Part 3 of The Death of Cynicism series offers again a brief insight into, this time, four Vancouver City Councillors: the “she’s the only Councillor who has kept her focus on why Council was elected” Jean Swanson; the incredibly articulate and bright (and, dare we say, hope of our future), Sarah Kirby-Yung; the indefatigable, hard-charging, never-say-die Colleen Hardwick; and the ‘wears his heart on his sleeve’, ‘man of the people’, who by the way is also incredibly bright and articulate (and a great writer, to boot), migawd are we glad he’s on Council, hard-working for us, Pete Fry.
Note. Today’s posting represents a bit of a departure from the ‘survey of what they’ve done’ coverage of the six Councillors we’ve written about to date this week — today’s column more an impressionistic take on the four Councillors we write about (glowingly, as it happens) in this column.

Much beloved Vancouver City Councillor Jean Swanson, pictured with Council ‘helpmate’ (who offers Jean support at Council meetings), former COPE Councillor, Anne Roberts.

There’s a reason Jean Swanson was elected in the top four of City Councillors thrust into office in Vancouver in the October 2018 municipal election. Councillor Swanson (“Jean, call me Jean — I mean, really“) made it abundantly clear during last year’s raucous election cycle that she was about one thing and one thing only: making ours a fairer and more just city, to wit … that housing is a human right, and that she would be dogged in working to secure social housing for those most in need, and affordable housing for women and men and families who are being driven out of the city by Vancouver’s unaffordable housing prices, and sky-rocketing rents.
And true to her word, Councillor Jean Swanson has done just that.

Councillor Swanson’s frustration at the unfocused, off-topic flights of fancy in which her Council colleagues often engage — forgetting all the while, and seeming to utterly ignore that job one for this Council is the provision of affordable housing — has only kept her more single-minded in her pursuit of social justice for the 80% of Vancouver residents who are having a hard go of it in Vancouver, and look to her to resolve the morass that life in our city can sometimes prove to be resultant from an economic unfairness.
Although Councillor Swanson initially found the process of decision-making and the adherence to Roberts Rule of Order at Council meetings contrary to what for her constituted good governance — which is to say, getting on with the job she, and her Council colleagues were elected to perform … by which she means, an immediate restructuring of decision-making at City Hall in order to undertake the massive task of ensuring the provision of affordable housing in our city — in recent months, as she has become aware that a mastery of Roberts Rule of Order was mandatory if she were to be effective in promoting our cause at the Council table, Ms. Swanson has proved an effectual and determined Council procedural whirlwind, while having to develop patience with a contingent of her younger Council colleagues who far too often seem to be held in sway to the wishes of city staff, and most egregiously to gainsaying City Manager, Sadhu Johnston.

Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung (in the middle) on one of her many forays into the community, at this year’s S.U.C.C.E.S.S. Gala, flanked on her right by the organization’s CEO, Queenie Choo, and Pete Fry’s long-suffering but loving wife, Donna, and on her left, Councillor Pete Fry, and her NPA Park Board colleague, Tricia Barker.

One of the three most media savvy Vancouver City Councillors (the other two, Councillors Christine Boyle and Pete Fry, although we would be remiss not to place truth-telling, far from naïve, ‘always speaks her mind’ Councillor Colleen Hardwick in this category), VanRamblings’ favourite City Councillor, focused and on our side to a fare-thee-well, for us the star of this Council, the camera loves her and so do we (and by ‘we’ I mean the people of Vancouver, and our sometimes cynical press), Sarah Kirby-Yung.
Sarah Kirby-Yung is a populist of the first order (and, no, not a Trump-like populist), who practices the ‘politics of the people’ in much the way that the much-missed Rafe Mair did when he was in office. Calm, reasoned and reasonable, a woman anyone who knows her or listens to what she has to say becomes quickly aware that while articulate, informed and forthcoming on a range of topics of concern to the public, that when Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung speaks, she is speaking directly to you, plain-spoken always, her words measured, substantive and easy to ‘grok’, her reassuring voice tinged with just a hint of an upbeat, hopeful and inspiring tone, leaving all who know or have heard her with a sense that “this Sarah Kirby-Yung person, she’s on our side, she’s the real deal, a woman we can count on.”
Councillor Kirby-Yung is by far the best communicator on Council (although she has competition on that front from the tireless, always on our side, Christine Boyle). We have written previously, and will write again, that it is mandatory that all citizens in Vancouver follow Ms. Kirby-Yung on Twitter — at the moment, Sarah Kirby-Yung has 2,875 followers on Twitter (and 9251 tweets! … that’s double, triple, quadruple and as much as 10x as many tweets - that’d be tweets to us - as any of her earnest Council mates).
Sarah Kirby-Yung oughta have 28,740 followers on Twitter! Make it happen!
Just last week, we were speaking to a revered community activist of our acquaintance, an almost scarily bright and informed and accomplished woman of an age who, in the midst of a discussion of Board of Variance ‘third party appeals’ (of which Council will be hearing much from VanRamblings in the months to come) when, during a reflective pause in the conversation, my well-schooled interlocutor calmly stated to me …

“Raymond, Sarah Kirby-Yung is, by far, my favourite City Councillor - she listens well and responds to questions put to her in an authentic manner, hears what the questioner has asked, and actually answers the questions. The more I see and hear of her, the more interviews I read with her, the more I hear her speak at community functions, the more I’ve become impressed with what a treasure Councillor Kirby-Yung is proving to be.”

