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#VanPoli | Vote for The MUST-ELECT Change Brigade At the 2026 Polls

October 8, 2026#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, Vancouver Votes 2026abc vancouver, affordable housing, armor valor, cope, devin clemens, frances bula, green party, jessica walton, john coupar, kareem allam, mike klassen, onecity vancouver, renter's office, sean orr, solomon yi-kieran, stephanie smith, the change brigade, vancouver liberals, ward systemRaymond Tomlin

Kareem Allam as the Vancouver Liberals Mayoral candidate, and the 10 Vancouver City Council candidates whose names appear above represent Vancouver’s only hope for better; for an action-oriented government that will relieve your tax burden; build our city’s parks and recreation system; downsize the “managers managing managers” bloated bureaucracy at Vancouver City Hall; establish a blue ribbon panel to address the pestilence of the rat problem that bedevils our city, that is of so much concerns to residents in every neighbourhood across Vancouver; address street disorder and an out-of-control drug problem on the DTES in a humane, yet efficient and effective manner; spend money on our sidewalks that makes life difficult for seniors and persons with disabilities to traverse, and so very much more that is on the agenda of THE CHANGE BRIGADE asking for your vote.

Thinking of voting for Pete Fry for Mayor? Expect the same old, same old do nothing government that has defined every Vancouver civic administration this century. Rebecca Bligh. Same thing. Won’t achieve any more than a high single digit come Election Day. Colleen Hardwick. Puh-leeze. In a word, nightmare. Ken Sim. Undeserved second term.

You know what the difference is between Kareem Allam, and the 10 Councillors endorsed by VanRamblings? Every other person running for Council — although they might believe what they’re saying — are driven by ego, and what’s good for them, and not us.

The members of The Change Brigade are the only candidates for Vancouver City Council seeking a Council seat, because they believe in the good, that collectively as members of a Vancouver City Council committed to a civic administration of reconciliation that there is much good to be achieved.

In other words, The Change Brigade is in it for us, not for themselves.

Only the collaborative, achingly brilliant, ready to hit the ground running, man of vision who is a natural leader, Kareem Allam, possesses the wisdom and experience to be the best Mayor of Vancouver since the days of the Art Phillips.

Vancouver’s Government of Municipal Reconciliation Working for You

The 10 candidates whose names are listed above, the Vancouver Liberals’ achingly bright Kareem For Mayor and the 10 Council candidates endorsed by VanRamblings represent the 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 we have waited more than 25 years for, the ‘can do’ Zohran Mamdani crew who mean to make a difference …


• Remove pay stations from parks, beaches and in front of and nearby community centres, pools and hockey rinks, which means that the City of Vancouver will — with The Change Brigade in charge — finally get around to spending some of those billions of dollars that languish in the capital budget, monies that we approved in referendums in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022, election after election as the money just sits in the capital budget unspent, instead of being spent on us;	• Broken Promises and Rising FOI Fees, means transparency and accountability is needed at City Hall. Vancouverites are facing rising Freedom of Information fees while trust in City Hall continues to decline; • Reinstate the Livable Wage Programme at City Hall, that mandates suppliers of goods and services to the City must pay their workers a livable wage (approximately $28 today), that doesn’t cost the city a penny, but helps workers;
• Renew Vancouver’s 24 community centres, most of all, the 11 community centres identified by Vancouver Auditor General Mike Macdonell in his scathing report to Council on the “severe state of disrepair” of 11 of those community centres;	• Cancel Ken’s $800m Second City Hall, wherein Ken Sim and ABC want to spend $800 million just to build more office space for managers;
• Build community pools in neighbourhoods across the city, water parks and hockey rinks; Luxury Yacht Tax (40ft+), to protect essential services without burdening everyday Vancouverites, The Change Brigade will implement a tax on luxury yachts over 40 feet;	• Faster, Cheaper Housing Construction, because Vancouver is the only city in BC with its own building code — an unnecessary extra step for people seeking to build more housing in our city. The Change Brigade, led by Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals — working in concert with COPE’s Sean Orr and Solomon Yi-Kieran, One City’s Frances Bula, and the Greens’ Stephanie Smith — will remove the Vancouver Building Code and align our city with the rest of the province, simplifying the process for housing construction;
• Hold developers feet to the fire, by insisting Wesgroup finally get around to building the community centre they are contracted to build in the River District, or QuadReal to build their contracted Oakridge Park community centre, or Concert Properties, to build a much needed SE False Creek community centre they said they’d build ages ago;	Build affordable housing, focusing on democratically run housing co-ops, built on City land, working with Thom Armstrong, Executive Director of both BC’s Co-operative Housing Federation and the Community Land Trust, with child care centres built into the newly-constructed co-ops;
Protect Good Jobs and Industrial Land, because Vancouver needs more good-paying jobs, not policies that put them at risk. Ken Sim’s plan to eliminate the city’s remaining industrial land threatens to push businesses and well-paying jobs out of Vancouver;	• A Ward System for Vancouver, because Vancouver’s current at-large voting system makes campaigns expensive and leaves many neighbourhoods without direct representation at City Hall. The Change Brigade support exploring a ward system that would divide the city into local districts, each electing their own dedicated Councillor;

