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 victoryat 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, TRAChas 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 andlivable 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.
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 endorsingTEAM … 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.
Do you want your parks and recreation system back, from the virtue-signalers and the do-gooders, who these past four years have promoted the notion that Vancouver’s parks system belongs to the influx of homeless newcomers, coming to our city for drugs, and free accommodation in our parks?
Children playing in parks, parks that are free of needles and crack pipes, human feces and detritus of every description — hey, that’s like so 1999. Parks aren’t meant for families in 2022, parks are no longer the green space, the backyards for the 56% of renters and 25% of condominium owners in our city, for whom parks in the past have provided rest, relaxation, solace, fresh air, comfy benches to sit on, and even some recreational activities, like tennis, soccer and pickleball. No siree, Bob — Vancouver parks now belong to the homeless folks visiting from Halifax or Edmonton, Québec City, or who have made their way up into Canada from the U.S.
Are you living under the delusion our Vancouver parks belong to you, to your family, your friends and your neighbours? Do you have no heart?
The homeless need a place to live. Parks are great, and none better than Vancouver’s parks, lush and green, with all those trees for cover.
However, If you believe the Vancouver citizens who elect 7 Park Board Commissioners to office every four years, that those Commissioners are meant to be stewards of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, then we’re here to tell you — as good-hearted as these folks might be — you’re certainly not going to want to vote for candidates for the Greens, ABC Vancouver, Vision Vancouver or OneCity Vancouver — because as socially-conscious as candidates from those parties may be, their kindness extends only to the homeless, not to you or your family, and certainly not to the children for whom Vancouver is home.
Drug use/crack pipe smokers camped out and right by the playground at the park by my house. Crack pipe found by the playground. Unacceptable. Who do I call? I’ve been on hold with the non emergency line for 15 minutes. @VancouverPD@kennedystewart
When it comes to children in our city, that well-intentioned crew could give a good galldarn about your children — better to learn the hard lesson now that life is tough, and sometimes we have to sacrifice playing on that slide or in the sandbox, to serve the interests of the “greater good” — in this case, the steady influx of homeless arriving in our city from across Canada, and in some cases the U.S., central and South America, and even Europe and the Far East.
Above you see the five Park Board candidates, plus an alternate, VanRamblings endorses in 2022 — that would be TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s incumbent Park Board Commissioner, Tricia Barker, her TEAM running mates Kumi Kimura, Kathleen Larsen and Michelle Mollineaux, plus the NPA’s Park Board candidate, Dave Pasin, and TEAM alternate, James Buckson — who believe Vancouver’s parks are for everyone, including the homeless who courts have ruled may, if there is no other shelter available, tent overnight in the parks across our city, but only if these woebegone citizens vacate the park by 7 a.m., in order that families and the general public may enjoy our parks system.
But that’s doesn’t happen, does it? Instead, Vancouver’s lush, green parks have become semi-permanent homes for those who arrive on our shores daily.
Long story short, before VanRamblings relates a story that informs our writing today, and why it is we think it is critical you cast your ballot for the TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver candidates for Park Board, plus the NPA’s Dave Pasin …
Tricia Barker, a fine, upstanding, incumbent Park Board Commissioner, a seniors’ wellness professional, who these past four years has championed the interests of our seniors and persons with disabilities communities, and as a practicing Tibetan Buddhist whose motto is “pick happy” enjoys walks through Vancouver’s parks system each and every day. Tricia takes her job as a steward of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system seriously, takes her job as an advocate for you and your family seriously, has worked with Vancouver City Council to increase funding to our parks and recreation system, worked with the Queen of Pools-in-Parks in our city, Margery Duda, towards ensuring that there will be wading pools for children in every neighbourhood, and outdoor swimming pools in neighbourhoods across the city. Chances are should Vancouver voters elect Tricia Barker to a second term on Park Board, come December the indefatigable Tricia Barker will be elected Park Board Chairperson by her colleagues, for 2023. We think that scenario is just a little bit of heaven for Vancouver citizens, for families and for children;
