Vancouver Municipal Election: Saturday, November 15, 2014

terrytowel wrote:

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

You supported a man who was literally named Tory.

Who ran as a Liberal, as his election team had half PC, half Liberals and few NDP on his staff. But as I said before, I was going to vote for the person who was leading in the polls, come election day, that could beat the Fords.

Excuse the thread drift, but there was no one from the NDP "on staff" for Tory. Also, since being elected mayor 100% of the people he has appointed to his inner circle/office are rabidly rightwing conservatives who worked for Mike harris or Tim Hudak. Tory's new chief of staff previously worked as chief of staff for TIM HUDAK..the "Liberal veneer" on Tory evaporated on the moment the votes were counted.

Tamara Kronis has been a Conservative Party activist all her life. She may have been personally friendly with Chow because they both supported equal marriage, but I can assure you she has never, ever been a New Democrat.

Tory certainly has as much "right" as anyone to have high profile people from all three parties as part of his campaign team - but he didn't there was NO ONE from the NDP working for Tory - no one, nada. Chow had Conservative senator Nancy Ruth supporting her along with several other PCs - but Tory never had a single solitary NDP official working for him - and never will.

Gord Cressy is part of a 20 member "transition advisory committee" that has no power and is just window dressing and will disband the day Tory is sworn in. What matters is who is actually running the show over the next four years - and the top dogs Tory has appointed to his office are 100% people who played key roles in the Mike Harris government or who worked for Tim Hudak...plus a few retreads from the last days of the Mel Lastman administration. People who hoped Tory would fill his office with cuddly small and big "L" liberals are already very, very disappointed and feel betrayed.

I can't help but be amused at the fact that people are posting about Toronto politics in a thread about the Vancouver municipal election.

And people wonder why we make "Centre of the Universe" jokes ;)

Thread drift!

Stockholm wrote:

People who hoped Tory would fill his office with cuddly small and big "L" liberals are already very, very disappointed and feel betrayed.

Still waiting for the link

Stockholm wrote:

You are comparing apples and oranges.

Former NDP cabinet minister Zanana Akande OP-ED on John Tory speaks for itself

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/10/21/the_progressive_cas...

Yeah, ffs no more Toronto politics discussion in this thread where a VANCOUVER election JUST HAPPENED.

The more left-leaning candidates in Vision lost. Nikki Sharma was a victim of racism, and it's the only piece of sympathy I will give Vision this election.

Congrats to COPE and OneCity for punching well above their weight this election campaign. Hard to compete with some $5 million of developer money (this year alone).

Interesting to see a colour coded Van City map of the mayoral outcome.

Purple = NPA

Green = VV

The darker the colour, the stonger the winning margin. What I find more interesting is that this colour-coded map, super-imposed upon the 2013 BC provincial election, is virtually bang-on:

 

SE Van is the provincial riding of Van-Fraserview, which is a marginal BC Lib riding and weak and mid NPA.

Moving south-westward ya have Van-Langara and Van-Quilchina, the BC Libs strongest seats and the strongest areas for NPA.

In the NW corner, ya have West Point Grey (weak NPA) +Kitsilano (weak VV), which is Van-Point Grey, a marginal seat won by BC NDP Dave Eby over Christy Clark.

Just east of there is Van-Fairview, which is also a marginal seat (strong NPA + stronger VV)

Further east of there is the BC NDPs srongest seat in BC - Van-Mount Pleasant, which is also VVs strongest area along with neighbouring Van-Hastings in NW Van City.

Just south of there are the two remaining strong BC NDP seats of Van Kingsway and Van-Kensington. 

In the downtwon peninsula you have BC NDP held Van-West End, which is also strong VV territory.

Only one exception to the rule and that is the riding of Vancouver-False Creek in the remaining part of the downtown peninsula. The area comprises North False Creek and Yaletown with all of the condo towers. The riding is relatively strong BC Lib and many polling stations therein also voted fed Con in the last 2011 election. Ditto for Coal Harbour.

Yet, like 2008 and 2011, Gregor won these same polling stations this time as well.

2011 federal Liberal candidates, municipal election results

1.John Kidder Okanagan—Coquihalla also 2013 provincial Green Party nominee in Fraser-Nicola (he moved) and brother of Lois Lane Margot Kidder

came in 5th for city council in Ashcroft (4 elected). Lost out by 14 votes (350-336)

2.Lillian Szpak Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca  reelected to Langford city council (topped the polls)

 

Also

Shirley Ackland who lost the NDP nomination for Vancouver Island North federal riding was elected mayor of Port McNeill 

 Erik Eriksson who lost the NDP nomination for Vancouver Island North federal riding was reelected (non consecutively) to Courtney city council.

