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#VanElxn2022 | VanRamblings’ Mayor and Council Endorsements

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Almost inevitable that VanRamblings would endorse Councillor Colleen Hardwick as Vancouver’s next Mayor, don’t you think?

Why is VanRamblings enthusiastically and wholeheartedly supporting and endorsing TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s Colleen Hardwick for Mayor of Vancouver?

Listen to what Patrick Condon — the James Taylor chair in Landscape and Livable Environments at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture — has to say about Colleen Hardwick.

Make no mistake, Colleen Hardwick is the only candidate running for Mayor in 2022 who is on your side, on the side of all of us who live within one of the 23 currently livable Vancouver neigbourhoods, that each of the other Mayoralty candidates would seek to destroy, as incumbent Mayor, Forward Together’s Kennedy Stewart, ABC Vancouver’s Ken Sim, the Non-Partisan Association’s Fred Harding, and Progress Vancouver’s Mark Marissen envision a future tower-driven city, encroaching on every neighbourhood, with twenty to seventy storey towers Vancouver’s almost inevitable future were any of these men to assume the Mayor’s office post-Election Day, only two short days from now, on Saturday, October 15th.

Colleen Hardwick is the only democrat running to be Mayor of Vancouver, the only candidate for Mayor that would pause, if not rescind, the Broadway Plan and Vancouver Plan, as she and her cohort of outstanding TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s candidates for Vancouver City Council would consult with those of us who live in each of the neighbourhoods across the city, towards building an inevitably more dense city, while developing renewed community plans that would give you a voice in how your neighbourhood would develop in the years to come.

Have we written that Sean Nardi is one of our very favourite candidates running for office as a TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver candidate for Vancouver City Council?

No? Well, now we have.

As a key organizer of the Fairview Slopes / South Granville Action Committee, Sean devoted countless hours to rallying the community to fight the out-of-scale for the neighbourhood, 28-storey Jameson Birch Street project, devoting hundreds of hours to analytical research and neighbourhood organizing.  Sean’s painstaking fact-based advocacy work impressed the hell out a broad network of activists from across the city, City Councillors who sat up straight in their chairs when he addressed Council, senior staff within the labyrinthine City Hall bureaucracy, and our devoted civic affairs journalists. Believe us when we write, Sean means to make a difference — and with his newly-acquired MBA from Simon Fraser University, a dozen years of project management in the field of information technology, his hard-won expertise in problem-solving, as well as his work in crisis management and fiscal management, plus Sean’s work developing innovative strategies to build better, more efficiently, more humanely —  always with a focus towards addressing issues involving our present climate emergency —  Sean Nardi is definitely a candidate for Vancouver City Council for whom you want to cast a vote.

While most of our current crop of Vancouver City Councillors — not to mention, the current crop of Vancouver Mayoral candidates — consider themselves to be Gods on Mount Olympus, the holders of all knowledge, who believe they have the preordained right to rule over you, whether you like it or not, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick and her outstanding, feet planted firmly on the ground Council candidate slate walk the Earth just as you do.

TEAM will work for a livable, affordable city for local residents, for renters, housing co-op members, and condominium and home owners from across the city. TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver will focus on delivering homes at a lower cost, including for low wage workers, the homeless, and those experiencing housing insecurity.

Providing a mix of non-market and market housing, for rentals and ownership, including housing co-ops — where no one will pay more than 30% of their income to be housed — co-housing, secondary suites, multiple conversion dwellings, infill, laneways, multiplexes, townhouses, and apartments — planned in partnership with local residents at the scale of each neighbourhood,  employing City-owned, provincial and federal Crown lands to build affordable housing across the city, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver is making the commitment to you that they will work to build affordable housing that will meet every Vancouver citizen’s needs.

TEAM Mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick, and her outstanding and well-experienced TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver slate of candidates for Vancouver City Council, acknowledge the contract the City of Vancouver has entered into with the provincial government that will see the construction of towers within a two-block radius surrounding Millennium line Skytrain stations along the Broadway corridor. The notion that this mass, tower-driven style of development, though, might become Vancouver’s default housing typology is anathema to everything the TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver slate of candidates for Vancouver City Council stand for.

