Truth to tell, VanRamblings despairs over the 2022 Vancouver civic election.
Not that Vancouver’s 2022 municipal election differs all that much from the Vancouver civic elections of 2011, 2014 and 2018: same partisan sniping, same crass behaviour from supporters — whether paid, or otherwise — emerging from the various parties, as well as the candidates themselves.
The people who shared that post are now volunteering with the civic party @OneCityVan. OneCity supporter James Wanless described me as "ape-like" just the other day.
— Rohana Rezel 🐘 @rohanarezel@vindi.ca (@rohanarezel) September 19, 2022
Among the electorate, anomie would seem to be the order of the day, with polls showing upwards of 40% of Vancouver’s electorate either undecided as to which party and which candidates they’ll be supporting as voting gets underway in as little as three weeks from now — if those citizens intend to vote at all, so alienated and cynical are they about the prospects of any of the parties, or their candidates, acting to build affordable housing for the average wage earner in Vancouver, or remedying an increasingly disturbing public safety issue in our city, where — as was broadcast on Global BC, recently — upwards of 1500 random, unprovoked attacks on innocent victims have occurred in Vancouver since the outset of the year.
Forward Together & ABC Vancouver Prepare to Knock Each Other Out
VanRamblings is being inundated with assurances that Stanley Q. Woodvine “finding” Forward Together’s donors list last week was not serendipity, but a planned attack by those behind the ABC Vancouver campaign to wipe out their main competition. VanRamblings has been told “it’s all too coincidental“, that it was planned, and we’re naïve if we believe any differently.
Someone dropped a two-page spreadsheet printout on the south sidewalk of 300 block W Broadway. Appears to be a list of donors and donations. Who knows if it's legit? The donors names are eye-catching! #Vancouver #Vanpoli pic.twitter.com/9i9yQ28FYU
— Stanley Q Woodvine (@sqwabb) September 13, 2022
Bad blood, and greed. Meanwhile, VanRamblings has also been told the development industry supporters of the Mayor’s Forward Together party hired a team of investigators awhile ago to dig up dirt on ABC Vancouver and the party’s Mayoral candidate, Ken Sim — and the party’s Council candidates seeking election, or re-election — which material when released will devastate the ABC Vancouver campaign for office, while severely prejudicing this second newly-formed municipal party’s chances for success at the polls next month.
VanRamblings was advised the developer backers of ABC — Rocky Mountaineer railroader, Peter Armstrong, and Lululemon founder, Chip Wilson — don’t want to share the wealth with the likes of Vancouver Canucks’ owner Francesco Aquilini, Concord Pacific’s Terry Hui, and all of the other developer supporters of our city’s beleaguered incumbent Mayor, Kennedy Stewart.
Vancouver civic politics: a tangled web has been woven in the 2022 civic election that could knock out both leading developer-backed municipal parties.
Internal Party Polling: ABC Vancouver Leading, Forward Together Flailing
When VanRamblings arises from our slumber, we like to take a shower to wake us up. We have a shower radio to accompany us while showering, so we can listen to music. Of late that’s proven more and more difficult. Here’s why …
We have the radio tuned to 104.3 The Breeze. Turn on the radio: Ken Sim ad. Switch the station to Move 103.5. Ken Sim ad. Next up: 94.5 Virgin Radio. Ken Sim ad. Z95.3 FM. Yep, another Ken Sim / ABC Vancouver radio ad. Little wonder that Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver team are leading in the polls, given that they’re the only civic party running saturation radio ads across every demographic, while placing their increasingly sophisticated television ads on local evening news programmes.
Here’s what the latest internal party rolling polls are showing …
- Ken Sim, and ABC (A Better City), 28% to 33%;
- Mayor Kennedy Stewart, and his Forward Together civic party, 21% to 25%;
- TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver, 14% – 16%;
- Fred Harding, and the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), 8% to 12%;
- Mark Marissen, and his Progress Vancouver team, 6% – 8%.
If the above polling is correct, that leaves Vision / One City, the Greens, COPE, and Vote Socialist sharing anywhere between 7% and 23% of the vote.
VanRamblings has been informed incumbents, the NPA’s Melissa De Genova is languishing at 13th, while OneCity’s Christine Boyle is mired at 16th.
The only Council candidates whose names we have been given that are in the top 10, and a shoe-in for election, or re-election: ABC’s Sarah Kirby-Yung and Mike Klassen; COPE’s Jean Swanson; TEAM’s Bill Tieleman (currently lodged at 6th); and, the Greens’ Adriane Carr and Pete Fry.
Otherwise, ABC’s Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato have been bouncing in and out of the top 10, as has TEAM’s Sean Nardi, whose name appears first on the Council ballot voters will receive next month, and COPE’s Breen Ouelette, whose name appears second on the voters’ Council ballot.
Note should be made, as well, that standout Non-Partisan Association Council candidates Arezo Zarribian — one of VanRamblings’ very favourite candidates for office in 2022, whose name will feature prominently on our Women Council Candidates Endorsement List, in early October — and her very able, accomplished running mate, Cinnamon Bhayani (who we’re also pretty darn high on, for her integrity and élan), and our friend and longtime associate, Ken Charko, have also been featured in Council’s Top 10 candidates for election list sporadically, but quite often.
As is almost always the case when covering an election, there is far too much gamesmanship in the coverage and practice of politics throughout the election cycle, and too much reporting on the horse race aspect of media coverage.
Mayoral candidates, l-r: Kennedy Stewart, Colleen Hardwick, Ken Sim, Mark Marissen, Fred Harding
In an election, though, where voters don’t know where to place their vote, reporting on the placement of candidates for office, derived from both the leaked internal party polls, and the public polling you see reported online, on the radio, or during the evening news has a function — which is, the reporting of numbers and the foofaraw of the various shenanigans that help to define the election, generates voter interest, even if its prurient interest and not directed towards policy, or serious consideration of the issues that will determine the future of our beloved city.