• Ban Bitcoin cryptocurrency ATMs on the DTES and take the fight to the drug dealers, not the street-level drug dealers, but their suppliers;	• Work to rid our city of the pestilence of rats, that are of concern to residents in every neighbourhood across our city;
• Address homelessness in a humane and caring manner, consistent with the values of the vast majority of us who call Vancouver home;	• The Change Brigade Noise Policy, because we’re tired of noisy hot rods and motorcycles revving up at 3 a.m. in our neighbourhoods. So are the members of The Change Brigade;
• Downsize a bloated middle management bureaucracy, at Vancouver City Hall, because do we really need 95 people working in Vancouver’s communications department, or employ more middle managers in our development services and planning departments than on the ground CUPE workers — like plan checkers — who do the real work?;	• Reduce Taxes on Medical Clinics, because The Change Brigade means to cut property taxes in half for family doctors and walk-in clinics in the City of Vancouver;
• Build UBC-style Food Hubs across our city, to address food insecurity; Build More Public Bathrooms, because Vancouver’s chronic lack of public washrooms not only fails to provide basic facilities to residents but could cause even bigger public health problems;	• Build Supportive Housing for Seniors & Veterans, because supportive housing is a lifeline for seniors, veterans, and those with disabilities. On Day One, The Change Brigade will reverse Ken Sim’s cruel ban on supportive housing and ensure that our most-vulnerable citizens receive the supports that they need;
• Restore strong fiscal management, at City Hall;	• Stop the Sale of Vancouver Parks, because Ken Sim and ABC’s Councillors who tried to eliminate the Park Board, Sim who is all about putting Vancouver’s parks up for sale. The Change Brigade strongly supports our elected Park Board, a democratic institution that protects our parks from being chopped up and sold off;
• Develop a methamphetamine strategy — the leading cause of violent incidents that puts people at risk — just like Premier Wab Kinew has done in Manitoba (a plan that is working!);	• Establish an Industrial Land Reserve, because keeping jobs in the city and surrounding them with affordable housing so that people can build their careers and keep their families in our city;
• Protect local businesses during transit expansion, by reducing property taxes by 50% for the duration of construction; Build more public washrooms, including within our parks (I mean, when the kids have gotta pee, they’ve gotta pee);	• Support taxation on land value, by capturing the land-owner windfalls caused by proximity to public amenities, speculation, and zoning;
• Reinstate library funding and hours, cut by a heartless and cruel Ken Sim administration that have so weakened these vital public spaces and community services;	• Bring back the Renters Office, with teeth this time to give tenants an advocate who is empowered to fight for them;
• Better Front-Line Services, which means across the board, city services are failing: more potholes, missed garbage pickups, dirty streets, and so much more.	• Identify why progress towards city goals of affordability, families, renters, and climate has stalled or reversed under Ken Sim, and get back on course;
• Fight for campaign finance reform, to close the loopholes the wealthy can use to, effectively, buy politicians and elections;	• Fight for a fast and free public transit system in Vancouver, and take steps on that path immediately;
• Bring in a municipal lobbying registry, because the public deserves to know how and when the wealthy are influencing decisions made by the city government;	• Half of bus stops in Vancouver have no bus shelters or benches, so work toward changing that circumstance.
• Expand VanWifi across the city, to allow for more free and open internet access, prioritizing currently under-served areas;	• Train and hire lifeguards and swim instructors, because we need to keep pools open and staffed, stop line-ups, offer swimming lessons to meet demand, and keep people safe at Vancouver’s beaches.

Vancouver: A City We Can Build Together, Because Together We Can

A city is, in the end, more than streets and towers, more than budgets and bylaws, more than the endless arguments that consume the chambers of City Hall.

A city is its people. It is the child riding a bicycle to school, the senior waiting for a bus beneath a cold November sky, the newcomer learning the streets of a new country, the renter wondering whether next year’s rent will finally push them out of the neighbourhood they have called home. It is the nurse finishing a shift, the small-business owner unlocking the door at dawn, the family lining up at a community pool, the young couple wondering whether they will ever be able to afford a home of their own. These are the people for whom a city exists. And these are the people for whom government must work.

