Yaletown..

Terry Yung’s claim to fame is that the residents of Yaletown give him credit for shutting down the controversial Overdose Prevention Society safe injection site — which was a magnet for crime and disorder in their neighbourhood.

Given that Yaletown has emerged in recent years as a family neighbourhood — we’re always surprised to find young children and their families walking throughout the neighbourhood, heading home from a visit to the T&T market, to their home on the 11th floor of one of the myriad Yaletown towers — moving the safe injection to a nearby site, adjacent to Yaletown, was the first order of business for Terry Yung, and the grateful residents of Yaletown.

If we have a criticism of Melissa’s 2024 campaign for provincial office it’s that she is — as has been the case throughout her political career — far too partisan for her own good, her daily visceral, ad hominen attacks on David Eby … who most folks actually like on a personal level, even if they’re not fans of his government … we believe to be counterproductive to her goal of attaining a seat in the provincial Legislature. In the 2022 Vancouver civic election, the electorate tired of her act, relegating her to a 19th place finish on election night, on Saturday, October 15th.

Melissa may wish to reconsider her strategy by adopting a somewhat less inflammatory approach to her goal of winning elected provincial office.

We will say two more things pertinent to Ms. De Genova’s bid to attain office.

  • There is no love loss between Ms. De Genova and current ABC Vancouver / former Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung. Terry Yung loves his wife, and hardly cottons to Ms. De Genova’s less than generous appreciation of his beloved spouse. For Melissa, this is personal, not to mention which, knowing Melissa it is probable that she feels Terry Yung to be a turncoat — “How dare he have supported his wife’s run for Vancouver City Council under the centre-right Non-Partisan Association banner, while supporting his good friend, Vancouver-Langara B.C. Liberal Member of the Legislature, Michael Lee, and now emerge as a latter day candidate for the hated NDP.”
  • Terry Yung is a respected and beloved, retired 30-year member of the Vancouver Police Department. Ms. De Genova’s husband is Blair Da Costa, a multi-year member of the aforementioned Vancouver Police Department. Now, dear and constant reader, you may have heard something about “the boys in blue are a brotherhood.” If Terry Yung doesn’t exactly cotton to Ms. De Genova’s derision for his wife, you can bet that members of the VPD will not be thrilled with Mr. Da Costa’s wife going after one of their own. Just sayin’ …

One more thing: for far too long, members of the public — particularly on the left side of the political spectrum — have underestimated Melissa De Genova, written her off as a “whack job,” designated her as a ne’er-do-well right winger (this name calling on the left drives VanRamblings crazy).

In our long association with Melissa, VanRamblings has always found her to be a progressive on the social issues of the day — and, dare we say, a union supporter — a person of heart and conscience who means well for our city, a person who strives each and every day towards building a better tomorrow for her young daughter, and for all children and families who reside in every region of our province.


Photo of Terry Yung taken on May 11, 2012 for a BBC story on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

When it come to Terry Yung — who we know and like — we’re unconcerned about the viability and potential for success of his bid for elected provincial office.

Terry Yung went after the Vancouver-Yaletown New Democratic Party nomination with his eyes open. To underestimate Terry Yung’s wit, his intelligence, his experience and his political acumen — hell, he’s married to VanRamblings’ favourite political person in the province! — would be a terrible mistake. No fool he — they’re ain’t a smidgen of naïveté in how Terry Yung brings himself to the world.

Not to mention which: David Eby has no intention of losing this election.

The BC NDP and the BC NDP alone in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election have built an unassailable election campaign machine, with Dippers from across Canada arriving on our shores daily — experienced and winning campaigners, who mean to re-elect David Eby’s NDP government, given that there is so much on the line as they run against an alt-right, Trump-like John Rustad (who actually told the CBC’s Michelle Elliott last week that teachers are indoctrinating students in their care, distributing pornography to Grade 4 students as part of the SOGI 123 programme — without any evidence whatsoever to prove his claim — and that his government would ban thousands of books currently on the shelves in school libraries) — ready to fight for what is right, forward thinking and just for all.

Stories of a Life | Redux | Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

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Jude and Megan Tomlin, aged 3 and 16 months, sitting at the kitchen table in 1978
1978. Jude, at age 3½, and Megan at near 2 years of age. At the kitchen table for breakfast.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was extolling the virtues of my Instant Pot to a friend, in a lull in the conversation, she turned to me and said, “You like to cook, don’t you?”

The short answer: I derive pleasure from both cooking and baking.

Here’s the story behind my love for the culinary powers of the kitchen.