Kumi Kimura, for some while now has held the job as senior manager at the Musqueam Golf Course, so we’re here to tell you that Kumi knows the value of exceptional recreational facilities: they have shaped her upbringing and her career. As is the case with many of us, Kumi Kimura has spent hours, days, weeks, months and years enjoying every aspect of Vancouver’s abundant parks and recreation system, and was one of the first to acquire a OneCard when they became available. A secret? Kumi knows just about everyone in the city. Walk down the street, enter a room, and folks rush over to greet Kumi, and wrap their arms around her in a hug. Maybe 15 years working in Vancouver’s hospitality industry where she’s met thousands upon thousands of people, means that if you’re a good person — and make no mistake, Kumi Kimura is a very good person — affection from those you’ve met and worked with in the past results in the kind of good will Ms. Kimura engenders. Why would Kumi Kimura make a superb Park Board Commissioner, apart from the fact that she’s heartbreakingly bright, knows Vancouver’s parks and recreation system backwards, forward and inside out, and has years of experience in governance? Gosh, we just answered our own question, didn’t we? Tricia Barker and Kumi Kimura are a team, running for Park Board with TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver. Please save a vote for Kumi Kimura — you’ll be so very, very glad you did;
Kathleen Larsen. The incoming elected Park Board needs to hit the ground running, needs to re-assert Commissioner control and Commissioner priorities that serve your interests. What does that take? For a start, a sophisticated understanding of how decisions are made at the Park Board table, how one must conduct oneself at Park Board to get things done, years (decades) of experience in governance, in meeting and achieving goals that make a difference for the better in the lives of working people, families and children, seniors and persons within our disabilities community. Read these parts of Kathleen Larsen’s bio … “Kathleen has worked as a Community and Heritage Planner in the Lower Mainland for 27 years, and possesses a first-rate knowledge of local government legislation, planning processes, urban design and heritage conservation and preservation.” Save a vote, prioritize Kathleen Larsen as the candidate for Vancouver Park Board for whom you’ll mark you ballot when you cast your vote. We promise that come post-election you’ll be very, very glad you did;
Michelle Mollineauxhas operated within British Columbia politics for years, generally working in the background as a campaign manager, as well as working within all levels of governmental bureaucracy to achieve the best outcomes for all British Columbians and, in recent years, for the citizens of Vancouver. Now, it’s time for Michelle to make her début as a front-and-centre public servant. As an immigrant and a “soccer mom,” Michelle’s understanding of the importance of sports and recreation is second to none. Working to transform and reclaim Vancouver Park Board as a functioning parks and recreation system that best serves the interests of all of us who call Vancouver home is Michelle Mollineaux’s primary goal, as she will focus her energies on upgrading our aging community centres, sports facilities and fields. Working tirelessly to keep Vancouver parks, and the city of Vancouver green and safe for everyone, Michelle — a dynamic and action-oriented member of the TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver slate of Park Board candidates — promises to do better, will do better, and will be ready from Day One to get to work on your behalf to ensure that community pools will be built, water parks will be open in the summer, and Vancouver’s many, many parks will be open to everyone to enjoy. Save a vote for Michelle Mollineaux. You’ll be darn glad you did.
Dave Pasin, we believe, is our brother from another mother. Dave is someone VanRamblings has known for a great long while. In recent weeks, we have spoken frequently about the current election cycle, and commiserated about the state of parks and the city — in this very confusing, and dare we say, contentious election, so any solace Dave could offer is good by us. Of all the candidates who’ve come forward to offer themselves up for public service, when it comes to Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, Dave Pasin is among the crème de la crème of candidates for Vancouver Park Board in 2022, given his years of service as a member of the Board of Directors for, at various times, the West End Community Centre, the Hillcrest Community Centre, and the Dunbar Community Centre. The every second Monday Park Board meetings at 1111 Beach Avenue has, for many years, acted as a second home for the affable Dave Pasin, so often does he present to the Board on the need for more community pools, increased support for our community recreation centres, and ensuring reduced-rate Leisure Pass access to our public recreation centres — particularly for seniors living on a fixed income, and Vancouver’s indigent population, but also for families and children who are doing their best to keep fit. Dave Pasin has pioneered an innovative all access programme for children, youth, teens and seniors, first at the West End Community Centre, and more recently at the Hillcrest Community Centre. Dave Pasin has told VanRamblings that he looks forward to the opportunity to work with TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver‘s slate of candidates, to reclaim Vancouver’s parks for everyone. VanRamblings strongly encourages you to save a vote for Dave Pasin.