Campaign manager for, and candidate for Vancouver City Council with, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver, the well-experienced and tremendously engaging Bill Tieleman, no matter which other candidates for office in 2022 that you are selecting to cast your vote for, Bill Tieleman is the must, must, must-elect for Vancouver City Council this year. No other candidate in this election is as accomplished as Bill Tieleman as a communicator, and as someone who has worked deep within government — from 1996 through 2001, for instance, as Director of Communications in the Premier’s office, in the first term when the provincial New Democratic Party was in power — Bill is a must-vote. You’ve likely seen Bill fighting — successfully! — for the re-opening of the Coast Guard station just west of the Burrard bridge, and seen him on your TV screens many evenings representing the interests of workers, and the community-at-large, always fighting the good fight on your behalf.

Did we mention that Bill Tieleman is VanRamblings’ “next door neighbour” (he lives in the condominium due west of our housing co-op home), and that Bill is the most honest and authentic person we know, that Bill brings himself to the world with such heartbreaking integrity, fidelity and sense of purpose, with an unmatched energy as he works for social change, and a fairer, more just city, region and province, that for us — on almost a daily basis — is little short of revelatory. Make sure you save a vote for Bill Tieleman, to help us realize the city we need.

Well, the six outstanding TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver slate of candidates for Vancouver City Council, including a heartbreakingly bright Colleen Hardwick for Mayor of Vancouver, constitutes for VanRamblings the must-elect majority that, when elected, will turn this city around, and set a course that will place the city back in the hands of Vancouver citizens, and not the developer class in our city, as TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver sets about to rebuild the trust of Vancouver residents, lost over the course of the past fourteen years, first with the 2008 election of a majority Vision Vancouver City Council, followed by Vision 2.0 this past four years.

Above, VanRamblings has identified the must-elect majority who will turn our city around, build affordable housing, build a human-scale transit system that serves the needs of Vancouver residents across the city, re-engage with all of us who live in one of Vancouver’s 23 vibrant neighbourhoods, address the issue of public safety, and work with the federal and provincial governments to respond to the human tragedy on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that warehouses our most vulnerable citizens in substandard SROs, where crimes against those who call the DTES home continues to run rampant, where death has become a tragically common feature of life around Main and Hastings, where we must do better, and with a TEAM-led civic administration at Vancouver City Hall, we will do better.

VanRamblings has known Mike Klassen for more than 30 years, as the most honourable person of our long acquaintance, a friend in a time of need, phenomenally skilled, a true neighbourhood advocate, and VanRamblings’ webmaster who created our site during the holiday season in 2003, débuting VanRamblings in 2004.

And now, Mike Klassen is running for Vancouver City Council, with ABC Vancouver.

We have known Mike Klassen, always, to be fair-minded, possessed of an umatched personal and professional integrity, and during his years as Vancouver’s première civic affairs columnist with the Vancouver Courier newspaper — where his writing was superb, his insights possessed of an integrity and a heart that spoke both to his professionalism as a journalist, and to how Mike has always brought himself to the world — there was no finer journalist in town. There is no one running for City Council in 2022 who is more intimately familiar with how government works, how decisions are made, and how change for the better comes about.

In his work as a vice-president with the B.C. Home Care Providers Association, Mike Klassen has gained a rapport with members of the New Democratic Party caucus that is second-to-none, each member of that caucus having come to respect Mike Klassen as someone who gets things done, someone with whom it is easy to work towards change for the better, someone who does his homework, someone who is non-partisan in the interests of better serving the needs of British Columbians, and those of us who call Vancouver home. Quite simply, Mike Klassen gets things done.

VanRamblings loves Mike Klassen, the candidate and our friend, with all our heart, and believe that he will emerge on Council as a generational difference maker for the better. Please, please, please save a vote for ABC Vancouver’s Mike Klassen.

Sarah Kirby-Yung. Yep, there she is above, VanRamblings’ favourite political figure, on Vancouver Park Board — where, as Chairperson of the Board, Sarah Kirby-Yung worked with then Park Board General Manager Malcolm Bromley to ban cetaceans in captivity (that means no more whales cruelly kept in “cages” at the Vancouver Aquarium) — and this past term on Council, as one might reasonably expect if you know Sarah Kirby-Yung at all, Ms. Kirby-Yung emerged as the hardest-working member on Council, steering clear of the toxic politics that weighed Vancouver City Council down for much of the past four years, on a Council where Ms. Kirby-Yung actually managed to build alliances across the political spectrum, among a disparate group of her fellow electeds — with Green Party of Vancouver City Councillor, Pete Fry (who VanRamblings is also endorsing!), who loves, respects and admires Sarah Kirby-Yung, as is the case with Sarah’s fellow ABC Vancouver colleagues, Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh, achieving this feat on a toxic City Council, where she even managed to bring an often too-partisan, and at times misogynist, Mayor on board as a fan — to get things done.