There is something almost beautiful in the idea that ordinary people, working collectively and putting aside the divisions that too often separate us, can change the direction of the place they call home. The Change Brigade finds itself in a unique position to make that change possible — to bring together people from across Vancouver, from every neighbourhood and every walk of life, and to insist that prosperity means something more than rising property values and increasingly expensive glass towers.

Prosperity should mean that a family can afford to live here. That a young person can find a home here. That a senior can remain in the neighbourhood where they raised their children. That newcomers can put down roots. That workers can earn a decent living and still have enough left at the end of the month to enjoy the city they help sustain.

That is why affordability cannot be treated as an afterthought.

Affordable housing, sensible economic policy, strong public services, thriving neighbourhoods, parks, libraries, pools, community centres and accessible transportation are not competing pieces of a city — they are the architecture of a city that works.

The Vancouver worth fighting for is one in which the success of one neighbourhood does not require the neglect of another, where public investment serves the many rather than the few, and where government understands that fiscal responsibility and compassion are not opposing ideas. We can balance the books while building homes. We can support business while protecting working people. We can grow the economy while preserving the places and institutions that make Vancouver worth living in.

And perhaps that is the most hopeful thing of all.

Vancouver does not have to accept that the future has already been written. It does not have to become a city where only the wealthy can afford to stay, where renters are an afterthought, where families are pushed farther and farther from the communities they love, or where the promise of this extraordinary place is measured only in dollars.

The Change Brigade has an opportunity — a rare opportunity — to help turn the page: to bring people together, to listen to the aspirations of every Vancouverite, and to build a city that belongs to all of us. No matter where we were born. No matter what language our parents spoke. No matter our ethnicity, our country of origin, the size of our bank account, or the circumstances into which we were born.

We are all Vancouverites. And if we choose to work together, with courage, imagination and a belief in one another, there is no reason we cannot build a Vancouver that is fairer, more inclusive, more affordable and more just — a city worthy of the people who call it home.

At the Advance Polls and on Election Day, VOTE for the members of The Change Brigade.

#BCPoli | A Troubling Race in Vancouver-Point Grey

September 26, 2024BC Election 2024, BC Votes 2024, Canada, canadian politics, Essay, News, Politics, Vancouverbc conservatives, bc ndp, david eby, devanyi singh, green party, paul ratchford, vancouver-point grey. premierRaymond Tomlin

In the 2024 British Columbia election, Premier David Eby is once again seeking re-election in his home riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, a constituency known for its progressive values and highly educated voters.

To read Vote Mate candidate profiles of the Vancouver-Point Grey candidates, click here.

David Eby, leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) since November 2022, is facing several challengers, but the one drawing the most controversy is Paul Ratchford, the B.C. Conservative Party candidate.

Last week John Rustad dropped a candidate for homophobia & claimed he had re-vetted his candidates. He also needs to fire @P_Ratchford for this disgraceful attack on @elenoresturko as a “woke lesbian.” Abhorrent. #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/oq892J1Ebv

— Mable Elmore (@mableelmore) June 2, 2024

Mr. Ratchford’s incendiary, partisan remarks about his now fellow B.C. Conservative candidate Elenore Sturko, a former B.C. United MLA, have raised concerns about homophobia and intolerance, potentially shaping the tone of the election campaign in Vancouver-Point Grey, and beyond.

In response to Ms. Sturko’s victory in the Surrey South by-election in 2022, Mr. Ratchford called the just elected MLA a “woke, lesbian, social justice warrior.”

Such language immediately triggered a backlash.

Ms. Sturko — a wife, a mother, and a high profile longtime spokesperson for the Surrey RCMP detachment, as well as a novice candidate in 2022 running with the recently renamed B.C. United political party — was, as may be seen in the photo above, decidedly over the moon at her victory in the Surrey South riding.

Who, with any degree of integrity and humanity would seek to impinge in a partisan manner on Ms. Sturko’s good fortune in Surrey South, with a cruel comment on what must have been a joyous and halycon night for Elenore Sturko?

Ratchford, in referring to someone’s sexual orientation as part of a derogatory attack plays into harmful stereotypes and marginalizes the LGBTQ community.

Not new. Paul has been attacking @elenoresturko for years. pic.twitter.com/DkkEyOHOZQ

— Brad Barrett (@brad_barrett) June 3, 2024

The following day, Mr. Ratchford escalated his rhetoric by calling Ms. Sturko a “groomer,” a term long used in anti-LGBTQ narratives to falsely suggest LGBTQ individuals are trying to influence or “recruit” children into their community.

These remarks are not just harmful to Ms. Sturko, who has since joined the B.C. Conservative Party — in 2024, running in the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale — but also to the broader LGBTQ community, and voters at large.

