The woman you see above is Danika Skye Hammond.
Danika was recently appointed Executive Assistant to Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the hard-working, industrious and principled Michelle Mungall, Ms. Skye Hammond employed in Ms. Mungall’s two Kootenay offices, centered in the Nelson / Creston area, in the region of our province where Danika was raised, loves and has long called home.
As VanRamblings has suggested to retired Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter / current Creston-based beekeeper, Jeff Lee, whenever he feels he needs a boost in his mood, a centering and hopeful presence in his life, he’ll want to make sure to visit Danika in Minister Mungall’s Creston office.
Danika Skye Hammond, a year and a half ago, a UBC student in her third year at the University of British Columbia and an activist / executive member of the BC Young New Democrats, was the volunteer co-ordinator on Vancouver Point Grey MLA David Eby’s 2017 campaign for re-election.
The tremendously wonderful, organized, exceptionally bright, principled and inspiring persons of conscience, Danika Skye Hammond and the always marvelous, Gala Milne
VanRamblings contends that Danika Skye Hammond’s presence on Mr. Eby’s campaign was, in significant measure, the reason he was re-elected to office, and now sits as British Columbia’s Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Minister of All He Surveys. Oh sure, Gala Milne (currently working in the AG’s office) was David’s able and organized and sterling campaign manager, and Megan Sali (now back east starting a law degree after spending a year helping the government to establish itself in power) and Duncan Watts-Grant did a laudable job on communications, and Erin Arnold — taking time off from her usual employment as a social worker — as the campaign’s organized office manager, with Susan Walsh, as always keeping the troops fed while an ever-present John Yano (current Vancouver civic election Mayoral candidate) performed his usual campaign ‘jack of all trades’ office worker to a fare-thee-well, but VanRamblings knows that …
Danika Skye Hammond was the beating, pulsing heart of David Eby’s absolutely necessary for us all 2017 campaign re-election bid. No Danika Skye Hammond on the David Eby re-election team, David may have eked out a victory & just barely at that, or perhaps even lost to James Lombardi.
As we say above, Danika Skye Hammond worked as the volunteer co-ordinator on David Eby’s 2017 re-election campaign — that meant Danika was responsible for recruiting volunteers to the campaign, and co-ordinating the work of the volunteers. What did Danika’s work entail?
Volunteers. 400 hundred of them. Large, organized blackboard, on the wall to the left and just a little bit north of Danika’s desk, names of 400 volunteers on the board, assigned to burmashaving, door knocking, street corner events with the candidate, supporting the candidate at all candidate meetings, and every outside the office ‘job’ you might imagine.
Now, as you might also imagine, co-ordinating 400 volunteers meant not only communicating and organizing those volunteers, but inspiring those volunteers to work harder, to work smarter, to keep notes, report back, and be ready to work to the best of their capacity the next day, full of spirit and dedication towards the goal of victory for our much-beloved candidate, David Eby in government proving to be the most dedicated Minister of Justice and Attorney General in British Columbia history.
As Gala Milne will attest, as will those 400 volunteers, Danika Skye Hammond was a transcendent force on David Eby’s 2017 re-election bid, the single most inspiring and welcoming presence on a political campaign VanRamblings has witnessed in 55 years of political campaigning.
There was not one volunteer on David Eby’s 2017 campaign re-election bid who would not have given their lives for Danika.
Every single day, Danika had at the ready for the volunteers, all of the appropriate flyers, signs and materials that would be required by the volunteers, all counted out, wrapped in recyclable elastic bands where necessary or in envelopes, with clipboards, pens and just the right campaign literature attached to those clipboards.
On a campaign that could, at times, tend towards the chilly (at least to some of us older folks), Danika was the smiling, organized, welcoming presence, 6am til midnight, seven days a week. VanRamblings didn’t see Danika break once (and we were in David’s campaign office ALL the time).
Late at night, in the dim light of early morning, we could see Danika organizing volunteer activities for the coming day, a beatific presence.
VanRamblings is unsure that we’ll ever see the likes of a Danika Skye Hammond on any political campaign on which we will work in the future, but migawd are we — every single person who worked with Danika — grateful that we were afforded the once in a lifetime opportunity to be inspired by and to work with Danika Skye Hammond in the spring of 2017.
What does all this palaver about Danika Skye Hammond have to do with the price of donuts, and the 2018 Vancouver civic election?
Listen up and listen tight.