As VanRamblings has written previously, you have Sarah Kirby-Yung to thank for helping see us through the pandemic while providing aid to restaurants in dire financial straits, while championing restaurant patios, and side street plazas, where we could meet together in the open, in neighbourhoods across the city.

You know who the most productive person on City Council was this term , the Councillor who was always available to the press, by far Council’s best communicator (although, Pete Fry gives Sarah a run for her money), and the (am I allowed to say this?) the get ‘er done gal around the Council table, always, always, always on your side, fighting for you, and fighting for a better, fairer and more just city — Sarah Kirby-Yung. If you love our city, you must save a vote for Sarah Kirby-Yung.

And now, to our two new favourite, first time candidates in this 2022 Vancouver civic election who, if there is any justice at all, will win in a walk on Saturday night.


Stephanie Smith, 2022 Green Party of Vancouver candidate for Vancouver City Council

A labour and social justice activist living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, since the late 1990s, Stephanie Smith has worked in the non-profit sector as a front line legal advocate,  most recently in the Downtown Eastside at First United, providing legal advice to those who’ve come to her expressing a concern about the conditions of their lives.

“What that’s meant is that representing tenants on the DTES, we’ve worked to save one tenancy at a time, one eviction hearing at a time. In labour terms, ‘One job, one grievance.’ One person’s income, one person’s disability benefits appeal at a time. Over the years, my colleagues and I have won countless battles, but sometimes it feels to us like we’re losing the war.”

For Stephanie Smith, entering this campaign as a Green Party candidate for Council, she has come to feel a new sense of possibility, of optimism in places that she hasn’t felt it for a long time.

“This is a terrible moment in a lot of ways. The forces aligned against people seem so overwhelming, and there’s so much suffering. So many people in Vancouver feel like they’re on the bubble, they’re one eviction notice, one demoviction, one renoviction away from never being able to come back to the city.

That profound insecurity is destructive to people, destructive to community, and destructive to our city.

There are things we can do together, if we are bold, if we are thoughtful, and if we are collaborative, that will bring security and a sense of belonging, a sense that we’re going to be able to remain here and not be pushed out of the city by developers.”

Stephanie Smith assures VanRamblings that she will dedicate every waking moment as a Vancouver City Councillor to working towards creating housing in our city that is genuinely affordable housing for wage earners, for the working poor, for seniors and single parents, for all those who are in need, where no tenant or co-operative housing member would pay more than 30% of their income to be housed, and real tenant protections enacted.

Elect Stephanie Smith, a well-experienced, grassroots community activist and people’s advocate. You can make that happen, you must make that happen, by marking your ballot for Candidate #141 this upcoming Saturday, for the people’s advocate, Stephanie Smith — to help transform Vancouver into a city for all.


Arezo Zarrabian, NPA candidate for Vancouver City Council, in which Ms. Zarrabian blows the roof off the rafters at the Vancouver Police Department’s all-candidates forum! Watch. Listen. Cheer!

NPA Vancouver candidate Arezo Zarrabian, running for a seat on Vancouver City Council is, by far, the loveliest, the strongest, the best informed, the most articulate and the candidate with the most commanding presence that we’ve come across and become acquainted with during the 2022 Vancouver civic election season.

Everyone who’s heard Arezo Zarrabian has come away mightily impressed.

Just watch and listen to the video at the top of this portion of today’s VanRamblings column, where you’ll see Vancouver’s première crime data analyst, a decorated 13-year veteran of the Vancouver Police Department, where in the video she blows the roof off the rafters because she, and she alone, knows what’s going on in our city, was the first to identify that there are four random, unprovoked attacks occurring in our city, across every one of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods, on unsuspecting, innocent victims, each and every day.

As if the video above, featuring Arezo Zarrabian as she goes up against Mayor Kennedy Stewart and ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim — where she calls them out for their hapless foolishness and divisiveness — is not astoundingly impressive enough — and we’re here to tell you that it’s damned impressive — when Arezo Zarrabian, a first generation Iranian-Canadian born citizen, spoke at the University Women’s Club of Vancouver all-women candidates Women Transforming Cities forum, as she began her address to the audience, she broke down as she spoke about Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody in the jails of Iran, has triggered continuing nationwide and worldwide protests calling for regime change in Iran. Recovering from her moving display of emotionally, Arezo Zarrabian gave, by far, the strongest, most well-received candidate speech of the evening, the only candidate to receive — in her case, alone — an extended standing applause.

