A few weeks ago a number of mainstream journalists were calling the Vancouver municipal elections “Ho hum.” “This was the most boring, uneventful city election campaign in recent memory,” wrote Gary Mason. It’s a line we’ve seen repeated by the CBC’s Rick Cluff, among others.
It was a bizarre take away to anyone actually paying attention to the race. For the first time since 2002, there is a strong left-wing mayoral candidate in Meena Wong, running under the COPE banner and proposing a bold and radical platform calling for a universal transit pass, an end to renovictions, and a Municipal Housing Authority that would build and operate 800 new social housing units per year. Her council, school and parks slates are majority women and boast some remarkable Indigenous candidates, particularly community activist Audrey Siegl.
Newcomer OneCity is focusing all their resources on getting former COPE candidate R.J. Aquino elected to city council. Their endearing, creative and mostly positive campaign has made waves by promising to implement a $10-per-day child care pilot project, a levy on “flipping” houses and a mandate that would force developers to ensure 20 per cent of all new projects over five units are affordable to lower- and middle-income families. Aquino and his allies — he is one of the only non-Vision candidates to secure an endorsement from the Vancouver District Labour Council — are punching far above their weight this election. In an issue close to my heart, today they even announced that they would make sure if a pub sells beer in pints, there better damn well be a pint’s worth of ale in that glass.
Meanwhile, the Greens, who currently boast the only non-Vision or NPA city councilor in Adriane Carr, have quietly been shoring up support as a credible opposition to a developer-backed city hall. They stand to pick up at least one more seat in council. With Vancouver’s archaic at-large electoral system, however, that lists 49 candidates for council on its ballot, predictions in this underpolled race is a mug’s game.
Greenwashed ennui
But “boring” seems to be the electoral label both the NPA and Vision angled for — while paradoxically calling it the closest race in recent history. It very well may be: but that didn’t stop the NPA from choosing a forgettable former ombudsperson whose robotic smile could absorb the reactionary energies emanating from his right-wing party.
The line from Vision and its supporters meant to mobilize its base increasingly seems to be “we can’t change the things you want changed, but the other guys will make those things worse, probably. Vote for us.” This is less a strategy than a heavy wager on voter ennui. It bears witness to why ABC strategies (“Anybody but Conservatives”) are so bankrupt: they have starved the left of proper alternatives we forgot what it was like to fight for something.
Because there are ideas and policies in this election worth fighting for — but some natural allies don’t seem to have the stomach for it. In a heartbreaking turn that shocked many front-line activists and, indeed, regular people directly affected by the real estate hubris of City Hall, well-known environmentalist activists are lining up to support Vision.
Earlier this week, B.C. climate campaigner Ben West urged voters to elect Vision, posing for a photo op between Robertson and Deputy Mayor Andrea Reimer. “Vision Vancouver is a beacon of hope in the age of climate crisis,” he declared on Facebook. Today, Energy and Democracy Director of the Dogwood Initiative, Kai Nagata, emailed supporters reminding them of Dogwood’s “Pledge to Vote” campaign that listed Gregor Robertson as the mayor that scored highest on a questionnaire made available to candidates. Both Dogwood and West cite Vision’s opposition to Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline and supertankers in Vancouver’s harbour as justification for their recommendation.
It’s a major coup for Vision that it has managed to convince Vancouver’s more environmentally oriented citizens that it is an eco-friendly party. It’s record and platform strongly suggest otherwise. Under Vision, tanker traffic has actually increased 111 per cent since Robertson took the mayor’s chair in 2008.
As OneCity notes on their website, the City of Vancouver created 158,387 tonnes of demolition waste in 2013 — more than a quarter of the total municipal landfill. Contractors have demolished 70 homes per month this year, sending waste to the Delta DLC landfill — currently comprised of more than 74 per cent residential demolition waste.
Vision’s climate-tinted promises — like their promises to end homelessness before them — are all bluster. Even their touted Broadway subway line, the cornerstone of an impoverished platform, meant to distance itself from the rampant unaffordability of the city, is another present to developers wrapped in greenwashed denim. A subway will invite more spot-zoning, more towers and more demolitions — and of course the main reason urban planners would pick a subway over street cars or improved bus service is so cars still have free rein on the streets.
And as community activist and author Harsha Walia pointed out on West’s Facebook wall, “the climate crisis and crisis of poverty are intertwined.” Naomi Klein’s new book, This Changes Everything, cites Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside frontline activists specifically when arguing that the pursuit of climate justice must work in concert with social and economic justice too — or else we all lose.
Go at it boldly
What is indeed boring about the Vancouver municipal election isn’t the lack of quality or breadth in the policies on offer — on the contrary, there hasn’t been an election in Canada with the boldness of Meena Wong’s mayoral bid or the creative, practical solutions to municipal issues offered by OneCity and COPE. No, it’s the all-too predictable framing of this election as The One That Matters, replete with a boring archvillain (Vision is now calling Kirk Lapointe “Vancouver’s Stephen Harper”) who must be stopped at all cost — no other explanation required.
We have to vote for Vision because Tankers. All else risks “everything”: an everything that measured not in homes or a comprehensive transit strategy, but in feeling. An everything that is neither definable nor tangible in a city drowning in astronomical rents, child care fees, homelessness and cultural ennui. The revival of this deplorable tactic will only serve to further alienate voters, in a city heading toward the wrong side of 30 per cent voter turnout.
My young family of four was recently priced out of Vancouver, so these last gasp endorsements from respected activists who display a distinct lack of deep thought on municipal issues are particularly gutting. The privilege of voting for remarkable, courageous candidates in Canadian elections is rare.
We could treat ourselves on November 15, but instead we are being advised to opt for green chewing gum. I know which option I prefer.
Image: Flickr/thebuzzer
Editor’s note: A previous version of this blog post incorrectly summarized the Dogwood Initative’s email to supporters stating that Kai Nagata “asked supporters to vote for Gregor Robertson.” In fact, the email directed readers to a website which listed candidate recommendations based on a survey completed in October. rabble.ca regrets the error.
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