At the outset of the 2018 Vancouver civic election, co-campaign managers on the OneCity Vancouver campaign, Deanna Ogle and Mary Leighton, called a meeting of the party’s candidates, part-time staff and volunteers, and members of the Board (who were instrumental in drafting a policy on campaign deportment), and instructed those who were gathered to …
“Be kind. Always be kind to one another. Be kind to the people you meet on the street when you’re out canvassing. Be kind to our fellow citizens who enter our office. Be kind when you’re delivering signs and dropping them off. Be kind, be especially kind, to the candidates running for office with political parties other than our own.”
“From the moment you begin work with our campaign of social justice and change for the better, from this moment on, you are a representative for the OneCity Vancouver campaign, from early morning til late at night. Support our very fine candidates for office. In a world of social media opprobrium, never seek to respond with bitterness, rather respond with reason and kindness, if at all. As a representative on the OneCity Vancouver campaign, from this moment on, it is incumbent on you to never, ever, ever, in any circumstance, or on any social media forum disparage any candidate running with a party that is not our own, anyone in the press, or any campaign volunteer on another party’s campaign.”
“For us, and for yourself, be your best self at all times.”
“And, please recognize that we are in an alliance with COPE, Vision Vancouver and the Greens — which means that always, always, always it is of critical importance that you remember that all of those candidates and persons who are working on the COPE, Vision and Green campaigns are our allies. We love, respect and honour their service to our community as we love our own families, and as we love one another.”
And you know what, even though they’re the “opposition” to the left-of-centre parties, Vancouver Non-Partisan Association campaign manager and VanRamblings’ good friend Patrick O’Connor, and his very fine campaign team of Wendy Hartley, John Manning and Mike Witherley gave near exact the same instruction as above to their party’s candidates and volunteers.
Vision Vancouver gave much the same speech to their candidates, and volunteers. And so did Mark Marrissen and Mike Wilson, on Hector Bremner’s Yes Vancouver campaign. Wai Young, too. All civic political parties but two have adhered to the campaign of kindness, personal responsibility and integrity political ethos in this civic election campaign.
Because, as anyone who has ever worked on a political campaign knows, campaign staff and volunteers never, ever, ever, under any circumstance or in any forum deride or disparage their “opponents” running for office in a campaign. To do so only serves to undermine the work that is undertaken by the campaign staff, the party’s Board of Directors, and the heart-filled volunteers of principle who often dedicate their every waking hour to helping achieve victory for the candidates whose candidacies they support.
And did we mention the Green Party of Vancouver’s campaign manager Ryan Clayton, and their absolutely superb and tremendously talented Director of Communications Alex Brunke? Well, as any person who has ever spent time around Green Party candidates for office, the members of their Board of Directors, and Ryan and Alex, in particular, know that the Green Party of Vancouver wrote the book on kindness in political campaigns.
You know how they say, ‘The meek shall inherit the Earth’? Well, VanRamblings wouldn’t exactly call the Green Party folks meek (cuz they’re activist persons of conscience), but we would call them principled, and kind, thoughtful and collaborative, and aim to do and be better, non-partisan change makers, as fine a group of folks as you’d ever want to meet.
Unfortunately, and very sad to say, there are two political parties whose candidates are seeking office in the 2018 Vancouver civic election where members of the paid campaign staff and volunteers (and in the case of one of the parties, candidates for the party) have gone online to disparage and name call and unwarrantedly, viciously attack candidates who have been endorsed, in one instance, by the Vancouver & District Labour Council, and with whose candidates and parties they are in an alliance. It is to weep.
Perhaps the most foul, acting out malefactor in the 2018 Vancouver civic election campaign — and that’s going some, considering who’s out there and what they’re doing — is a COPE operative, Samuel Holmes, who seems to derive great perverse pleasure and takes the greatest possible delight with ad hominem attacks on candidates in the COPE alliance, with the working press, and any other target of his mean-spiritedness, absolutely delighted in undermining the campaign of principle his party is running. Alas.
That such egregious conduct is extant among only some of the party’s high profile operatives only serves to undercut and undermine the very fine campaigns that their party’s candidates are running for office in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election — the very best campaign for office by their party in more than a generation, with the best grouping of candidates of principle we can recall seeking elected office dating back to the 1980s.
Yesterday, VanRamblings wrote that we were livid at the conduct of some campaign operatives in going after candidates, woman candidates in particular (which we consider to be woman-hating misogyny, or self-hating misogyny, as the case may be). We have expressed to campaign operatives how egregious and counterproductive to victory we find the conduct of the few miscreant operatives working on their party’s electoral campaign.
Most political parties would fire the campaign operatives who are acting out immediately, and disavow their conduct as contrary to the aims of their party during the election process. Unfortunately, those in decision-making positions with the one party to which we refer are not exactly known for integrity of purpose, intelligence and humanity — we hold out feint hope that those campaign operatives who are acting out will held to account.