If you’ve been saving yourself to vote on Election Day, this upcoming Saturday, October 15th, we strongly encourage — we beg you — to save a vote for Arezo Zarrabian, number 150 on your ballot. Quite simply, we in Vancouver need more persons of character and integrity, more informed decision-makers like heartbreakingly brilliant Arezo Zarrabian involved in the life of our city.

Believe us when we write: Arezo Zarrabian is a difference maker, from whom you will be hearing much in the months and years to come.

Saving the best for last, yes it’s the guy who makes you weep because he’s all heart, and wit and commitment, the  Vancouver City Councillor who (along with his friend, and fellow member of Vancouver who is running for a second term on Council, Sarah Kirby-Yung) is a must-vote for Vancouver City Council.

Following the 2018 Vancouver civic election, in his first four-year term on Vancouver City Council, Pete Fry worked with constituents to resolve their problems with City Hall’s labyrinthine bureaucracy, while also dedicating his energies to resolving land use issues in order that the interests of Vancouver residents might best be protected. Renter protection, the provision of affordable housing, transparency and good governance, working to make Vancouver more resilient in the face of climate change, protecting our natural habitats, and supporting our vibrant arts, culture and small business communities, these were but a few of the issues that were addressed by Pete Fry in his first term on Vancouver City Council. Pete Fry is now asking for your support, to re-elect him to a 2nd term on Council.

VanRamblings say: hell yeah, VOTE FOR PETE FRY, the guy who’s on your side.

#VanElxn2022 | Three Outstanding Women Candidates for Office

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Stephanie Smith, 2022 Green Party of Vancouver candidate for Vancouver City Council

At the outset of the campaign, when taking in the Chinatown Festival on Keefer Street, VanRamblings was introduced by Green Party of Vancouver incumbent City Councillor,  the gregarious Pete Fry, who all but took us by the hand to meet Stephanie Smith, who Pete told us is running in her first election for a Council position at Vancouver City Hall. After an in-depth and utterly humane discussion of the core issues in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election, this President of the Lore Krill Housing Co-operative in Gastown, catapulted herself into the position of VanRamblings’ favourite candidate in the 2022 civic election campaign for office.

A labour and social justice activist living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, since the late 1990s, Stephanie Smith has worked in the non-profit sector as a front line legal advocate across the city and most recently in the Downtown Eastside at First United, providing legal advice to those who’ve come to her expressing a concern about the conditions of their lives.

“What that’s meant is that representing tenants on the DTES, we’ve worked to save one tenancy at a time, one eviction hearing at a time. In labour terms, ‘One job, one grievance.’ One person’s income, one person’s disability benefits appeal at a time. Over the years, my colleagues and I have won countless battles, but sometimes it feels to us like we’re losing the war.”

For Stephanie Smith, entering this campaign as a Green Party candidate for Council, she has come to feel a new sense of possibility, of optimism in places that she hasn’t felt it for a long time.

“This is a terrible moment in a lot of ways. The forces aligned against people seem so overwhelming, and there’s so much suffering. So many people in Vancouver feel like they’re on the bubble, they’re one eviction notice, one demoviction, one renoviction away from never being able to come back to the city.

If they’re artists, their studio space has been purchased and converted, and they can’t produce their work here.

That profound insecurity is destructive to people, destructive to community, and destructive to our city.

I feel like, working together, we can change that dark scenario. There are things we can do together, if we are bold, if we are thoughtful, and if we are collaborative, that will bring security and a sense of belonging, a sense that we’re going to be able to remain here and not be pushed out of the city we love by a cabal of developers, and the politicians they have in their pocket.”

Stephanie Smith believes with all her heart, and will dedicate every waking moment as a Vancouver City Councillor to working towards creating housing in our city that is genuinely affordable housing for wage earners, for the working poor, for seniors and single parents, for all those who are in need, priced at half of the market rate, where no tenant or co-operative housing member would pay more than 30% of their income to be housed, and real tenant protections would be assured.

“Despite everything, I believe we are all here together in a moment of profound optimism & a sense of the possibilities in front of us.”

Imagine having a well-experienced, grassroots community activist and people’s advocate, like Green Party of Vancouver’s Stephanie Smith, as a City of Vancouver Councillor, sitting in Chambers at City Hall. You can make that happen, you must make that happen, by marking your ballot for Candidate #141, for the people’s advocate, Stephanie Smith — to help transform Vancouver into a City for All.


Arezo Zarrabian, NPA candidate for Vancouver City Council, in which Ms. Zarrabian blows the roof off the rafters at the Vancouver Police Department’s all-candidates forum! Watch. Listen. Cheer!

