Early Wednesday afternoon, VanRamblings received correspondence from the 10th Vancouver civic party that will offer candidates in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, the newly registered Restore Vancouver.
Catricide: A New Vancouver Political Party Enters the Fray
Make of the following what you will (all grammatical and syntactical errors are Mr. Ileman’s). Here’s what Restore Vancouver party founder and Vancouver’s newest municipal election mayoralty candidate Steffan Ileman posted to us yesterday afternoon (graphics inserted by VanRamblings) …
Steffan Ileman, the new candidate in the mayoralty race in Vancouver, British Columbia calls it ethnic cleansing of Canadians as more property owners sell out to Asian millionaires and leave the city. He says this is not only ethnic cleansing, but cultural cleansing as well since many businesses are also forced to shut down or leave due to exorbitant rents or property taxes. He says this massive foreign financial intrusion into Vancouver real estate is depriving Canadians and their children of a future in Canada’s Pacific port. As mayor he will do everything possible under the city’s legal jurisdiction, including expropriation, to stop this process.
An entrepreneur with extensive experience in international trade and the air passenger sales business, Ileman came to media attention last summer when he led a protest movement against the proliferation of concrete-separated bike lanes that created traffic gridlocks. He says the bike lanes were a diversion from the real issue: build as many cubicles in the sky as possible for sale in Asia. The city council has turned Vancouver into a toxic concrete jungle unprecedented in the city’s history. As Mayor, Ileman will declare a two-year moratorium on development and renovation permits.
Ileman experienced first-hand the ill effects of an ill-advised city council decision when he personally had to endure a renovation permit issued by the city for replacement of windows with all tenants inside. His two cats died in the toxic environment created by the construction in the building due to government negligence with respect to the safety of tenants. It turned out that through an ill-advised new city bylaw his new windows can only open 4 inches at the bottom, blocking 90-percent of fresh air intake for his suite in the 60-year-old building. Ileman says Vancouver condos built or renovated under this bylaw are unhealthy and unfit for human habitation. He has asked BC Premier John Horgan to rescind this bylaw, and the city’s authority to pass its own building code.
Steffan Ileman is running under the banner Restore Vancouver, a municipal party he created. He will field other candidates for Councillors in the October election. He says the main objective of Restore Vancouver is to create a referendum system using digital technology, a first in Canada, for real, participatory democracy. Ileman also intends to lobby for the people of Vancouver in the federal and provincial capitals. He says carbon tax is a scam that will do nothing to protect the environment.
Gosh, VanRamblings was concerned that in the coming election, voters would have only two choices in Wai Young’s Coalition Vancouver and Fred Harding and Jesse Johl’s Vancouver 1st party for which to cast a ballot if they were opposed to those toxic concrete jungle-creating bike lanes.
Thank goodness that Steffan Ileman and Restore Vancouver have come onto the scene to offer voters a third alternative to ensure that those durn, dastardly, health-creating, environmentally responsible, and wildly popular bike lanes are taken down, and blown to smithereens! More cars we say!
We’re pretty sure that longtime City Hall Active Transportation Policy Council Chairperson and current and VDLC-endorsed Vision Vancouver City Council candidate Tanya Paz will sleep better tonight knowing that Mr. Ileman is on the case to ensure that her work, and the work of her committee members, will have come to naught should he be elected Mayor.
We’re pretty sure, too, the folks at HUB and mobi bike share will be darned thrilled with Mr. Ileman. Or maybe not. Who knows? It’s all so confusing.
And don’t get us started on Mr. Ileman’s use of the term “ethnic cleansing.”
And maybe he’s on to something when he argues for “a two-year moratorium on development and renovation permits.” Of course, that would mean no affordable housing construction — but, heck, who needs that sorta thing anyway, y’know? Take us back to a time that never was, bring the Trump revolution to Vancouver, and be sure to vote Restore Vancouver. Not!
