With Mayoralty candidate Kareem Allam and his Vancouver Liberals committed to opening the City’s Capital Expenditure funds — which has pretty much lain dormant for 18 years, through Capital Expenditure Budgets having been approved by voters in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 — Kareem has told VanRamblings that he requires a Vancouver Liberals team of Park Board Commissioners to implement the Vancouver Liberals commitment to:

• • Spend $1.35 billion to restore Vancouver’s crumbling community centre infrastructure;
  • Build community pools and / or water parks in each of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods. Did you know that Vancouver has fewer pools per capita than every other large and medium size city in Canada? Montréal has 77 outdoor swimming pools, 95 wading pools and 150 water-play areas; while Toronto has 50 outdoor swimming pools, 127 wading pools and 263 water-play areas. Vancouver: only 5 seasonal municipal pools (Kitsilano, Second Beach, New Brighton, Maple Grove and Hillcrest), 24 wading pools across the city, and 14 water-play areas. A Vancouver Liberals’ Park Board — working with Vancouver City Council — means to more than double the number of seasonal and outdoors swimming pools, wading pools and water play areas.;
  • Restore Park Board funding. Did you know in 2008, when Vision Vancouver took power at City Hall, parks and recreation in the city accounted for 19.3% of the City’s budget? Today, Vancouver spends a paltry 7.9% of the City’s budget on maintaining our city’s parks, and well-frequented community and recreation centres;
  • Build a new 50-metre pool, as well as a new aquatic centre in the coming term of office;
  • Build more hockey rinks, while restoring and renewing the hockey rink at the Britannia Community Centre.

All of the above is just a start. For the first time in a generation, should you elect a Vancouver Liberals municipal administration at Vancouver City Hall.

• More reasons to Vote for the 7 Candidates for Park Board Commissioner VanRamblings has included in our Park Board Endorsement Ballot.E ach of the candidates listed above have long held a One Card.
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• The One Card allows you to use any of the facilities in the 24 community centres across Vancouver.

We can tell you for a fact that Vancouver Liberals Park Board Commissioner candidates Mark Halyk, Shayla Bird, Scott Jensen, Amanda Bains, Amir Bajehkian and Tricia Barker make regular use of their One Card, and are regular and frequent visitors to their local community centre, for working out in the gym, going for a swim (or a skate), and attending a community meeting.

The same is true for Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, TEAM’s Wah Gee!

In addition, many of the candidates listed above sit on the Board of Directors of their neighbourhood community centre, and have regularly attended Park Board meetings over the past years and many many times in recent months, leading up to their run for office — and, as a consequence, are acutely aware of the issues Park Board Commissioners must address. Not to mention, the 40 – 70 hours a week that being a Vancouver Park Board Commissioner requires of our electeds. Sacrifice is the order of the day.

Mark Halyk is a must-must-must-elect to the Vancouver Park Board.

After spending more than a decade working inside the Vancouver Park Board as a senior leader in Commercial Services, Mark brings something increasingly rare to civic politics: real operational experience and firsthand knowledge of how the system actually works.

He has seen the challenges facing Vancouver’s parks from the inside — aging infrastructure, budget pressures, growing service demands, and the increasing need to balance environmental stewardship with affordability and accessibility. He also knows what is possible when public services are supported by practical leadership, smart governance, and responsible financial management.

Mark is passionate about maintaining an independent and financially viable Park Board, while modernizing how it operates to better serve residents across Vancouver. He believes Vancouver can protect community assets while creating new, thoughtful revenue opportunities, reducing pressure on taxpayers while improving recreation services for families.

One of Mark’s proudest accomplishments during his tenure with the Park Board was helping transform the concession portfolio into a more financially sustainable model. Projects such as the partnership with Batch at Kitsilano Pool demonstrated how creative thinking and public-private partnerships can revitalize public spaces while generating meaningful revenue to support parks and recreation programming.

A proud Strathcona resident, Shayla brings expertise in community engagement, social impact, sport and recreation, and education.

Shayla is passionate about investing in and revitalizing recreational centres and green spaces that reflect the diverse needs of Vancouver communities, while bringing back fun, accessible, and affordable festivals that create opportunities for connection across the city.

In her professional life, Shayla is a local educator, founder of PLANher Consulting, and a public historian specializing in Black history in British Columbia. She has spent the last several years leading work across education, sport, and community development; including developing curriculresources for the British Columbia Ministry of Education and Child Care, creating educational experiences connected to Hogan’s Alley history, advising organizations on equity and community engagement

Scott Jensen is a sitting Park Board Commissioner, and is seeking re-election with the Vancouver Liberals. When first elected in 2022, Scott became Chair of the Park Board, making him the first ever Indigenous chair. With his leadership and dedication, the Park Board has been able to implement 90% of the infrastructure plan, which includes two new community centres coming to Vancouver.