NPA Vancouver candidate Arezo Zarrabian, running for a seat on Vancouver City Council is, by far, the loveliest, the strongest, the best informed, the most articulate and the candidate with the most commanding presence that we’ve come across and become acquainted with during the 2022 Vancouver civic election season.

Does the fact Ms. Zarrabian just so happens to be a lovely human being detract from the fact she is exceptionally strong-minded and a phenomenally committed and principled community activist, that Arezo Zarrabian is one of the most accomplished candidates in the 2022 civic election, that she is a woman who loves her husband and child with all her heart — and her very fortunate friends, too — or that Ms. Zarrabian is a person who enjoys her Arbutus Walk neighbourhood?

Hell, no!

Just watch and listen to the video at the top of this second portion of today’s VanRamblings column, where we introduce you to Vancouver’s première crime data analyst, a decorated 13-year veteran of the Vancouver Police Department, where in the video she blows the roof off the rafters because she, and she alone, knows what’s going on in our city, was the first to identify that there are four random, unprovoked attacks occurring in our city, across every one of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods, on unsuspecting, innocent victims, each and every day.

As if the video above, featuring Arezo Zarrabian as she goes up against Mayor Kennedy Stewart and ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim — where she calls them out for their hapless foolishness and divisiveness —  is not impressive enough — and we’re here to tell you that it’s damned impressive — when Arezo Zarrabian, a first generation Iranian-Canadian born citizen, spoke at last Wednesday evening’s University Women’s Club of Vancouver all-women candidates Women Transforming Cities forum, as she began her address to the audience, she broke down as she spoke about Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody in the jails of Iran, has triggered nationwide and worldwide protests, recovering to give the strongest, most well-received candidate speech of the evening.

Impressive and moving.

TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver Mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick approached Ms. Zarrabian as the event drew to a close, so impressed was she with Ms. Zarrabian’s impassioned and reasoned expression of her opposition to both the Broadway Plan and The Vancouver Plan, how implementation of both developer-initiated plans would prove detrimental to the interests of Vancouver’s citizens.

If you haven’t already voted at an advance poll, or are holding off to vote on Election Day, Saturday, October 15th, we strongly encourage you to save a vote for Arezo Zarrabian, number 150 on your ballot. Quite simply, we need more persons of character and integrity, informed decision-makers like Arezo Zarrabian involved in the life of our city. Believe us when we write: Arezo Zarrabian is a difference maker, from whom you will be hearing much in the months and years to come.


Meet Tessica Truong, the outstanding Forward Together candidate for Vancouver City Council!

Meet Tesicca Truong, the single most eloquent — and we’re here to tell you, heartbreakingly so — candidate for civic office in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election, a must-elect candidate to Vancouver City Council, a transformative candidate who — although Ms. Truong will be Premier of British Columbia one day (we just hope we’re  around to experience that glorious, certain-to-occur day) — at present is seeking your necessary support to elect her to a seat around the Council chambers table, for the next four years, as your advocate at Vancouver City Hall.

An Environmental Science Honours graduate student, at present, Ms. Truong works in the field of community engagement, her passions meeting at the intersection of youth empowerment, citizen engagement and resilience building.

A co-founder of City Hive, a non-profit on a mission to transform the way young people shape their cities and the civic processes that engage them, Ms. Truong also co-created the inaugural Vancouver School Board Sustainability Conference, currently in its tenth year and kick-started the Vancouver Youth4Tap Coalition, a city-wide campaign which led to the installation of new water fountains in every public high school in Vancouver. As she makes clear in the video above, Ms. Truong has also worked closely with British Columbia’s Minister of the Environment, George Heyman, working not just municipally and provincially, but also federally.

Says Tesicca Truong about her current candidacy to become a City Councillor …

“What I know is that political decisions are made by those who show up, and I want to show up for Vancouverites.”

Tessica Truong currently works as the Manager of Engagement and Social Enterprise at Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

In the latest internal party polling shared with us by the various campaigns, Arezo Zarrabian has come out of the blue, and currently sits in the fifth spot, a seeming lock to be elected to Vancouver City Council come the evening of Saturday, October 15th. Meanwhile, Tesicca Truong currently sits at 8th, while pollsters have registered Ms. Truong’s fellow Forward Together Council colleague, Dulcy Anderson at 9th. There are 10 open seats on Vancouver City Council.

