Over this past weekend, the Vancouver & District Labour Council held a one day conference, open to members of the labour movement, and Boards of Directors and candidates running with Vancouver’s five progressive civic parties — the Greens, OneCity, TeamJean, COPE and Vision Vancouver — Saturday’s Crossroads Conference, a plenary session designed to put 100 Vancouver politicos, and labour activists, in a large conference room together, at the Croatian Cultural Centre, and introduce them to each other, many of the participants meeting one other for the very first time.
Ben Bolliger (pictured above), a candidate for nomination for Vancouver City Council in the current election cycle, running with OneCity Vancouver — the civic party VanRamblings believes will emerge as the powerhouse political force in the 2018 Vancouver civic election — attended the critically important Crossroads Conference on this Saturday past, and was kind enough to speak with VanRamblings about his experience.
Listen to the audio above. See if you don’t come away impressed with the expressively optimistic & politically sophisticated Mr. Bolliger. Articulate? Ben’s picture may be found right next to the definition of the word in your dictionary (c’mon now, people still have those in their homes, don’t they?).
Ben is a Project Manager with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), having worked in public health now for four years, including having served as the Manager of the Project and Change Management office with Providence Health Care, where he worked extensively and in close contact with staff and the administration at metropolitan St. Paul’s Hospital.
Just a few of the very fine folks in OneCity Vancouver, who are working for you.
More, you want to know more about the affable and — ”Hey, I’m casting a ballot for Ben Bolliger at the advance Vancouver civic election polls in October, or on election day, Saturday, October 20th, aren’t you? You are? Good! — Ben Bolliger (the link, it’s Ben’s candidate website — really, honest, you should click on it, learn more about Ben, and then come right back here) is, as you may have gathered at this point, seeking a OneCity nomination for Vancouver City Council. Ben, a person of conscience.
2018. Entering the political fray? Emerging as a difference maker? Nope, this isn’t Ben’s first visit to the farm. He’s been there as a graduate political science student focusing on First Nations history — in our nation’s capital, at the University of Ottawa — after which, Ben went on to work as a parliamentary assistant with late NDP leader, Jack Layton’s federal NDP.
In 2008, Ben moved to the west coast, settling in the West End. Ben, as may be seen in the rough and tumble photo above, is an avid cyclist, currently completing his second term as a member of the City of Vancouver’s essential Active Transportation Policy Council. Good for us.
Ben’s issues, the ones he is focusing on? How about: working collegially with his colleagues on Vancouver City Council, one of whom will most assuredly be fellow One City candidate, Christine Boyle; tackling Vancouver’s current affordable housing crisis — which means, of course, the construction of thousands of housing co-op units on city-owned land, on a 66-year lease, with no cost to taxpayers, given that developers will build the housing co-ops as part of Vancouver’s much-vaunted Community Amenities Contribution programme — as well as working with the federal and provincial governments, and businesses in our city, to continue the diversification of Vancouver’s booming economy, although an economy that continues to leave some Vancouver citizens out. Ben aims to fix that.
Addressing the issue of accessibility is also a key concern for Ben Bolliger — Ben is right when he says, “Vancouver must be a city for everyone.”
Conscientious, accomplished, ready to get to work for you, an elected official who will answer all calls placed to his office at City Hall, will respond to each & every e-mail, who will listen to your concerns, and take action to remedy those concerns, working with others to ensure remediation occurs.
And, if you get out there to support Ben’s candidacy — as you must — Ben Bolliger will emerge as a soon-to-be-elected public official who will be on your side, each and every day. Voters simply can’t ask for more than that, in 2018 or in any other year, when traveling to the polls to cast their ballot.
