Tag Archives: abc vancouver

#VanPoli | ABC Vancouver Popularity Plummets, OneCity + Greens Rise

#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, , , , ,

In the 2022 Vancouver municipal election, the upstart ABC Vancouver civic party — a creation of founder / financier Peter Armstrong — came out of nowhere to secure an overwhelming victory at the polls, securing 34.5% of the vote, with the Greens trailing at 11.24%, and OneCity Vancouver managing 9.79% in voter popularity.

How ABC Vancouver’s fortunes have changed only 15 turbulent months later.


Saturday, October 15, 2022 | ABC Vancouver wins the Mayor’s chair, electing eight City Councillors

Let us count the ways in which ABC Vancouver has lost popularity with the public.

  • ABC Vancouver’s first budget raised property taxes by a whopping, unprecedented 10.7% (triple that for small business), alienating huge portions of the public;
  • ABC Vancouver jettisoned the City’s Livable Wage Programme, which pays the employees of suppliers of goods and services to the city approximately $24-an-hour;
  • ABC Vancouver shuttered the City’s Rental Office, telling the public that the monies it took to run the Rental Office would be transferred to TRAC, the Tenant Resources and Advisory Centre, and would move TRAC into new offices on Howe Street downtown.

    Surprise    , surprise, TRAC has not moved into the new offices that had been promised, which three years on remains under construction, and in addition, has yet to receive one red cent from the City. You gotta love “conservatives”: they lie like we breathe;
  • On December 13, 2023,  Vancouver’s rookie Mayor, Ken Sim, announced that his ABC Vancouver City Council would abolish the cherished 135-year-old Vancouver Park Board,  with an application to the province to change the Vancouver Charter to facilitate an undemocratic, unmandated, appalling change in City governance.

In 2022, a paltry 36.3% of eligible voters turned out at the polls to elect a new Vancouver City Council, School Board and Park Board — which means that the vast majority of Vancouver voters … 63.7% … stayed home, and couldn’t be bothered to, either, inform themselves of the issues in the last Vancouver municipal election, or take an hour or less to attend at their local polling station to cast their ballot.


Global BC newscasters Chris Gailus and Sophie Liu host B.C.’s top-rated suppertime news programme

Numeris (formerly the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement) is Canada’s audience measurement organization, tracks our country’s highly fragmented and increasingly complex media landscape, as it attempts to bring clarity and an understanding of audience behaviours and insights to an evolving cross-media landscape.

According to Numeris, only 18% of British Columbians tune in to watch news programmes on Global BC, CTV Vancouver, CBC Vancouver and CityNews, and their local affiliates’ news programmes. Where, then, do British Columbians get their news, if 82% of B.C. adults don’t get their news from television news programmes?

Newspapers remain a popular deliverer of the news for people age 35 and older.

The findings of a study held in Canada between October 2022 and September 2023 revealed that 32% of Canadians only read print newspapers on a weekly basis, whereas 6% read newspapers via computer only. For those persons between the ages of 35 and 49 across all regions in Canada, only 23.89% of persons in that age bracket read, watch or listen to the news once a week or more.

A growing number of people selectively avoid news stories, such as the war between Israel and Gaza, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the cost-of-living issue.

Thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed actively avoid the news, up from 29% in 2021, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Around 36% — particularly those under age 35 — say that the news lowers their mood.

“Large numbers of people see the media as subject to undue political influence, and only a small minority believe most news organizations put what’s best for society ahead of their own commercial interest,” writes Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, in a Reuters report based on an online survey of 93,432 people, conducted in 46 markets across Canada.


Gen Z (1997-2012) and Millennials (1980-1996) acquire news, predominately, from their Tik Tok app

Younger audiences, those under 45, are increasingly accessing the news via platforms such as TikTok, or from their friends, and have a weak connection to online or conventional media. Forty percent of that age group uses TikTok daily, with 15% saying they use it to find, discuss or share news.