Here are a few more internal party polling results …

The Greens’ Adriane Carr, ABC Vancouver’s Sarah Kirby-Yung, and COPE’s Jean Swanson — incumbents all — are the only true locks for Council, hunkered down as they are in the top 3 slots. ABC’s Mike Klassen is in at #4, the NPA’s Arezo Zarrabian has a lock on 5, while TEAM’s Bill Tieleman sits in the 6th spot. Currently sitting at 7th, outstanding TEAM candidate for Council, Sean Nardi. Eight and ninth spots you know. The 10th spot?

At the moment, there’s a wide gap between the 9th and 10th spots. Vying for the final seat on Council: incumbent Greens’ Pete Fry and MIchael Wiebe, ABC Vancouver incumbents Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato, and the NPA’s Ken Charko and Melissa De Genova. Still and all, 10 days out, the election is far from over.

Most pundits, and most campaign staff VanRamblings has spoken with believe the election will be decided in its final three days. Anything could happen, we are told.

Here’s a story we shared with Tesicca Truong and Arezo Zarrabian …

One fine sunny day in late September 2015 during that autumn’s federal election, VanRamblings made a point of visiting each of the campaign offices in Vancouver Centre, where our friend Constance Barnes was the NDP candidate running against incumbent Liberal Hedy Fry; Constance’s office was on Granville Street. We also visited the Green Party office on Denman Street.

Meh, to both.

We then visited Hedy Fry’s campaign office where, much to our surprise and astonishment, we were welcomed with open arms (and this was on a day when we’d published a rousing endorsement of the federal NDP … that went viral, with 100,000 hits by noon our time) … anyway, there we were in the Liberal Party’s Vancouver Centre campaign office, when we were waved over by Hedy’s campaign manager — to save our life, we can’t remember his name — when we sat down for a great 15-minute discussion. And, let us tell you … he was busy … but somehow, he still found time to engage in a conversation with us.

Here’s the piece of wisdom he imparted, which will be good advice for all candidates to follow in the final 10 days of the campaign — particularly those candidates we mention above as being in, or close to, one of the top 10 spots. When we suggested to Ms. Fry’s campaign manager that we’d seen the polls, and that Ms. Fry was running far ahead of her rivals ….

“Raymond, in every campaign I’ve ever managed, and that includes this campaign, no matter how far ahead the polls show us to be, I always, always, always instruct my staff to work like we’re 10 points behind. I work like the dickens, no matter what the polls say, as if my candidate is running 10 points behind. My campaign team and I work through until late election night, at which time we can begin to think about resting, but not til then.”

VanRamblings’ advice to all candidates running for office in the 2022 Vancouver civic election: enjoy yourself, work hard on the campaign trail but find some time for family & friends, try not to take the whole thing too seriously — VanRamblings is constantly surprised at how zealous supporters of various candidates are in responding to the maelstrom that is this election, than is the case with the candidates themselves, who are almost universally far more sanguine about the potential outcome of the election than is the case with their supporters — and cherish the opportunity with which you have been provided to offer yourself for that most important of endeavours: service and fealty to the people of the city you love.

VanElxn2022 | Women Transforming Cities | University Women’s Club

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On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, the University Women’s Club of Vancouver hosted a Women Transforming Cities gathering of women representing all 10 parties offering candidates for office in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election.

As has long been the case — given that the UWC has held this event every civic election for decades — the Women Transforming Cities event proved lively, moving and informative, with great and provocative grassroots organizing going on right before the audience’s appreciative eyes and ears — thanks in the main to COPE Vancouver candidates for Council, the entirely tremendous Nancy Trigueros and Tanya Webking, and the Green Party of Vancouver’s Stephanie Smith.

VanRamblings wants to live in the workers’ paradise for all that Ms. Trigueros, Ms. Webking and Ms. Smith espouse, conceive of, insist on, and will realize for all of us.

As always, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick, was heartbreakingly brilliant. Watch & listen to the video — you’ll see for yourself.

Meanwhile, Ms. Hardwick’s TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s colleague and candidate for Vancouver City Council, Cleta Brown — a former president of the University Women’s Club of Vancouver  — simply outdid herself …

… bringing her wealth of knowledge having earned degrees in biology and law, culminating in a Masters of Laws from the London School of Economics, and her work in the non-profit and charitable sector, as President of the Board of Directors of MOSAIC; Vice-President on the Board of LEAF — the Women’s Legal, Education and Action Fund, Canada’s leading women’s legal champion at the Supreme Court of Canada protecting women’s constitutional rights; and as a Board Director with the Vancouver YWCA, the BC Kidney Foundation and a Director with the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Did we mention that Ms. Brown is also Secretary of the Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir Society?

