In 2011, in a Vancouver municipal election campaign event organized by the Vancouver Public Space Network and UBC’s School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture, featuring live indie music between rounds, and an unusual round-robin-meets-applause-meter debate style — hosted by Steve Burgess, the panel of judges including CBC’s Theresa Lalonde, VPSN chair Alissa Sadler, UBC professor Matthew Soules, and The Tyee’s David Beers — independent candidate for Council and Occupy Vancouver’s Lauren Gill won the “sweaty, irreverent” and often raucous event. Said Gill …
“My power and your power lies in the streets, and it lies in holding the politicians accountable and attending City Council hearings. We are the people who hold the power in this city. You see that at Occupy Vancouver — they haven’t moved in yet. Why? Because we hold more power than they do.”
Well, here we are in 2014, and the Last Candidate Standing debate is upon us, once again. This is going to be one of the standout events of the current election season, and Sunday afternoon, from 2pm til 5pm, at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre (in the Woodward’s building, 149 West Hastings, at Abbott), will be the place to be. Come one, come all. See ya there Sunday!
Certain to be the 2014 Park Board all-party candidates debate, all you have to do is take a gander at VanRamblings’ Save Kits Beach coverage (read on down), and you’ll know what Vision Vancouver is in for Monday evening.
It ain’t gonna be pretty.
In preparation for Monday evening’s debate, on Saturday afternoon some scalliwags (or should that read community activists of conscience) laid a tarp through Kitsilano Beach, as a reminder of the horrendously wrong-headed decision Vision Vancouver initially took to run a 12-foot-wide asphalt bike freeway through Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks.
You think the residents of Kits, or residents anywhere across the city for that matter, have forgotten what Vision almost foisted upon us within one of Vancouver’s most beloved parks? Not on your life.
C’mon along to the Billy Bishop Legion on Monday evening.
The beer is cheap, the community space is cozy yet surprisingly spacious, and VanRamblings can all but guarantee that Monday’s Park Board debate will be one of the highlights of Campaign 2014. If Vision shows up.
Photos of Saturday afternoon’s Kitsilano Beach Tarp Event available here.