What is the context and meaning of the preceding information, and its impact on Vancouver politics, the current fight to preserve Vancouver’s Board of Parks and Recreation, and the re-election chances of ABC Vancouver come 2026?

Where Vision Vancouver’s success in their ten years at the helm of politics in Vancouver was dependent on three groups who consistently turned out in droves to support the party at election time …

  • Unions. Vision Vancouver set the wage scale agenda during their time in power,  not just locally, but in municipalities across British Columbia and beyond, in the public sector where it moved the provincial government off its 1-1-1 agenda, and by extension in the private sector, the union vote in the City of Vancouver, loyal and consistently good for 45,000 votes at the polls in strong support for Vision Vancouver;
  • The active transportation lobby (think: Hub Cycling), who are committed to bike lanes and a healthy, environmentally friendly and livable city, with fit, cycling Millennials turning out in droves to re-elect Vision Vancouver at election time; and …
  • The 2SLGBTQIA community, whose support Vision Vancouver worked tirelessly to gain and maintain, and for whom it could depend on at least 20,000 votes at the polls — as was the case with the bike lobby — in the 2008, 2011 and 2014 civic elections.

ABC Vancouver has no natural constituency in our decidedly progressive, left-of-centre, NDP-voting city on the far shores of western Canada.

The 2022 Vancouver municipal election was a “kick the bums out” election, with dismayed, disgruntled and disquieted Vancouverites sick-and-tired of a lazy, do-nothing, whiny Kennedy Stewart administration, which had non-productive relations provincially with John Horgan’s NDP government, federally with Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party of Canada, and in 2022 with the Vancouver electorate.

As we say, ABC has no natural constituency in the voting Vancouver electorate, their election to civic government in 2022 a blip on the political radar, and consequent from a dissatisfaction among the electorate with the previous administration, a well-run campaign by master electoral tactician and motivator, Kareem Mahmoud Abbas Allam, and bucketfuls of money from Rocky Mountaineer tourism founder Peter Armstrong, and Lululemon lifestyle founding promoter, Chip Wilson.

Well, Mr. Allam is gone now — having pulled away from ABC Vancouver one year ago —  the powers that be at The Vancouver Club and Terminal City out for blood and set to do all in their power to oppose the re-election of Ken Sim and company, not to mention a significant and engaged majority of the 36.3% of Vancouver voters who turned up at the polls in 2022 also out for blood, alienated beyond all measure with the autocratic, anti-democratic administration of Ken Sim and his crew of “we’ll go along to get along, and do whatever” ABC Vancouver lickspittles.

The Sword of Damocles hangs ominously and precariously over the heads of the “certain to be one term” ABC Vancouver administration at Vancouver City Hall, the arbitrary and unilateral move to eliminate Vancouver’s cherished Park Board — which over the past 135 years has given the citizens of our province a world class parks and recreation system — the final straw, as engaged Vancouverites in high dudgeon, certain to work towards not the elimination of the Vancouver Park Board, but the elimination of the “they know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing” ABC Vancouver civic party from the political landscape of our city.

#SaveOurParkBoard | Vancouver | Grassroots Democracy at Its Best

#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Environment, Food & Health, Park Board, Vancouver, , , ,


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 | 80s Redux | Greed is Good

#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Environment, Food & Health, News, Park Board, Politics, Save Kits Beach, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2022, , , , , , ,

Tom Campbell, Mayor of Vancouver, 1966 - 1972
Tom ‘Not So Terrific’ Campbell, controversial Vancouver mayor, in office from 1966 to 1972

In 1966, running as an independent, a brash Tom Campbell defeated sitting Non-Partisan Association Mayor Bill Rathie to become Vancouver’s 31st mayor.

From the outset, Campbell’s ascension to the Mayor’s office heralded a pro-development ethos that would make even our current ABC Vancouver-dominated City Council blush, with Campbell — and his now ‘on board’  NPA colleagues — advocating for a freeway that would cut through a swath of the Downtown Eastside, require the demolition of the historic Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings, and bring about the construction of a luxury hotel at the entrance to Stanley Park.