Whoops, forgot to mention that Cleta Brown was an investigator and general counsel for the Ombudsman Office of BC, and worked as a Crown Prosecutor in the Provincial Courts, and was an alternate Chairperson on the Review Board of BC.

Does the word accomplished resonate with you? Does the phrase must-elect to Vancouver City Council, mark your ballot for Cleta Brown also resonate with you?

VanRamblings must say that we — not to mention, the entire audience present for the UWC forum — had their socks knocked off upon hearing each and every one of the women speakers present for the Women Transforming Cities event.

Arezo Zarrabian, Non-Partisan Association (NPA) a must-elect candidate for Vancouver City Council

You know who our favourite speaker of the evening was?

Arezo Zarrabian. You’ll see why when you watch and listen to her introducing herself to those gathered this past Wednesday evening at Hycroft Manor. What do you think the chances are that Ms. Zarrabian will emerge on VanRamblings’ Council endorsement ballot, to be published on Wednesday, October 12th?


Stephanie Smith, Green Party of Vancouver — a must-elect candidate for Vancouver City Council

You can read more this upcoming Wednesday about Ms. Zarrabian, and another one of VanRamblings’ very favourite candidates in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election —  the Green Party of Vancouver’s Stephanie Smith — both of whom are bright beyond all measure, possessed of uncommon wit and compassion, mean well for our city, and understand you and the concerns of your life, and are absolute MUST-ELECTS to Vancouver City Council, on Saturday, October 15th.

Another standout at the Women Transforming Cities event was Ms. Smith’s Green Party of Vancouver colleague and fellow candidate for Vancouver City Council, Dr. Devyani Singh, whose energy and passion is nothing less than infectious. May we say, as well, that those in attendance at the Last Candidate Standing event held on Saturday, absolutely fell in love with Dr. Devyani Singh, as well they might have!

VanRamblings must say, as well, that we were pretty knocked out by Vision Vancouver’s Honieh Barzegari and Lesli Boldt. VanRamblings has been following Ms. Boldt’s career for years — safe to say that you can colour us mightily impressed. What a thrill it’s been for us to meet her on the campaign trail — please forgive us for saying so, but kind of a dream fulfilled for us.

And wouldn’t it be lovely and appropriate and overdue to elect two accomplished Middle Eastern women to Vancouver City Council, in the form of Iranian compatriots, the outstanding Honieh Barzegari and Arezo Zarrabian? Necessary, we’d say.

You know who else knocks us out? Incumbent Vancouver City Councillors Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh, who on occasion we are afforded the great pleasure and privilege of speaking with. On a Council where, sometimes, egos have run rampant — much to the chagrin of voters, from what we’ve heard —  Ms. Dominato and Ms. Bligh have always kept their feet planted firmly on the ground, while giving new and salutary meaning to the word humility. Yes, yes, it’s true — Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato consider themselves servants of the people, servants of the public interest. Imagine that. Miracles do happen in Vancouver civic politics.

And last, but by no means least, one of our favourite people in the world — and accomplished beyond all measure — Morgane Oger, a former Vice President of the BC NDP, Ms. Oger fights tirelessly for human rights, and is recognized across Canada as a champion of LGBTQ rights and representation. Morgane Oger is a powerful voice for safer communities and transformative government.

Accompanying Ms. Oger to the Women Transforming Cities event was her Progress Vancouver colleague and fellow candidate for Vancouver City Council, Asha Hayer, a third-generation Vancouverite and a sixth-generation Indo-Canadian woman, who knows Vancouver is founded on the strength of its diversity. Listen to what Ms. Hayer has to say about why she got into the run for civic office in 2022.

All and all, a very good night was had in our city at the not-to-be missed campaign event of the election season, the University Women’s Club of Vancouver hosted Women Transforming Cities event, with women candidates representing all 10 civic parties offering candidates in the Vancouver civic election.

VanElxn2022 | The Green Party of Vancouver | Seek A Renewed Mandate

#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2022, , , , , , , ,

Truth to tell, VanRamblings has some affection for all the folks involved in the Green Party of Vancouver. Deep in our heart we believe that — although we may differ on policy orientation, from time to time — that the Vancouver Greens seeking re-election to Vancouver City Council come the evening of E-Day, Saturday, October 15th — that would be incumbents Pete Fry, Michael Wiebe and Adriane Carr — along with Green Party of Vancouver candidates, Stephanie Smith and Devyani Singh … both of whom we know, like and admire … have the best interests of the citizenry of Vancouver at heart, and as a group are well-meaning and informed folks of conscience who day-in and day-out make decisions — with humility and heart — employing their best judgement on matters placed before them.

