Earlier this week, Charlie Smith, the longtime beloved and respected editor of The Georgia Straight published an article in The Straight titled 12 noteworthy independent Council candidates running for office in the current Vancouver municipal election. One expects that Charlie did so to make some sense of this confusing election: 71 candidates will find their names listed on a non-alphabeticized, randomized ballot; when you head to the polls, you’re gonna have to sift through those 71 names, and make some sense of the jumbled mish-mash of names with which you’ll be confronted.

Independent candidates for Vancouver City Council Sarah Blyth, Rob McDowell, Erin Shum & Wade Grant, acknowledged by The Straight’s Charlie Smith as noteworthy candidates.

Bartender, independent & utterly unknown Council candidate Mario Franson tops the ballot. As may be seen in the graphic below, placing second on the ballot, OneCity Vancouver’s splendid candidate Christine Boyle — the single most important Council candidate to elect to City Hall in the next term of office — followed by Vancouver First’s Nycki Basra, who we know nothing about given that she left her disclosure statement blank — maybe she exists only on paper. Enquiring minds want to know a bit about you Ms. Basra, given that you’re applying to voters for an $88,000-a-year job at City Hall as a City Councillor; your résumé offers thin gruel. I’m afraid that we’re going to have to reject your application. Better luck next time.

Taking a look at the randomly organized City Councillor ballot above, there’s a goodly number of those candidates who will be elected to Vancouver City Council. Voters tends to vote by name recognition, ballot order of names, and political party, all of which leaves the NPA’s Melissa De Genova and Colleen Hardwick in good shape, as well as the Green Party’s Pete Fry, One City’s Christine Boyle, independent and top polling School Board candidate in the 2014 civic election, Penny Noble, COPE’s Anne Roberts, and current Park Board Commissioner, Catherine Evans. Four or more of these candidates are almost a lock for Council come October 20th.
For the record, we neither support, nor are we endorsing either of Colleen Hardwick or Penny Noble, who we believe would make for terrible, non-co-operative, right-of-centre City Councillors, blustery narcissists and non-progressive candidates, who have their but not our best interests at heart.
Voters generally scan the whole ballot before casting their votes. If there’s a candidate’s name in the middle of the ballot that jumps out at them (i.e., name or party recognition), a voter will generally put a check beside that candidate’s name. For the most part, though, for time immemorial, voters cast their ballot for candidates topping the list, and feeling a pang of guilt, head to the bottom of the ballot to cast their remaining votes.
This is what “the end” of the City Councillor randomized ballot looks like …

The end of the ballot sports a surfeit of well known candidates who will be elected to City Council in the 2018 Vancouver civic election. COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe is all but a lock (yippee!), as are the Green Party’s Adriane Carr and Michael Wiebe. Independents Sarah Blyth and Rob McDowell and the Coalition Party’s Glen Chernen have strong name recognition, and Heather Deal’s chances for re-election rise astronomically by being the final name on the ballot — a necessary vote for Heather will mean preservation of institutional memory, which will be sorely lacking on the next Council.
Candidates at the top of the ballot, and candidates at the bottom of the ballot have to be feeling pretty darn good about their chances for election this next four year term to Vancouver City Council.
Candidates whose names appear in the middle of the ballot (#36, active transportation advocate Tanya Paz; #40 Sarah Kirby-Yung, a current Park Board Commissioner, who we believe is a must, must-elect; and #45, anti-poverty activist, Jean Swanson — although she’s got good name recognition) have to be feeling that there names will get lost amidst the morass that is the 2018 Vancouver civic election randomized ballot.
Voters have only 33 names to consider on each of the randomized School Board and Park Board ballots — but you have to figure that wading through 158 names on this year’s oversized election ballot when considering who to vote for at the polling station will prove to be a significant concern to many voters. Perhaps by the time most voters get to the School Board and Park Board ballots, they’ll either leave those ballots blank, or cast their votes hither, thither and yon. We continue to believe, as well, that in 2018, we’ll experience a record low turnout among voters — only time will tell, though.
As Winnie the Pooh would say, “What to do? What to do?”

In order to make sense of the mishegas that is the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, you’ll want to make some sense of what’s going on.
You can certainly do that by returning to VanRamblings each day for the next 24 days — you can read what we write, or read between the lines. Christopher Porter is doing a pretty fine job of covering the election over at Canadian Veggie. Ian Bushfield, Patrick Meehan and Matthew Naylor, of this election’s indispensable Cambie Report blog, are doing a pretty darn fine job of covering the election with some of this civic election’s most pointed, poignant and informed repartée on the podcasts you’ll find on their site.
Charlie Smith at The Straight continues to do a bang up job of covering our current municipal election, as does Frances Bula at the Globe and Mail, Jen St. Denis at the Star Vancouver, Dan Fumano at Postmedia (the Vancouver Sun and The Province); and Mike Howell, Allen Garr and my friend and civic affairs columnist, Mike Klassen at the Vancouver Courier.
Stephen Quinn, on CBC’s Early Edition, is providing some of the best municipal election coverage you’ll find anywhere. A must listen. If you miss Stephen’s interviews and commentary live, you can always subscribe to the podcast (as VanRambling does), or listen online to the very same podcasts.
You’ll also want to attend as many all-candidates meetings as you can make it to, which is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. We’re updating our DEFINITIVE upcoming candidate forum and townhall listings daily. Today we’ve added a Science & Policy Integration forum, an Arts Alliance of BC townhall, a new Mayoral debate scheduled for next Monday in Mount Pleasant, and a must-attend Women Candidate Civic Election Forum.
To access the listings, all you have to do is click on the link directly below.

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

See author's posts