1616 Semlin Drive, and East 1st Avenue, in Vancouver. One of the homes I lived in growing up.
1616 Semlin Drive, at E. 1st Ave. in Vancouver. One of the homes I lived in growing up.

From my earliest days, I fended for myself.

My mother worked three jobs, and my father worked the afternoon shift at the Post Office. When I arrived home from school, although my father often left a stew bubbling away in the slow cooker, from age seven on, for the most part if I wanted to eat, I’d have to make breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself, and for my sister.

So, being somewhat industrious, I learned to cook — well, make sandwiches and, for dessert, Jello, at least for the first few years.

I loved turkey growing up (all that triptiphan), so with the help of my mother, I learned to make her delicious turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and vegetables. For the most part, though, my cooking skills were rudimentary — but I didn’t starve, and more often than not there was food in my belly.

When in 1970, Cathy and I moved in together, marrying soon after, I was responsible for most of the cooking. Cathy’s mom sent her out $1000 a month (she didn’t know we were living together), visiting every three months, taking us to the local Woodward’s grocery floor, where she dropped in excess of $300 at each visit.

With Cathy’s mother money, we ate a fairly staple diet of generously thick T-bone steaks and baked potatoes.

Simon Fraser University's Louis Riel House, a student family one-and-two-bedroom apartment
Simon Fraser University’s Louis Riel House, SFU’S student family 1 + 2 bedroom residence.

Soon after moving into the Louis Riel Student Residence at Simon Fraser University in 1971, Cathy joined a women’s group, who met every Wednesday evening. Among the decisions that were taken by the women’s group was this: men shall participate in all household chores, and share in all food preparation.

As we often ate together with other of the students in the residence, my specialty became salads — all different kinds of healthy, nutritious salads, chock full of vegetables, nuts, sunflower seeds, and more.

At this point, Cathy still hated to cook — there was immense pressure placed on Cathy by her peers to develop culinary skills, but she refused. All that changed in the summer of 1973, which is a story for another day.

2182 East 2nd Avenue, in the Grandview Woodland neighbourhood of Vancouver
2182 East 2nd Avenue, in the Grandview Woodland neighbourhood of Vancouver.

When Cathy and I separated in 1978 — Jude and I lived in the home above, before Jude, Megan and I moved to Simon Fraser University and Louis Riel House, when I began work on my Masters degree — the thought occurred to me one morning when making breakfast that I was now the lone parent, and the sole person responsible for ensuring the children ate nutritious foods at each meal in order that they might grow up into healthy adults.

I took on the task of learning the art of cooking (and baking), in earnest.

There was, however, a quid pro quo involved.

After returning from a day of larnin’ and T.A.’ing at SFU, after picking up the children at daycare at 4:30pm, and walking the relatively short distance to our two-bedroom apartment at Louis Riel House, while the children played with their friends on the lawn in front of our apartment, I prepared dinner, calling them in about 45 minutes after dinner preparation had begun.

The kids were famished, and so was I.

Here’s where the quid pro quo came in: at the end of each meal, each of the children had to turn and say to me some version of, “Daddy that was a good dinner. It was mmmm, delicious. Thank you for making dinner for all of us, and all the work you put in to feeding us healthy and nutritious breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and all those wonderful desserts we love!”

I needed the incentive provided to me by both children, and their gratitude — which, in time, they came to acknowledge as their own. The kids felt good about encouraging me, as I encouraged them in all of their endeavours.

We were a happy family, and all was well with the world for the three of us.

Now, I was an adventuresome cook, and not everything I made turned out to the liking of all of us, or each one of us.

Being a dedicated democrat, Jude, Megan and I made a deal with one another in respect of dinner. Both children had to eat at least two bites of each food item I prepared: after all the work I put into preparing a dish, the least they could do was try out the dish to see whether they might like it.

Most of the time they did, but sometimes not.

One night, I made cream of escargot soup. Honestly, it wasn’t bad. But at the end of the soup entrée, I turned to the children and asked them what they thought, to which they replied almost in unison, “It was all right, tasty enough I suppose, but I’m not sure if I’d ever want to have it again.”

I agreed with them. We never ate cream of escargot soup ever again.

Each of us were allowed to have three foods on a list of our creation, foods we did not have to eat, no matter what.

Megan had three foods, Jude had three foods, and I had three foods — those foods changed over a period of time.

In order to add a food to our individual “nah, I don’t want to eat that food” list, some food on each of our lists had to come off. Took some thought on the part of the children as to whether they wanted to remove a food.