The “groomer” trope is especially damaging as it revives debunked homophobic and transphobic fears that still resonate in some corners of society.

Employing such a term in modern political discourse reflects an effort to exploit those fears, polarizing communities and harming vulnerable individuals.

L-r, candidates for office in Vancouver-Point Grey: David Eby, Paul Ratchford & Devanyi Singh

For candidate Paul Ratchford running to unseat David Eby in Vancouver-Point Grey — an urban riding that has historically voted for progressive candidates — such comments are likely to alienate a significant portion of the electorate.

Vancouver-Point Grey is home to a socially conscious, diverse population that places a high value on inclusivity and equality.

The area has a substantial LGBTQ population, and its voters are likely to be repelled by the kind of divisive rhetoric Mr. Ratchford has employed.

Residents of the Vancouver-Point Grey riding, many of whom work in education, health care, and in the public service, are generally attuned to the implications of such inflammatory language, recognizing its potential to incite hate and discrimination. Mr. Ratchford’s injurious remarks will likely reinforce perceptions of the B.C. Conservative Party as out of touch with Vancouver-Point Grey’s values.

In addition to offending the LGBTQ community, B.C. Conservative candidate Paul Ratchford’s comments are also problematic for the broader electorate.

Many voters in Vancouver-Point Grey prize civility and fairness in politics.

Personal attacks, particularly those based on sexual orientation, are viewed as inappropriate, but also as distractions from substantive policy discussions.

While issues like housing affordability, health care, and climate change dominate the concerns of Point Grey and Kitsilano residents, Mr. Ratchford’s rhetoric may be seen as a diversion that detracts from addressing these pressing issues.

Given the gravity of his comments, the question arises: Has Paul Ratchford apologized to Elenore Sturko, now his fellow B.C. Conservative candidate, for his earlier hurtful and incendiary remarks?

As of yet, no public apology has been issued.

The absence of an apology underscores the broader challenge facing the B.C. Conservative Party under John Rustad’s leadership.

While Elenore Sturko’s defection to the B.C. Conservatives suggests the party is attempting to broaden its appeal, Mr. Ratchford’s explosive comments stand in stark contrast to this effort, signaling internal contradictions within the party.

At the upcoming all-candidates meeting in Vancouver-Point Grey, where both Paul Ratchford and incumbent Member of the Legislature David Eby will share the stage, Premier Eby is likely to address these remarks head-on.

As a strong advocate for human rights and social justice, David Eby could seize the moment to challenge Mr. Ratchford’s intolerant views, framing the contest as a battle between progressive values and regressive intolerance.

David Eby’s response would resonate with the riding’s electorate, many of whom value inclusion and equality as fundamental principles of good governance.

Given David Eby’s calm demeanour and legal expertise, Mr. Eby will likely approach the issue with a measured tone, appealing to voters’ sense of fairness while subtly highlighting the unsuitability of his opponent.

Meanwhile, the B.C. New Democratic Party’s “war room” has proven adept at capitalizing on their opponents’ missteps.

In July of this year, John Rustad met with an anti-vax group that is suing Dr. Bonnie Henry.

He said he regrets getting “the so-called vaccine” and accuses Dr. Henry of using it for “control on the population.” pic.twitter.com/m2h3IHAyK0

— BC NDP (@bcndp) September 23, 2024

With the release of footage earlier this week of B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad’s controversial views on COVID vaccines and his insinuation that Dr. Bonnie Henry’s rationale for decisions taken on how to fight COVID and keep British Columbians safe was, in his estimation, tied to efforts to ensure “population control,” … well, it’s entirely plausible the NDP might have additional material that could further undermine Mr. Ratchford’s credibility.

If the B.C. NDP possesses video of Paul Ratchford making similarly offensive comments about the LGBTQ community, they could release it strategically to reinforce the narrative that the B.C. Conservative Party harbours intolerant views.

Such a revelation would almost certainly derail Mr. Ratchford’s campaign, making it difficult for him to gain traction in a riding like Vancouver-Point Grey.

Ultimately, Paul Ratchford’s controversial remarks about Elenore Sturko are likely to be a significant liability in his campaign to unseat David Eby.

In a riding that embraces diversity and progressive values, Paul Ratchford’s mean-spirited and untoward commentary is out of sync with voters’ priorities.

As a result, Paul Ratchford’s contemptuous remarks could serve to strengthen David Eby’s chances for re-election, as voters in Vancouver-Point Grey seek a representative who reflects their commitment to tolerance, respect, and inclusivity.

The upcoming all-candidates meeting will offer a pivotal moment for these dynamics to play out in real time, potentially sealing the fate of Mr. Ratchford’s candidacy.