On July 9th, at Khatsalano Days in the Kitsilano Vancouver neighbourhood, VanRamblings happened across Vancouver City Councillor Michael Wiebe, who was standing in front of the Green Party of Vancouver booth. Spotting us, smiling that big goofy and welcoming smile of his, he waved us over to speak with him.

Now for a little context: last autumn, VanRamblings wrote that Mr. Wiebe and his Green Party colleague, Pete Fry, constituted two members of the Three Misogynist Musketeers brigade on City Council (Mayor Kennedy Stewart was the third party in the unkind trio), arising from their untoward treatment of their fellow Councillor, Colleen Hardwick, during the course, and outside, of Council meetings.

As well, when respected municipal affairs lawyer Ray Young published a report in September 2020 recommending that Mr. Wiebe resign his seat on Council, arising from a perceived conflict of interest — a report filed at the request of then City Manager, Sadhu Johnston — VanRamblings wrote three withering columns demanding Mr. Wiebe’s immediate resignation of his seat on Council.

With the above in mind, VanRamblings (gingerly) approached Mr. Wiebe. Towering over us (VanRamblings is height-challenged), Mr. Wiebe gave us a fist bump, and told us how glad he was to see us, after which we engaged in — by far — the best, the most expansive, the most detailed, the most informed, and the most humane conversation on Vancouver civic politics we have had with anyone involved in #vanpoli, at any point over the past four years.

Colour us mightily impressed.

Mature of demeanour, Mr. Wiebe — who we’ve known well since his election as a Park Board Commissioner, in 2014 — quietly let us know that these past four years have proved a mighty learning experience for the novice Vancouver City Councillor, which newfound knowledge, over the course of the past 24 months, has translated into a much more settled and thoughtful approach to governance, than previously.

Suffice to say, VanRamblings came away from that day’s discussion with Michael Wiebe with a respect and admiration for him, such that we are giving serious consideration to endorsing his candidacy for re-election to Vancouver City Council.

In June, while attending VanRamblings’ good friend (and long, our blog’s much-beloved webmaster) Mike Klassen’s 60th birthday party (Mike is currently an ABC candidate for Vancouver City Council) at the Polish Hall on Fraser Street, we were surprised to see respected and hard-working Green Party of Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry in attendance. Seems that Mr. Fry & Mr. Klassen have known one another dating back to their days writing for and working on Reverend Moonbeam’s (Darren Atwater’s) much-beloved Terminal City newspaper.

In the 90s, Pete — on this day, with a smile as big as all outdoors crossing his face, his eyes sparkling like the commencement of new day at sunrise, full of promise and intent for good —  was, he informed us, the Digiboy of fame and (not quite so much) fortune at Terminal City, and Mike Klassen long a much cherished colleague.

As we expected may have proved to be the case with Mr. Wiebe, there was the possibility, and perhaps not so remote a possibility, that upon spotting us in the Polish Hall, the affable and good-natured (not to mention, incredibly bright and principled) Mr. Fry might have wanted to punch our lights out, given the untoward provocations that he, from time to time, felt had been visited upon him by VanRamblings. Well, here we are today, in one piece, with no bloody nose.

Unpretentious, possessed of good humour, welcoming, friendly, gregarious of nature, articulate (no wonder the media in this town love him), humane and humble, possessed of an uncommon equanimity of presentation and spirit, VanRamblings has long liked, respected and admired Pete Fry — and although Mr. Fry is no particular fan of VanRamblings, either the person or the blog — our affection and respect for Pete Fry has not diminished one iota in all the years we’ve known him. VanRamblings liked Pete in the past & like and admire him through until this day.

As such, as with Mr. Wiebe, VanRamblings would consider endorsing Pete Fry’s re-election to Vancouver City Council, as a thoughtful and considerate candidate possessed of much integrity, who means well for the citizens of Vancouver, always.


The 2022 Green Party of Vancouver campaign launch. Candidate speeches begin at 2:45.

Writing the above about Mr. Wiebe and Mr. Fry, we recognize that it is imcumbent on VanRamblings to set about to formally interview the two Green Party City Councillors — as we arranged last evening at the 2022 Green Party of Vancouver campaign launch — in order to give them voice, to provide each candidate for re-election a forum to have recorded why it is these outstanding Vancouver City Councillors feel they are deserving of your vote, and another term on Council (and, let’s face it, each of these fine candidates very much are worthy of your vote), and what it is they would see themselves accomplishing on a second term on Council.