And this, from a woman on the left, an activist difference-maker, well-educated, erudite and — again — an informed activist very much on the left side of the political spectrum, a woman of great acccomplishment who has done much for the livability of our city as a longtime social justice warrior.
In having covered politics for 50 years, I’m not sure that I’ve ever ‘covered’ a political figure who speaks to & for citizens across the political spectrum, as cogently as Sarah Kirby-Yung does every single day of her political life.

For VanRamblings, Councillor Colleen Hardwick has proved to be the biggest, and most pleasant, surprise for her many important contributions during her now six month tenure on Vancouver City Council.
Throughout last year’s municipal election, those in the know - regular VanRamblings correspondents who have worked in and around civic politics in our city, sometimes for generations - kept protesting to VanRamblings …

“Raymond, why the hell are you not throwing your support behind Colleen? You know her, you know how accomplished she is, and you agree with all of the positions on the issues she espouses and has long espoused, yet you’ve been sparing in your support of her. Give your head a shake, man! Colleen is a lock for Council, and she’s going to prove to be a difference-maker. The sooner you get on board, the better off you’ll be.”

Lo and behold, VanRamblings’ many friends were absolutely correct in their assessment of Councillor Colleen Hardwick’s effectiveness on Council, often a lone voice - on the transit file, for instance, where her support for light rail remains unchanged (in the long run she will be proven right), and on which position, VanRamblings is 100% in accord with the good Councillor.
As we have reported directly to Councillor Hardwick, not a day has gone by this past six months when a friend of ours living in one of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods has not extolled the virtues of Ms. Hardwick, and because we tend to run with a socialist crowd we’re talking left-wing activists here. Just yesterday, in fact, our friend Terry Martin (whose 65th it is today, by the way!), the Chair of the Board of Variance on which we sat a decade ago and more - all but gushed throughout our lunch together about how …

“Colleen is the only truth-teller on Council, she is the only one not in sway to despicable elements within City staff who have ridden roughshod over Council since they were elected last October. Not to mention, Colleen Hardwick emerged as the only Councillor who stood opposed to that white elephant, neighbourhood-destroying, Geoff Meggs promoting Broadway subway line. Seems to me that your friend Colleen is the only Councillor willing, able and capable on getting on with things.”

As is the case with Vancouver City Councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung and Christine Boyle, VanRamblings is simply over-the-moon about Councillor Pete Fry’s ascension to a position of political power in our city, who we fittingly described at the outset of today’s posting.
The Death of Cynicism? How to achieve that in Vancouver civic politics?

Thy names are Sarah Kirby-Yung, Christine Boyle and Pete Fry who, by 2022, working with their colleagues on Council, will have begun the process of transformation in our city that will endure for generations to come, each a member of the city of Vancouver Council triumvirate that by dint of their hard work, dedication, intellect, passion and compassion, and visionary leadership will have created the conditions that will see the realization of a city for all, with every economic and social strata, with members across every ethnic community, indigenous and First Nations groups, and the breadth of the gender variant spectrum resident in every neighbourhood in our city, housed when such is required in affordable housing, where families will flourish, where our parks and recreation system and community centres will once again thrive and serve the interests of our burgeoning community.
Pete Fry’s is one of the voices you hear, read and have read about most often these past six months (along with Councillors Kirby-Yung and Boyle), is the Councillor who most believes in community consultation and collaboration — as a democrat, and longtime supporter of the work of the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods — who takes responsibility for the decisions he takes at Council, and apologizes when he deems it appropriate (willing always to be held to account, reconsidering his position on an issue following democratic input from the public — all of which, of course, makes Pete Fry a mensch, given that only healthy men, and women, know when it’s appropriate and necessary to take responsibility, apologize and reconsider an issue when they deem it fit to do so).
Councillor Pete Fry is also willing to make the hard decisions, telling Globe and Mail freelance reporter Adrienne Tanner that he won’t shy away from controversial political conversations, even about Council’s continued funding of school lunch programmes “just because it’s politically unpalatable.”
Note. The province, as part of its poverty reduction strategy, as of March of this year, has accepted responsibility for the funding and administration of hot lunch programmes in school districts across our province.
There is about Councillor Pete Fry a gregariousness and warmth, an authenticity and sense of purpose, a humanity and caring that all at once acknowledges social responsibility that is tempered by fiscal responsibility, and appropriate jurisdiction. Heart and mind: that’s Councillor Pete Fry, in your corner, always there and available to listen, approachable and kind, a renaissance man for our age & an historic difference maker for the better.

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.

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