Surrey was not a great result for he left (in the mayor's race I don't know about council), though the right-leaning winner of the mayor's race had firefighter support. Victoria's labour/NDP mayor lost in a close one. I don't know what the council in total looks like, but was excited to see the leftist-historian (who wrote his diss. on the BC CCF-NDP) Ben Issit come in first. Read his Wikipedia bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Isitt. He has done a lot and is only 36. He has future Premier written all over him.

[url=https://ricochet.media/en/202/the-green-coast-what-you-need-to-know-abou... Green Coast: What you need to know about Vancouver’s election[/url]

Quote:

Canada’s third city was once a hotbed of radical working-class politics, but no longer. Saturday’s municipal vote, however, confirms it is now a stronghold for electoral environmentalism: Green City Councillor Adriane Carr topped the polls, and Greens were elected to the School Board and Parks Board.

NorthReport wrote:

Rafe Mair

The Vancouver Sun and Province have egg all over their collective faces after the election results in Vancouver and in Surrey.

Both papers obviously did not want Gregor Robertson to win in Vancouver. Just why they supported the Non-Partisan Association is open to conjecture but one has to assume, reading these papers for the last 10 years, that they are so far up the Liberals' backside in this province that there is no safe return.

Both papers had the Vancouver mayoralty race a tossup. They are now trying to explain away a 10,000 vote victory by Robertson -- as close to a landslide as "damn" is to swearing. All sorts of amazing things apparently happened since the day before the election when the papers were calling it very close. It certainly couldn't be their atrocious reporting, now, could it?

A few days before the election, Mr. Robertson "apologized" for not being perfect in his last term and promising that he would do better. Mike Smyth in the Province was particularly surly about this and had it a catastrophe for Robertson. So did both the papers in their general reporting.

Well, I can tell you that this old pol, languishing in Lions Bay, thought that it was a stroke of genius. Robertson said exactly the right thing at the right time and assured many voters who were on the fence that he was open to listening, to bending, and to making adjustments to policy.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2014/11/18/VIEW-Rafe-Mair-on-civic-elect...

 

Bullcrap. The papers published a poll showing the  result as 46-41% and the final result was 46-41%

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/11/18/Vancouver-Vote-Splitting/

Nonsense from Bill Tieleman. Vision split their own vote. They ran 7 for council in 2011, 8 this time. In 2011 they elected 5 out of 5 for Parks Board. In 2014, they ran 6. They increased their School Board candidates from 5 to 6. I guess having a majority wasn't enough.

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

Corrigan and his wife are on the left wing of the NDP, yes? As a councillor, he fought hard against the Seymor Water filtration plant P3, and as mayor was critical of the Vancouver Olympics and is strongly against Transmountain.

Burnaby is a left-leaning city, but its only trends slightly to the NDP federally and provincally so I don't understand how a civic party so closely associated with the NDP can be so dominant for so long.

The BCA basically governs on a centrist version of social democracy. They provide quality pulic services, sound fiscal management, and consistent planning decisions, all of which are popular; and they avoid spending money on services for the disadvantaged, which are less popular.

Over 25% of the land in Burnaby is parkland, and the BCA uses referendum questions at election time to add small ammounts of land to either new or existing parks. The parks policy is wildly popular, and the referendum questions dedicating a few acres of new parkland consistently pass with over 90% of those who vote voting in favour.

Densification is mostly restricted to four "town centres" -- Metrotown, Edmonds Town Centre, Brentewood Town Centre, and Lougheed Town Centre. Densification outside of these areas is restricted to a small number of arterial roads -- Royal Oak and Edmods are the main ones -- and these are restricted to 3 stories (I think). This ensures that single family neighbourhoods are not being densified. At the same time, the city readily approves the replacement of older homes with new "monster houses", a popular policy with the ethnic groups that prefer these large houses.

Within the four town centres, however, the BCA allows rampant gentrification. Towers of between 40 and 50 stories are going up in Metrotown, including in the area of low-rise low-income apartment between Central Boulevard and Imperial; and a major redevelopment with large towers is slated for the Brentwood Mall site. This appeases the developers so they don't start a developper party.

Burnaby has built up excellent recreational facilities, its libraries are top notch, and the Burnaby Village Museum -- an outdoor pseudo-village to which several historic buildings have been moved, is one of a kind.