Megan, for a great long while didn’t like avocados — but one day, while placing a new food she didn’t like onto her “don’t eat” list, she took avocados off her list, eventually coming to love avocados, as she does to this day.

Watching me prepare meals all the time he was growing up caused Jude to want to become a chef — he worked in the food industry throughout his late teens and twenties, before getting into teaching, which paid better, and was overall less stressful, with “more honourable people”, he’d say to me.

In her teens, Megan became a vegan — there’s a story there, too, which I’ll leave for another day — and, for the most part, took on the preparation of her own meals, as did Jude over a period of time.

After the summer of 1973, Cathy became a great cook — there’s not much I miss about that tumultuous marriage, but I sure miss Cathy’s avant-garde cooking, her culinary craftsmanship, spicing and phenomenally delicious cooking.

Ah well.

#VIFF2024 | The Glorious 43rd Annual Vancouver International Film Festival

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This past Wednesday, at the opening press conference for the 43rd annual Vancouver International Film Festival held at the VIFF Centre of Seymour Street, VIFF Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk announced the programme of 150 feature films that will screen in Vancouver for 11 days, commencing on Thursday, September 26th, running through until late evening, Sunday, October 6th.

Today on VanRamblings, a brief introduction to VIFF 2024, where I’ll highlight four films. Each Friday for the next five weeks you’ll find full and in-depth coverage of the Vancouver’s upcoming film festival, must-see films, hidden gems, the films VIFF 2024 shares with the 62nd New York Film Festival — which occurs simultaneously to our homegrown festival each year — and more, much more.

See you back here every Friday.

Special Presentations

Of the Special Presentation films to screen at VIFF 2024, Curtis Woloschuk made special mention of four must-see films, the first two of which are …

Both of the films above are Gala Presentations at VIFF 2024.

Anora  won the Palme D’or (the top prize) at Cannes.

Put simply, Anora is director Sean Baker’s most searing and shattering film yet, with a breakout performance from Mikey Madison. Not to mention, a thoroughly fun and provocative time at the movies.

Director Andrea Arnold’s Bird, according to the VIFF programme guide, follows a street-smart 12-year-old girl named Bailey (played by terrific newcomer Nykiya Adams), who lives in a graffiti-tagged squat near the British seaside with her reckless half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda) and her heavily tattooed man-child father, Bug (a perfectly chaotic Barry Keoghan), who’s rushing into a wedding he can’t afford to a woman he barely knows.

The programme guide goes on to state …

This touching coming-of-age drama from three-time Cannes Jury Prize-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold (American Honey; Fish Tank) matches seasoned actors Keoghan and Rogowski with an authentic cast of first-time performers. With its inventive editing, killer soundtrack, and top-notch cinematography by Robbie Ryan (Poor Things), the film immerses us in the hidden beauty of North Kent through Bailey’s young eyes. The result is a tender portrait of girlhood on the fringes, with a magical realist twist.

In addition to Anora and Bird, cineastes will want to take in screenings of the other two Special Presentation films of distinction and cinematic craft, including …

  • The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s Special Jury and FIPRESCI Prize winner at Cannes, a mesmerizingly gripping parable in which paranoia, misogyny and rage of the Iranian state are mapped seamlessly onto an ordinary family unit;

  • Conclave. Oscar nominees Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci lead a brilliant ensemble cast in All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger’s adaption of  Robert Harris’ high-stakes drama, in which Cardinals gather at the Vatican to elect a new Pope, the film emerging as a psychologically complex morality tale.

Much of the information you’ll require to book your tickets, explore the details of the 150 feature films on offer at VIFF 2024 — not to mention, the various Short Series, expertly crafted again this year by programmer Sandy Gow — and the venues where films will screen may be found at VIFF’s online website, viff.org.

Music Sundays | Top 100 Albums | Todd Rundgren’s Auspicious 1972 Début

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Dating back to the late 1960s, through until today, I have often found employment as a music critic.

One of the great delights of my young life was to walk onto the property of Warner Bros. or Capitol Records, and be taken into the warehouse in behind the offices, leaving the premises with one hundred or more new albums, all ready to return to the home Cathy and I shared at Simon Fraser University.

From those days til today, my love for music, for discovering new music has known no bounds, as will remain the case through the end of my days.

Of course, I was very lucky — as were all members of the boom generation — to grow up in the era of The Beatles, and the rush of new music coming out of the UK, and down south out of Los Angeles. These were halcyon days of discovery, more often than not enhanced by the intake of cannabis (there is hardly any greater joy than listening to music stoned).

One of my early discoveries was Todd Rundgren, whose music career began in 1967 at the age of 19 with the Philadephia-based garage rock band, Nazz.