Vancouver's West End, 1960s, pre high-rise development
Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood, 1960, pre-high-rise construction. Photo, Fred Herzog.

In the West End, where Campbell owned substantial property — a wealthy, successful developer, Campbell was reputed to own one-third of the land located between (south to north) Davie and Georgia streets, and east to west, Denman Street and Stanley Park — the newly-elected Mayor all but ordered the demolition of almost the entirety of the well-populated West End residential neighbourhood — housing mostly senior citizens in their single detached homes — as he set about to make way for the rapid construction of more than 200 concrete high-rise towers.

In six short years, Mayor Tom Campbell and the Non-Partisan Association transformed a single family dwelling West End neighbourhood, irrevocably and forever.

That all of these “changes” augered controversy among large portions of the populace was a given, leading to regular, vocal and sometimes even violent protests throughout Campbell’s treacherous tenure as Mayor, finally lead to his overwhelming defeat at the polls in the November 1972 Vancouver “change” civic election.


Oct. 22, 2022 | Newly-formed civic party, ABC Vancouver, wins an overwhelming victory at the polls

Why raise ancient history now?

Not since the late 1960s / early 70s have Vancouver voters — seemingly, unknowingly — elected a more greed-inspired (this, on behalf of their financial backers), and wildly pro-development slate of lock step Vancouver City Councillors to office, at the heart of our city’s seat of municipal government at 12th and Cambie.

In early 2024, Vancouver sits on the wary edge of massive tower development, as promulgated by the “super majority” ABC Vancouver civic administration installed by Vancouverites at City Hall only 15 short months ago today. If Tom Campbell’s greed was able to destroy a single family-oriented West End neighbourhood 50+ years ago over six short years in power, imagine what the current ABC Vancouver-led municipal government can achieve over the course of the next 32 months?


Vancouver Park Board Commissioner at Vancouver City Hall, holding her new, month old baby

Click on this link to hear (former, and now independent) ABC Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Laura Christensen address the whole of Vancouver City Council on December 13, 2023 —  including her ABC Council running mates —  on the initiative of the political party she ran with to eliminate the elected Vancouver Park Board.

In her address to Council, Ms. Christensen pointed out to her now former ABC Vancouver City Council colleagues that there are 242 parks in the City of Vancouver, only 142 of which are designated as parks — leaving these latter non-designated “parks” open for development, including such beloved parks as Burrard Inlet’s Sunset Beach, Locarno Park, and Spanish Banks East and West.


Fans enjoy the Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium. Could the city-owned stadium be put up for sale? A report suggests sport & cultural venues should be shed by the city. Photo: Jason Payne /PNG

In an article published in the Vancouver Sun on Saturday, the Sun’s civic affairs reporter Dan Fumano writes that a …

“… budget task force assembled last year by ABC Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim delivered its report with 17 recommendations on how the city could improve its financial health while reducing pressure to increase on property taxes.

One recommendation suggests the city look at divesting some of its “non-core assets.”

When Fumano asked ABC Vancouver Councillor Brian Montague, one of two ABC Councillors who served on the task force’s advisory panel, if the “non-core assets” in the report would include include community centres, libraries, civic theatres, and sports facilities, Montague replied …

“I think it’s something we need to talk about, because there might be assets where divestment is the best approach.”

Former Vancouver Park Board Chairperson John Coupar clarified the matter on X:

Former Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick, and 2022 TEAM Mayoral candidate writes …

So, that’s it.

The reason for dismantling an elected Park Board?

A cynical and egregious land grab, a decision demanded by ABC Vancouver’s avaricious financial backers, who fancy adding billions of dollars more to their already ungainly wealth, all at the cost of: environmental devastation and climate change unchecked, a degraded quality of life in Vancouver for decades to come, reduced access to our public beaches — or, in some cases, no access at all to what were once but would no longer be “public beaches”— and long dark corridors of black towers lining the arterials and Vancouver’s beach fronts, all across the city.

Click / tap on the graphic above to sign  the Save Our Park Board Petition started by Sarah Blyth