One month from today, on Saturday, November 15th, British Columbians will go to the polls to elect City Councils across the province, no current civic election more important than the one taking place in Vancouver.
Before commencing today’s post, a note: flu has felled VanRamblings for much of the past 16 days (it’s still hanging on), which has prejudiced the regimen of daily posts — going forward, I’ll do the best I can to post as frequently possible, given the vestiges of my advanced age and ill health.
First things first. Tonight, it is mandatory that you take time out of your busy schedule to attend an all-important pre-election meeting …
The 2-hour meeting will take place tonight, Wed., October 15th, from 7pm til 9pm, at St. James’ Hall, located on Vancouver’s west side, at 3214 West 10th Avenue. The theme of this evening’s all-important civic meeting: Planning, Development, & Community Engagement: Putting The Community Back Into Community Planning.
Over the past year, the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods has sought to bring together representatives from Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods, in response to a chorus of discontent across our city.
The laudatory principles and goals of the Coalition may be found here.
With one-month to go til Vancouver civic election day, come out to tonight’s meeting to learn about the issues, and to make your voice heard.
Note should be made that there is a competing Town Hall that will take place from 6pm til 8:30pm tonight, at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, to be moderated by deposed Vision Vancouver Park Board candidate, Trish Kelly. We could say something about the grimy politics inherent in a Visionite holding a competing all-candidates meeting opposite the long-scheduled Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods civic election meeting — make of that unseemly coincidence what you will.
While VanRamblings is under-the-weather, there remains a plethora of well-conceived, well-written, and engaging blogs where the civically-minded might get their civic affairs / Vancouver municipal election politics fix.
- CityHallWatch. Day in, day out, former Vancouver mayoralty candidate Randy Helten, Stephen Bohus & others have made CityHallWatch the ‘go-to’ place for news on Vancouver’s civic scene. Well-researched, chock full of information you’ll find nowhere else, and clearly a labour of love (for our too often beleaguered city), CityHallWatch is the site you visit for up-to-date news on development in our city and, as they say, “Tools to Engage in Vancouver city decisions.”
- State of Vancouver. Vancouver’s no-nonsense, “I’ve got no time for fools” media eminence gris of Vancouver’s political scene, Frances Bula tells us like it is (but respectfully so) on her incredibly well-researched, and absolutely invaluable State of Vancouver blog. Without a doubt, Vancouver’s hardest working, most insightful civic affairs reporter, Ms. Bula’s State of Vancouver blog is the must-read for aficionados of politics as it’s practiced in the City of Vancouver.
- Civic Lee Speaking. A reporter’s reporter, there ain’t no sacred cows in Jeff Lee’s award-winning reporting on Vancouver’s often tumultuous civic scene — with Jeff, you’re always going to get the straight goods (mixed in with not a little wit, and a flair for writerly prose that is matched only by the indefatigable Ms. Bula). All of us who live in Vancouver are damn lucky to have a respected journalist of the calibre of Jeff Lee covering our civic scene, and reporting out to us.
- Jak’s View. Community organizer and activist, Grandview Woodland advocate, author (2011’s The Drive: A Retail, Social and Political History of Commercial Drive, Vancouver, to 1956, and 2012’s The Encyclopedia of Commercial Drive), and tireless blogger, communicator and passionate democrat, Jak King’s blog, Jak’s View has long been a daily must-read for anyone who gives a tinker’s damn about Vancouver civic affairs democracy (or lack thereof), an always engaging, human scale and informative read.
- 12th and Cambie. My favourite read on Vancouver’s civic scene, the Vancouver Courier’s Mike Howell brings a sense of humour, incredible wit (and a becoming sense of wonderment), in perfect conflation with the reportial expertise and writerly prose ability he shares with Frances Bula and Jeff Lee, to make his always engaging 12th and Cambie a Vancouver civic affairs blog must-read. When writing about Vancouver civic politics becomes too much, you can depend on Mike to inject some much-needed human-scale humour. Thank god for Mike Howell!
Let us not forget, either, veteran reporter and Vancouver Courier political commentator Allen Garr who, for two decades now, has each week provided a cogent analysis of the machinations of Vancouver City Hall politics.
See you all tonight at the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods’ pre-election all-candidates meeting at St. James Hall. If you can’t make tonight’s meeting, not to worry — there are debates galore upcoming.
The Vancouver Election Debate calendar below is dynamic. Click on a debate event for more information on that particular debate.
The Vancouver Election Debate calendar above is entirely the creation of Randy Helten and Stephen Bohus, the publishers of CityHallWatch, and is supplied to VanRamblings as a courtesy to the voters of Vancouver.
The debates calendar is dynamic, and will be updated as Messrs. Helten and Bohus are apprised of new debates. The debate calendar covers all debates leading up to the November 15th Vancouver municipal election.