Over the next four years, Nazz released three albums, all to little acclaim, prompting Rundgren to leave the group, move to New York, and educate himself in the fine arts of audio engineering and production.

Upon arriving in New York, Rundgren was soon signed by Ampex Records, where he began work producing for various rock groups of the day.

1972 proved to be a critically important year for Todd Rundgren.

After signing with Bearsville Records — a recording studio started in 1969 by legendary music impresario Albert Grossman, manager of Bob Dylan, The Band, and Janis Joplin — Rundgren’s musical career took off into the stratosphere.

A few years back, a friend asked me, “So, what kind of music do you like?”

Today’s post constitutes one of a series of columns I’ve been writing on the Top 100 début albums of the past 75 years, music that has both changed and informed my life, my love of almost all musical genres also knowing no bounds.

I love life. I love music.

Today’s Music Sunday column tracks the early work of Todd Rundgren, and his multi-platinum solo, self-produced début album, Something/Anything?

Early in 1972, soon after signing on with Albert Grossman, one Friday afternoon early in the year, Todd Rundgren was in the Bearsville Studio offices for a pre-production meeting for his upcoming album the studio intended to record. All went well at the meeting, and at the 5 o’ clock hour, as the cleaning crew arrived, Grossman prepared to close the studio for the weekend.

Rundgren said, “I’ll have the cleaners let me out. I’m heading to the washroom.” Everyone bid their adieu, going home to their families.

But not Todd Rundgren. Instead, Rundgren hid out in a closet and slept for four hours, readying himself for the marathon production weekend ahead.

The cleaners left shortly before 9pm, when a sleepy Todd Rundgren emerged from his closet home. What occurred over the next fifty-seven and one half hours is part of rock and roll history.

From 9pm on that Friday night, until 6:30am Monday morning, Todd Rundgren wrote, produced, mixed, sang and played guitars, keyboards and all other instruments to produce the groundbreaking multi-platinum, multi-Grammy award winning hit machine, Something/Anything?

Every voice is Rundgren’s, every instrument played by the nascent songwriter-singer-producer, Rundgren over the weekend innovating on the recently acquired 8-track production studio equipment in ways previously unheard of and unimagined, writing a new chapter in the ongoing history of rock ‘n roll.

Twenty-five songs on a two disc album, recorded at a rate of under one fully produced song every three hours. When Bearsville Studio staff and executives arrived at their offices on Monday morning, they found Rundgren passed out, a master tape, track list and album cover art work on the console.

Over the next three weeks, working with Rundgren, studio engineers fine-tuned the 25 songs, the double Something/Anything? album released to critical acclaim in April 1972, out-selling every other album that year.

Something/Anything? spawned a half dozen chart topping hits, including I Saw the Light, and a remake of the Nazz near-hit Hello It’s Me, which shot to No. 5 in the week it was released. As a reminder: both songs featured Todd Rundgren producing, as well as on all vocals and instruments.

It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference was the third smash hit off Something / Anything? to top the Billboard charts in the early autumn of that year.

A dozen years later my children and I lived together at SFU with a woman, a younger doppelgänger for my now ex-wife, dubbed by my friends, and referred to by my children as Cathy 2 — as my friends said, “the sane Cathy,” and so she was.

One day when I was off teaching class, Cathy 2 put on the Rundgren album.

When I arrived home to our two-bedroom apartment at Louis Riel House, Cathy 2 greeted me, smothering me in kisses, excitedly exclaiming …

“Raymond, Raymond, I’ve spent the entire afternoon listening to Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything? It’s gorgeous, it’s groundbreaking, I’ve never heard anything like it. I think I’m in love with Todd Rundgren!”

And so she was, and so should we all be.

On a closing note, and to provide a bit more background on Todd Rundgren.

In 1972, Rundgren began a relationship with model Bebe Buell. During a break in their relationship, Buell had a brief relationship with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, which resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.

On July 1, 1977, Buell gave birth to Liv Tyler, the future model and actress.


Todd Rundgren raised actress Liv Tyler as his daughter for the first 18 years of her life. Even when she became aware that Steven Tyler was her father, she maintained Rundgren as one of her two fathers.

To protect the child from Tyler’s drug addiction, Buell claimed that Todd Rundgren was the biological father, and named the child Liv Rundgren, Todd Rundgren raising her as his daughter.

At age fifteen, Liv learned that Steven Tyler was her biological father.

Even so, Liv Tyler still calls Todd Rundgren her father, and still maintains a very close relationship with the now 76-year-old musician.