Tag Archives: #vanpoli

#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 | Andrew Johns’ Coastal Front Election Pundit Panel

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Above, a pundit panel gathered by Coastal Front’s Andrew Johns, featuring …

  • The eminence gris / the doyenne of Vancouver civic affairs reporting, Frances Bula — who has covered the civic scene dating back to 1994, first for the Vancouver Sun (where she worked for 20 years), and since then for The Globe and Mail,  as a “stringer”. For awhile now, Ms. Bula has written for Vancouver Magazine, where she is a featured columnist. In addition, Frances Bula is a past Chair of the Journalism Department at Langara College, where she continues to teach, and is also an adjunct professor in the School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia. Phew, we know — where does she get all that energy, and just how many hours are there in a day that affords Ms. Bula the opportunity to be such a productive citizen, and invaluable member of our community? Fortunately (or is that, unfortunately) the no-nothings, the disrespectfuls, the “basket of deplorables” in our community gain much pleasure in their meaningless lives by deriding the incredibly humane Ms. Bula online, and sometimes in her appearances on panels, unlike the one above.
  • Then there’s the first of the two good guys: multi-term Non-Partisan Association (NPA) — when Vancouver’s oldest municipal party was a functioning civic party, a party mostly beloved by Vancouver citizens — Vancouver City Councillor, George Affleck. At one time an on-air host with the CBC and, for many years the CEO of Curve Communications, a successful full service digital marketing agency, Mr. Affleck is the president and CEO of the agency. Politics: between 2011 & 2018, Mr. Affleck served as a Councillor at Vancouver City Hall. Yes, we’re talking accomplished. Did we mention that he’s a bright guy, a kind guy, an engaging guy, and a politically adept fellow, possessed of a wry sense of humour? Well, he is, as well as many more good things.
  • That handsome, erudite fellow of good cheer, and much élan — by far the hardest working, best researched and most humanely engaging “podcaster” in British Columbia — we have the multi-talented and engaging Mo Amir. Possessed of a Bachelor of Business Administration, and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Simon Fraser University, Mr. Amir launched the This is VANCOLOUR podcast in 2018, as an exploration of culture and politics in Vancouver and B.C. — and what a massive hit this ‘must listen to’ (and now, must-watch on CHEK-TV) podcast has become.

You couldn’t ask for a better informed, more engaging, more erudite and — when you get right down to it — more non-partisan panel of civic election pundits than the accomplished Frances “don’t try to put one over on me” Bula, George “hey, let’s get real … you can’t be serious” Affleck, and Mo “I may appear affable, but I’m not going to let you get away with a darned thing” Amir. So, that’s what we’re presenting for your edification today — where the 2022 Vancouver civic election campaign is at, how the Mayoral candidates and the civic parties they’re running with are faring, and predictions as to how this whole meshuggeneh election will turn out!

#VanElxn2022 | Mayoral All-Candidates Forum | False Creek at Creekside

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False Creek Residents Association Vancouver Mayoral All-Candidates forum, held on Wednesday, September 21st, 2022 at the Creekside Community Centre, located in the heart of the Olympic Village

On Wednesday evening, the False Creek Residents Association — you know, one of those residents associations Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle insistently derides as an “extra legal” form of government, that by their very existence challenges the elected officials who sit within Vancouver City Hall’s Council chambers — held a Mayoral all-candidates forum, where the turnout was tremendous and, as you will see, those present, and now you, can learn about: Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Mayoral candidate Fred Harding, TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s Colleen Hardwick, Progress Vancouver‘s Mark Marissen, and ABC’s (A Better City) Ken Sim.

Judge for yourself while watching the 21-minute video above, but from VanRamblings’ perspective, we thought all of the Mayoral candidates presented well, as passionate and informed advocates for the citizens of Vancouver.

For us, ABC Mayoral candidate Ken Sim proved somewhat of a surprise — thus far, Mr. Sim has missed all but one Mayoral forum — as he appeared self-assured and self-confident, familiar with and convincing on the issues of most concern to Vancouver voters in 2022.

NPA Mayoral candidate Fred Harding was his usual articulate self, a superior public speaker and commanding presence, who focused on the core issue of his campaign for the Mayor’s suite — public safety, so as to alleviate the concerns of all Vancouver residents. Progress Vancouver’s Mark Marissen was his usual avuncular and impassioned self, looking ever inch the Mayoral candidate for whom Vancouver voters will cast their ballot next month, on Election Day.

Without wishing to sound too partisan, VanRamblings believes that TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate, current Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick, won the night, so utterly informed was she about the minutiae of government, what it takes to be a successful Mayor, so compelling was she in her presentation of what Vancouver could be — what it must be — if Vancouver is to thrive, and continue as home to the cultural, ethnic and demographic dynamic that we know Vancouver to be, what we risk losing should voters cast their ballot for anyone other than Colleen Hardwick and her TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver.

Take a gander at the video above. See if you don’t agree with our assessment.

There is an upcoming Mayoral all-candidates forum where the near invisible, hiding out (or, so it would seem) current Mayor in absentia, Edward Charles Kennedy Stewart is bound to attend … which is this Saturday morning’s Chinatown Mayoral all-candidates town hall — a failure to show would exhibit such an egregious lack of respect for Vancouver’s Chinese community that his absence could very well be interpreted as a declaration that he is throwing in the towel, that he doesn’t want to continue to be Vancouver’s Mayor.

Not to mention, failure to show at a Mayoral debate moderated by the doyenne of Vancouver civic affairs reporting could very well have the uncompromising Ms. Bula writing the Mayor’s political obituary, as early as this Saturday afternoon.