Andrea Pinochet-Escudero thinks she’s going to lose. Let’s prove her wrong. Yeah, sure, Andrea’s running with Vote Socialist, and you’re not a socialist — if you’re having a hard time wrapping your head around the notion of voting for a socialist, think humanist instead, because Andrea Pinochet-Escudero is certainly that, and more. Why would you cast a vote for Ms. Pinochet-Escudero, you ask? The answer to that question is simple: because you care about the city, and Andrea Pinochet-Escudero means well for our city. Ms. Pinochet-Escudero isn’t one of those virtue-signaling, holier-than-thou champagne socialists, given to the big lie. As the mother of two young boys, who just happens to be married to the great hope of our future, Derrick O’Keefe (who came within a hair’s breadth of winning a seat on Council in 2018), in 2022, Ms. Pinochet-Escudero has emerged as the Park Board candidate who advocated most for the construction of community pools, more so than was the case with any other Park Board candidate this year. COPE’s incumbent Park Board Commissioner, Gwen Giesbrecht — we’re endorsing her next — needs a seconder for her motions around the Park Board table, as Andrea will require of Gwen: that can only be achieved if you cast your ballot for the true HUMANIST socialists running for Park Board this election cycle — Andrea Pinochet-Escudero and Gwen Giesbrecht, who together will bring compassion, warmth of character, heart, unending intelligence, and a commitment to the democratic process to their role as Park Board Commissioners, and make no mistake, both Andrea and Gwen will be YOUR non-partisan voice at the Park Board table. VanRamblings urges you to please, please, please save two spots on your ballot, and fill in that oblong shape next to the names of Andrea Pinochet-Escudero and Gwen Giesbrecht. We promise: you’ll be glad you did.
Gwen Giesbrecht. VanRamblings has known Gwen Giesbrecht for 30 years, and all through those years when she sat as Chairperson of the Britannia Community Centre. When VanRamblings was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2016, Gwen played a pivotal role in helping put into perspective what was going on in our life in 2016 through 2017 — as did Vancouver School Board trustee, Allan Wong (who we’re also endorsing), who played a similar role to that of Gwen. In some measure, we believe we’re here today because of the kindness, the advice, the solace and support of both Gwen and Allan. Now, a bit about Gwen: We love strong women of principle and conscience. Women don’t come stronger — and full of good will, strong will and cheer, and more principled than Gwen Giesbrecht. For the past four years, as an incumbent Park Board Commissioner, Gwen has acted as the democrat on Park Board, for the first couple of years taking the role of Park Board Committee Chairperson — that’s the part of the meeting where the public is provided with an opportunity to present to our elected Park Board Commissioners on issues of concern to Vancouver’s good citizens, who couldn’t have asked for a fairer and more democratically-inclined Chair than proved to be the case with Gwen Giesbrecht. Going forward, VanRamblings sees Gwen as the tough, informed, no-nonsense conscience of Vancouver Park Board. VanRamblings is endorsing Andrea Pinochet-Escudero (who we love!), at least in part, so that Gwen might have a seconder for motions she places before the Board for consideration. Make no mistake: we NEED Gwen Giesbrecht on Park Board for the next four years (and Andrea, too!). Although Gwen’s a team player, woebetide the Commissioner who steps out of line … Gwen will be on them like maple syrup on pancakes.
The rationale for Endorsing the 7 Park Board candidates identified above
For much of VanRamblings’ adult life we have worked in and around the Downtown Eastside, and on Vancouver’s east side, in the neighbourhoods where we were raised, which we called home all the years we were growing up.
Over the years, VanRamblings has taught Grade 5 at Admiral Seymour Elementary, worked as a summer relief social worker out of both the Strathcona and Grandview Woodland Ministry of Human Resources offices (now called the Ministry of Children and Family Development), as well as taken on work as a Family Support Worker or Family Counselor, with various east side social agencies.
Dating back to 1996, VanRamblings was assigned by both the Pacific Regional Offices of Statistics Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation as liaison for the Downtown Eastside, and areas east. In recent years, we worked as an Outreach worker with the Lookout Housing Aid Society.
Much of our work involved working with families who lived in one of the many buildings within the Raymur Place housing project, now called Stamps Place.
A few years back, for a two-year period VanRamblings worked with children in crisis who lived in the Stamps Place neighbourhood, mostly boys and girls aged ten to twelve. The children were tender-hearted but angry, having been expelled from one school after another, and when we worked with them were tended to by ‘special needs’ educational assistants, and psychologists.
As such, VanRamblings’ experience in the area is extensive, given that our work involved one-to-one work with families in need, and more often than not — given our background as an educator — work with children in crisis, children — more often than not, girls, exploited or on the verge of being exploited by their parents, neighbourhood teenage boys, and area pimps.
Many of the children resident in Stamps Place have only one safe space where they might find respite from the misery of their lives: parks, in this case Strathcona Park, as Strathcona Park is located nearby Stamps Place.
In 2018, Vancouver voters elected a majority COPE / Green Party contingent as Park Board Commissioners, who responded to Vancouver’s burgeoning homelessness crisis — caused in the main by an influx of a new homeless population arriving in Vancouver from the Prairies, Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes — by opening up our parks system to tent encampments, not just in Strathcona and Oppenheimer parks, but in all parks located across Vancouver.
The impact of opening our parks to those who do not have a home — an issue the Courts have said is allowable, with the proviso this homeless population vacate the park no later than 7 a.m., a provision rarely if ever enforced. Thus many parks across our city have become home to a drug addicted, untreated mentally ill population, where crack pipes, needles, feces and detritus have taken over many of Vancouver’s parks, including children’s play areas.
For the 56% of Vancouver residents who are renters, and the 25% of Vancouver’s population who are condominium owners, Vancouver’s parks are residents green spaces, their de facto backyards, providing a place of solace in the open air, surrounded by trees and grass, a place of rest, recreation and reflection, not to mention playgrounds for their young and not-so-young children.
With tender hearts and compassion, five of our current Vancouver Park Board Commissioners over these past four years — COPE’s Gwen Giesbrecht, Vision Vancouver’s John Irwin and Stuart Mackinnon, and the Green Party of Vancouver’s Camil Dumont and Dave Demers — rather than act as stewards of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, and given that all three levels of government — municipal, provincial and federal — have failed to provide homes for Vancouver’s ever-increasing homeless population, out of good will and conscience, turned over many of Vancouver parks to our homeless population.
There is no question that Ms. Giesbrecht, Mr. Irwin, Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Dumont, and Mr. Demers in making Vancouver parks available as home to Vancouver’s homeless population acted with humanity and good faith.
However, in turning Vancouver’s parks system into homeless encampments, the 81% of Vancouver’s population for whom our parks are a place of rest, relaxation, solace and recreation, all out in the open air, and a place where their children might play in safety … well, let’s face it, in the main throughout our city, that is no longer the case for most Vancouver residents. Vancouver’s parks have, cruelly, become a haven for those in need of care and shelter.
Back to Stamps Place. As we wrote above, for many years we worked with young children, mostly girls, who were exploited by their parents, older boys and pimps, as sources of income for the exploiters, and as sexual playthings — let us remind you, we’re talking about 10, 11 and 12-year-old girls.
The ONLY safe place for the girls who live at Stamps Place, apart from the time they spend in school, is Strathcona Park, because at Strathcona Park there are safe and protective eyes on them always, the park not open to the pimps, the girls’ parents or the teenage boys who mean to exploit these young girls. Parents, pimps and teenage boys on the prowl enter Strathcona Park at their peril.
As such, for a brief period each day snuggled securely within Strathcona Park these young girls are provided with the opportunity to simply be what we would wish for all young children: preteen girls full of joy and the wonderment of life, out playing with their friends in the open air, in a place that promises safety, a sense of awe.
From September 2019 through until April 30th 2021 — nearly two years — Strathcona Park was “home” to a homeless population where homeless residents engaged in property theft, vandalism, a place where rape, violent assaults and fires were not uncommon. The Strathcona Park encampment was itself a hot spot for homicides, sexual and violent assaults, drug trafficking, and stolen goods, where there will multiple incidents of fires.
For VanRamblings, the tragedy of the Strathcona Park encampment was that for a period of some 20 months, exploited young girls no longer had a place of safety where they could meet with their friends, a place of respite where they could rest and get away from their lives, if only for an hour or two.
To VanRamblings that is a human tragedy. Young girls exploited, with nowhere to go, with no one to turn to, as a homeless population “took over” their park, their place of refuge, the only safe place in their neighbourhood where they would not be exploited, gone. A human tragedy involving not just vulnerable young girls, but the hundreds of children enrolled at Admiral Seymour Elementary and Strathcona elementary schools — who, for 20 months, had no place to go, no place of solace, no place to play outside with their friends.
VanRamblings believes we cannot allow this human tragedy to continue, we cannot allow further homeless park encampments to deny our children the same opportunities with which we were provided growing up.
Thus today, VanRamblings endorses the full slate of the very fine TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver candidates for Park Board, as well as Dave Pasin, along with COPE’s Gwen Giesbrecht and Vote Socialist’s Andrea Pinochet-Escudero, who might act as the conscience on the 2022 – 2016 Vancouver Park Board.
We urge you to vote wisely, and in the interests of all Vancouver citizens, and most particularly for all the children in our city, who live across every neighbourhood in Vancouver, who require ready and safe access to our parks.
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’sStephanie 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.
… 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.
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?
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’sStephanie 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.