The BCA supports the city's unionized employees. It has maintained staffing levels, and ensures that civic employees get wage increases in their contracts equal to increases in the coast of living, which ensures that city employees don't go on strike. At the same time, it vehemently opposes a living wage policy for city employees, which would require greater tax and fee increases.

The BCA does occasionally increase residential property taxes by a small ammount, in order to maintain services, but there has been no wholesale transfer of taxes from business to residential. Burnaby has also provided tax breaks for high tech companies that locate their offices in Burnaby, such that Burnaby has the largest number of high tech jobs in the region.

The BCA is also highly responsive to complaints about traffic safety.

At the same time, the BCA refuses to spend money on social housing or other services for the poor and homeless. It refuses to allow any homeless shelters in the city, nor any services for these folks unless run out of churches or such. This pushes many homeless people to other parts of the region, which is actually a popular policy with many advocates of "personal responsibility".

At the school board level, the BCA has refused to close schools in response to the BC Liberals cuts. Instead it's lay'd off teachers, a move which is more palatable with the public. The BCA has refused to cut ESL services in the schools, a popular move with immigrant communities. It also strongly supports music programs, ensuring that music teachers get hired who will go the extra mile to fundraise for the things that the cash strapped education system can't fund.

The BCA run school board has also implemented a strong anti-homophobia policy, which motivates supporters of gay rights to come out and vote for BCA trustees in opposition to social conservative candidates who would overturn the policy.

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

Does Burnaby actually pay employees less than a living wage (which probably around $15 an hour in Burnaby)?

City of New Westminster wrote:

Effective January 1st, 2011, the City of New Westminster became a “Living Wage Employer” – the first City in Canada to do so. As such, the City has established a Living Wage Policy that requires all firms that are contracted directly or subcontracted by the City to provide services on City premises to pay their employees who perform the services a Living Wage as calculated by the Living Wage for Families Campaign. The figure for 2014 for the Lower Mainland is $20.10, assuming no benefits are provided by the employer.

The City of Burnaby refuses to do likewise.

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

Here is Corrigan on homeless shelters: http://youtu.be/3NPg_mCBECs?t=2m30s He seems to be sympathetic toward the homess, but argues shelters are only a stop-gap measure that do not address the root causes of homelessness and thus perpetuate the problem. He wants to enable homeless people to move move to permament housing and touts Burnaby's mental health and addictions services and transitional housing stock. What do you say to that?

Burnaby does have a mental health facility (Burnaby Mental Health) run by the province, and there are a few group homes in the city. What Burnaby doesn't have is anything approaching the plethora of NGO service providers that exist in the dtes, for instance.

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

What is the BCA's counicl's stance and record on privatization, outsourcing, "alternative service delivery," and P3s?

The BCA supports keeping public services in the public sector, with unionized employees. So there's been no privatization, no P3s or the like.

Because the BCA keeps winning, they avoid the temptation of moving to the right in order to remain competitve electorally.

'COPE Exceeded All Expectations'

This election, Gregor Robertson eked out a narrow win, but almost half of Vision's candidates went down in defeat. For those looking deeply into the numbers, it's clear that Vision Vancouver is in trouble.

Geoff Meggs has been quoted as saying "we were close to a shipwreck."

And for those looking into its soul, the signs show that the Vision experiment has run its course. That's because Vision was only ever possible with COPE under its control.

On the other hand, a brief glance and the numbers show that COPE did worse still. But look into the soul of COPE and what you see is a vital force, which last week made the powers-that-be tremble....

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/11/18/COPE-Election-Results/

Final notes. Names I recognize

1.Moe Gill, who the Provincial Liberals refused to allow to run for them in the 2013 election and then ran as an independent candidate in revenge was reelected to Abbotsford city council.  This time he placed 3rd.

2.Bruce McDonald, who ran for the provincial Liberals in the 2013 election against independent MLA Vicki Huntington in Delta South was reelected to the Delta city council.

3.Somebody named John Horgan was elected to Duncan city council.

4.Alice Maitland who ran for the provincial Liberals in the 1991 election was (re)acclaimed as mayor of Hazelton.

5.Dayleen Van Ryswyk who was dumped as the NDP candidate in Kelowna-Mission on the 2013 election lost her bid for Kelowna city council.  She received 2,294 votes from the 29,661 voters.

6.Brent Bush, 2004 and 2006 nominee for the Federal NDP in Kootenay-Columbia placed last for Kimberley city council but received 1,340 votes while the lowest elected candidate received 1,447.

7.Kim Richter, Langley Liberal federal candidate in 2004 and 1996 NDP provincial candidate was reelected to Langley Township council.

8.Steve Ferguson, 1986 provincial Liberal party candidate was defeated for reelection to Langley Township council after 7 terms. He lost by 149 votes.

9.Brenda Broughton, 1996 NDP candidate in West Vancouver-Garibaldi and former mayor of Lions Bay was defeated in her attempt to reclaim the mayor's chair.  She received 175 votes of 694 cast.

10.Randy Hawes, former Liberal MLA, was elected mayor of Mission

11.John Koury, Outgoing North Cowichan district councillor and 2011 federal Conservative candidate for Nanaimo-Cowichan was narrowly defeated for mayor of North Cowichan.

12.Don Bell, Liberal MP of North Vancouver from 2004-2008 and former mayor of North Vancouver District was elected to North Vancouver City council.

13.John Slater former Liberal MLA for  Boundary-Similkameen who was turfed from the party was defeated in his bid to get back on Osoyoos city council.

14.Hira Chopra 2006 Federal Liberal nominee for Nanaimo-Alberni and 18 year Port Alberni city councillor was crushed in his mayoral bid. He finished 5th of 7 candidates with 492 votes out of 6,019 cast.

15.Carol Day, who ran with the provincial Conservatives in Richmond-Steveston in the 2013 election was elected to Richmond city council. She ran on the same slate as Michael Wolfe.

16.Susan Brice, Liberal MLA for Saanich South from 2001-2005 was reelected to Saanich district council.

17.Alice Lutes who lost the 2004 Federal NDP nomination to now MLA Nicholas Simsons for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast was reelected to Sechelt district council.

18.Rick Kasper NDP and independent MLA from 1991-2001 was elected to Sooke district council.

19.Will Hansma 2006 federal Liberal candidate for the riding of Okanagan-Shuswap, who lost the 2013 provincial Liberal nomination for the riding of Shuswap and former 5 term mayor of Spallumcheen was defeated in his bid to retake the mayors chair.

20.Brenda Locke provincial Liberal MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers from 2001-2005 and federal Liberal candidate in Fleetwood-Port Kells in 2006 and 2008 was crushed in her bid to get on Surrey city council. She received 15,374 votes out of 100,982 cast. 

21.Jim McMurtry 2006 federal Liberal candidate for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale was also crushed in his bid to get on Surrey city council. He received 9,177 votes.

22.Andrea Dunlop 2000 federal NDP candidate for Kootenay-Columbia was defeated in her bid to get on the East Kootenay regional district for Electoral Area F.

23.Tom Siddon former Mulroney cabinet minister and MP for Richmond-South Delta was reelected to Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District.

24.Rob Hutchins former provincial NDP and provincial Liberal candidate was not only elected to Ladysmith town council, he was also elected to Cowichan Valley school board.

25.Michael Saab 2009 Provincial Green Party and 1991 Provincial Liberal party candidate for Shuswap was reelected to North Okanagan-Shuswap school board.

26.Betty Baxter, 1993 NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre was reelected school trustee for Sunshine Coast school district.

 

 

 

Left Turn wrote:

[url=https://ricochet.media/en/202/the-green-coast-what-you-need-to-know-abou... Green Coast: What you need to know about Vancouver’s election[/url]

Quote:

Canada’s third city was once a hotbed of radical working-class politics, but no longer. Saturday’s municipal vote, however, confirms it is now a stronghold for electoral environmentalism: Green City Councillor Adriane Carr topped the polls, and Greens were elected to the School Board and Parks Board.

Are you assuming Vancouver-area Greens are anti-working class and anti-radical?  Perhaps there's common ground and maybe they even get some working-class support.

It's not as though Vision represents "radical working-class politics" or ever even pretended to.  Remember, Vision was founded by Larry Campbell for the primary purpose of sticking it to the actual radical working-class party, COPE.

27.Rick Green, 1991 Social Credit candidate for Delta North, Delta City Councillor from 1987-1990 and Langley Township mayor from 2008-2011 was defeated in his bid to return to the Langley Township mayor's chair.

28. Dennis Adamson, Yale electoral area director at the Fraser Valley Regional District was reelected. Adamson lost the nomination for NDP candidate in Chilliwack to Patti MacAhonic. Adamson could run for the NDP in Fraser-Nicola in the 2017 election.

29.In Port Moody, M.P Fin Donnelly goes on to endorse Gaetan Royer for mayor as well as council candidates Rick Glumac and Zoe Royer, and challengers Barbara Junker and Anne Ladouceur.

Gaetan Royer lost, Rick Glumac topped the council polls, Zoe Royer and Barbara Junker were also elected.

30.Donnelly and Selina Robinson — also a former Coquitlam councillor who left partway through her second term to run provincially in 2013 — are also backing the Protect Coquitlam slate, which consists of incumbent councillors Neal Nicholson, Chris Wilson and Bonita Zarrillo as well as newcomers Jack Trumley and Shobha Nair.

Chris Wilson and Bonita Zarrillo were elected, the others were defeated.

31.Ellen Oxman, running for the federal NDP nomination in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford lost her bid to get on the Cowichan Valley school board.

32.Ian Morrison, Cowichan Valley running for the federal NDP nomination in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford reelected by acclaimation for Regional District Director 

addictedtomyipod wrote:

Actually Adam Olsen is the interim leader of the BCGreens. It was his consolation prize after losing his bid as MLA. There is no sign that they are going to have a democratic vote among their members to elect a leader any time soon. 

I don't know if I'd call it 'his consolation prize'.  After Andrew Weaver and Jane Sterk he probably was the highest profile Green Party candidate and his appointment as interim leader was not a surprise after Weaver turned the job down. 

Still, thanks for the information, I did not know he had not been elected leader.

 

Adam T wrote:

addictedtomyipod wrote:

Actually Adam Olsen is the interim leader of the BCGreens. It was his consolation prize after losing his bid as MLA. There is no sign that they are going to have a democratic vote among their members to elect a leader any time soon. 

I don't know if I'd call it 'his consolation prize'.  After Andrew Weaver and Jane Sterk he probably was the highest profile Green Party candidate and his appointment as interim leader was not a surprise after Weaver turned the job down. 

Still, thanks for the information, I did not know he had not been elected leader.

 

He stepped down from his counsellor position to run in the election and with that gave up the stipend that came along with it. Riding on E. Mays coat tails they were sure he would win. She sure tried hard, canvassing alongside him every weekend and attending events to pump him up. He has a family and handing him the leaders job along with the money that comes with that looks like a consolation prize to me.

37.Deb Kozak, new mayor of Nelson and former city councillor:  If she hadn’t run for mayor, Kozak might have sought to represent us in Ottawa. She revealed during the mayor’s forum last week that she considered running federally for the NDP or Liberals. Either party would have been lucky to have her, as it will be an uphill fight against David Wilks in the Conservative stronghold of Kootenay-Columbia.

http://www.nelsonstar.com/opinion/282946621.html

38.Natasha Bob who lost the NDP nomination for Nanaimo-Ladysmith was elected to the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school board

39.Hilary Groos, Victoria Federal Liberal Riding Association Communications Executive lost her bid for Victoria city council placing 11th.  8 were elected.

I must be crazy to do this

Political parties of the B.C mayors. As you can see, I either cant find the information on most of them, or they arent politically affiliated.

A-D

B.C Liberal

1.Ralph Drew, Belcarra

2.Luke Strimbold, Burns Lake (youngest mayor in B.C)

3.John Ranta, Cache Creek (former B.C Liberal)

4.Richard Stewart, Coquitlam (Liberal MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville 2001-2005)

5.Dale Bumstead, Dawson Creek, (former Liberal MLA Blair Lekstrom constituency assistant)

N.D.P

1.Derek Corrigan, Burnaby

Green

1.Ryan Windsor, Central Saanich

Dont know

1.Mitch Campsall, 100 Mile House

2.Henry Braun, Abbotsford

3.Michael Berry, Alert Bay

4.John McEwen, Anmore

5.Chris Pieper, Armstrong (supports legalizing marijuana)

6.Jack Jeyes, Ashcroft

7.Virginia Smith, Barriere

8.Murray Skeels, Bowen Island

9.Andy Adams, Campbell River

10.Ute Juras, Canal Flats

11.Lawrence Chernoff, Castlegar

12.Rick Berrigan, Chase

13.Merlin Nicholls, Chetwynd

14.Sharon Gaetz, Chilliwack

15.John Harwood, Clearwater

16.James Rivett, Clinton

17.Jim Garlick, Coldstream

18.Carol Hamilton, Colwood

19.Paul Ives, Comox

20.Larry Jangula, Courtney

21.Lee Pratt, Cranbrook

22.Ron Toyota, Creston

23.Leslie Baird, Cumberland

24.Lois Jackson, Delta

25.Phil Kent, Duncan