Throughout his career, Scott has been committed to building community, and supporting Vancouver as a teacher, a leader, and now as an elected official.

Scott is a proud third grade teacher with the Vancouver School Board at Lord Robert’s Elementary School. He is also a lifelong, passionate lacrosse player. As an Indigenous person, Scott sees lacrosse as the medicine game. It is a way to connect with community, to sport, and with your teammates. As a teacher, as a lacrosse player, and a devoted Vancouverite, Scott is committed to giving back to the spaces where we get to make those meaningful connections — our parks and recreation facilities.

Scott knows that Vancouver’s parks are integral green spaces, but they’re also so much more. They’re gathering places for families, for our communities, for seniors, our kids. With Scott’s leadership, they can remain places where generations to come will continue to improve their health and well-being, and connect with each other in community.

Scott Jensen is a must-must-must-elect to the Vancouver Park Board.

Amanda Bains is seeking election for Vancouver Park Board Commissioner as part of the Vancouver Liberals team. She wants to bring the perspective of a community leader to the Park Board to strengthen Vancouver’s social fabric and protect the spaces that are the most important to us.

Amanda is a fighter, and as a Park Board Commissioner will fight for you and your family, working with Vancouver City Council where she will fight for restored funding to Park Board, and is committed to ensuring that Vancouver’s increasingly dilapidated community centres are renewed, repaired and renovated.

Amanda is committed to ensuring that seasonal and community pools are constructed in every neighbourhood, committed to the provision of outdoor swimming pools, wading pools and water-play areas in every neighbourhood across our city.

Amir Bajehkian is seeking election for Park Board Commissioner as part of the Vancouver Liberals team. Amir will employ his experience in advocacy at all levels of government, and in community engagement of New Canadians, to ensure our parks and facilities flourish for existing and future residents.

Amir grew up in Iran, often wondering how he could make a difference. Amir moved to Canada after beginning studies in aerospace engineering in Iran and completed his education here in physics, mechanical systems, and aircraft maintenance engineering. Amir’s career led him to work at YVR in various capacities including ramp agent, aircraft maintenance, and finally, as a flight data analyst, where he monitored helicopter flights for operational safety.

Amir’s community activism revolves around facilitating international credential recognition, human rights, election engagement, referendum campaigns, and bringing Farsi as a second language option to British Columbia’s schools.

Amir is running for Park Board Commissioner with the Vancouver Liberals because he believes our parks and recreation facilities are main hubs for people to connect with nature and their fellow Vancouverites. They enhance the lives of our residents and cannot be an afterthought for our municipal government. Amir is an ardent supporter of the Vancouver Liberals’ $1.35B plan to renew our community centres, parks, and pools as they need to be vibrant and usable for generations to come following years of neglect.

Amir also wants to protect the independence of the Park Board, to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity so that it functions properly as a democratically elected body.

Tricia Barker is seeking re-election for Park Board Commissioner as part of the Vancouver Liberals team. A core reason for Tricia’s candidacy is to be a voice and an advocate for seniors and people with disabilities (which categories VanRamblings currently finds ourselves in — and boy oh boy, can we tell you we need Tricia Barker to advocate for us, and for every other senior who uses our parks and recreation system.

In 2018, Tricia was elected as a Park Board Commissioner for the City of Vancouver where she worked to ensure that Vancouver’s parks were accessible to all, especially the elderly and vulnerable communities that she worked with as a healthcare practitioner. Tricia continues to work in fitness training and consulting to this day.

Quite simply, Wah Gee is one of our favourite people who live in the City of Vancouver. For months, Wah and a group of friends, each Sunday, went for a delicious and sumptuous dim sum lunch after church. Wah was always a favourite around the table.

Wah believes that essential to the livability of a city are safe, inclusive parks, streets, and community recreation facilities that are welcoming to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Wah is committed to the restoration commitment made by Vancouver Liberals Mayoral candidate, Kareem Allam, and will work with his fellow Park Board Commissioners to ensure funding is restored to Park Board, ensure that community pools are built in every neighbourhood across our city, and the Vancouver’s community centres — adjudicated last year by Vancouver’s Auditor General, Mike Macdonell that 11 community centres are in a severe state of disrepair, and require the immediate attention of Park Board Commissioners, and the elected officials at Vancouver City Hall.

Wah has undergraduate degrees in marine biology and elementary education, and a Master’s degree in educational leadership and administration, all from the University of British Columbia. Wah teaches in the Surrey school district, where he is active coaching and sponsoring extracurricular activities, and is an Indigenous Lead Teacher. Wah also holds staff and union leadership positions in the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation.