Vancouver Municipal Election: Saturday, November 15, 2014

Bruce Banman aka chicken sh.. narrowly lost his bid for reelection in Abbotsford.

Henry Braun 16171

Bruce Banman 15594

Adam T wrote:

Im stunned John Turmel didnt run for something.  In every muncicipality.

He was running in Brantford:

http://www.brantnews.com/news-story/4922000-brantford-mayor-john-turmel/

Also in the Whitby-Oshawa byelection

How many candidates does a Vancouver party have to run for council, park, and school positions? COPE had some strong candidates for council and the parks boards who did alright, but they had a lot of candidates. The Greens put 3 for council, 2 for parks, and 2 for schools and elected 4/7. Why didn't COPE do this?

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

How many candidates does a Vancouver party have to run for council, park, and school positions? COPE had some strong candidates for council and the parks boards who did alright, but they had a lot of candidates. The Greens put 3 for council, 2 for parks, and 2 for schools and elected 4/7. Why didn't COPE do this?

Good question. Parties can run fewer candidates than are elected. The fewer candidates a party nominates, the greater chance they have of electing someone. COPE should have run far fewer candidates for council, park board, and school board.

Vancouver turnout

Estimated Eligible Voters: 483644

Total Number of Votes Cast: 181707

37.6% turnout.

The Vancouver polls were dead on.

The Innovative Research poll in Surrey was quite accurate (overstated supported a bit for McCallum and uncerstated Rasode) while the Insights West poll was way off.

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

What is the ideological orientation and/or political affiliation of the new mayor of Victoria, Lisa Helps?

Simply put?  Green Party. Frankly am kinda shocked at the result. The NDP and labour threw all of their resources behind incumbent Dean Fortin. More and more southern Van Isle is becoming Green Party territory - muni, prov and fed.

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

Is the BCA basically the civic arm of the BCNDP, or is it a left Liberal-moderate NDP coalition like Vison. Have they been any better than Vision on the issues the left-wing usually criticizes Robertson on?

Quote:

 

The BCA has traditionally been seen as a municipal arm of the provincial NDP. However, before this election, Corrigan tried to create some distance between his civic party and the provincial New Democrats.

Burnaby is debt-free and enjoys some of the lowest taxation rates in the region.

http://www.straight.com/article-170566/derek-corrigan-reelected-mayor-bu...

BCA has dominated Burnaby municipal politics for 27 years. Tonight it once again won the Mayor's race, all municipal council seats and all school board seats. Mayor Derek Corrigan's wife is NDP Burnaby Deer Lake MLA Kathy Corrigan. 

I'm particularly glad it beat the Burnaby First Coalition because of the latter's alliance of Conservatives, Liberals and Greens with the homophobic Burnaby Parent's Voice (see quote below). Burnaby First's claim to be building diversity in view of this alliance is truly oxymoronic. 

Quote:

The NOW has learned a new coalition has formed to take on the Burnaby Citizens Association juggernaut in November’s civic elections.

Calling itself the Burnaby First Coalition, the new entity is a diverse alliance of former Green, Burnaby Parents’ Voice and TEAM Burnaby faithful, as well as politicos from other levels of government.

“I would say there’s provincial Liberals, there’s probably federal Liberals and there might even be another party or two in there, but it’s not about politics,” said Burnaby First Coalition Society president Daren Hancott, himself a hopeful for the Conservative nomination in the federal riding of Burnaby North-Seymour. “It’s about representation of the city. I think this group will better represent the city than the current group, let’s put it that way.”

Besides Hancott, the new coalition’s board includes former independent council candidate Nick Kvenich, former Green provincial and municipal candidate Carrie McLaren, former Burnaby Parents’ Voice spokesperson Heather Leung and local builder-developer Shakila Jeyachandran.

The end goal is to get more diversity on council, according to McLaren even if that means Greens teaming up with former members of Burnaby Parents’ Voice, a party created out of a group that opposed the Burnaby school district’s anti-homophobia policy and often labeled “anti-gay.” 

http://www.burnabynow.com/bbyelxn/news/left-and-right-unite-to-take-on-t....

Actually, Burnaby First alliance with Burnaby Rarent's Voice is just plain moronic homophobic with its claim that students will receive a serum injection at school that will make them homophobic.

Quote:

 

BCA school trustee Harman Pandher told Burnaby Now that a couple of weeks ago while going door-to-door he learned members of the area’s Mandarin community had received a flyer at the Bonsor Recreation Centre claiming that their children were receiving injections of a serum that would make them homosexual.

Mandarin-speaking parents were approached by someone outside the Rec Centre who told them only the Burnaby First coalition could protect their children, according to the Burnaby News Leader. One of the parents relayed her experience to the paper:

“I asked [the campaigner] what happens if Burnaby First fails with the election. She said, if another party wins, they support the gays and they can also change the kids’ sex at school … at school they will give the kids something like a drug injection … and the school won’t tell parents.”

Burnaby First’s mayoral candidate, Daren Hancott, said he did not know about the flyers, and believes the tactic could be “political sabotage.”

Pandher says the “gay serum” rumour was being done “sneakily,” adding: “It’s a type of fearmongering is what it is, and playing on people’s insecurities, but it really has no place in my Burnaby.”

Katrina Chen, who is running for the school board on incumbent candidate Mayor Derek Corrigan’s Burnaby Citizens Association (BCA) team, told The Province she got wind of the rumour, too, but laughed at first because it was so outrageous.

One theory is that the root of the rumour goes back to a contentious 2011 election issue in Burnaby, when the schools put forth a policy aimed at eradicating homophobia. Burnaby Now explains: “Parents’ Voice, a political group formed to oppose the policy, feared the policy would infringe on their rights to educate their children about sexual identification. The group included current BFC candidates Charter Lau, Heather Leung and Helen Ward.”

Hancott emphasizes that the BFC is not Parents’ Voice, and that sexual preference is not an issue in the current campaign.

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/11/burnaby-election-gay-serum-rumour/

Centrist wrote:

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

What is the ideological orientation and/or political affiliation of the new mayor of Victoria, Lisa Helps?

Simply put?  Green Party. Frankly am kinda shocked at the result. The NDP and labour threw all of their resources behind incumbent Dean Fortin. More and more southern Van Isle is becoming Green Party territory - muni, prov and fed.

Could you be more specific? The Green Party is quite young and its supporters have a wide variety of values. Is Helps more like the Green Party leadership that opposes unions in politics, supports regressive taxes, income and corporate tax cuts, and votes with the BC Liberals?

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

Could you be more specific? The Green Party is quite young and its supporters have a wide variety of values. Is Helps more like the Green Party leadership that opposes unions in politics, supports regressive taxes, income and corporate tax cuts, and votes with the BC Liberals?

You must remember that voters on southern Van Isle (and elsewhere) look upon the Green Party as `green`. Simple as that. Your query is based upon detailed philosophical values. Something most voters apparently don`t care about at the ballot box. Except us poli junkies.

Centrist wrote:

PrairieDemocrat15 wrote:

Could you be more specific? The Green Party is quite young and its supporters have a wide variety of values. Is Helps more like the Green Party leadership that opposes unions in politics, supports regressive taxes, income and corporate tax cuts, and votes with the BC Liberals?

You must remember that voters on southern Van Isle (and elsewhere) look upon the Green Party as `green`. Simple as that. Your query is based upon detailed philosophical values. Something most voters apparently don`t care about at the ballot box. Except us poli junkies.

You are right, but I was asking about Helps because I wanted to learn about her and what kind of mayor she will be, not why people voted for her.

I cannot imagine why anyone would want to be a Park Board commissioner in Vancouver. I see the job as basically a real-life version of being Leslie Knope of Parks and Recreation - constantly dealing with irate and usually ill-informed members of the public who don't seem to care about issues like transit and affordable housing but will rush to the barricades if you dare suggest that the conservatory close an hour earlier or that the local dog park be fenced in.

It is basically a volunteer position - they get $8,000 a year and typically spend at 20 hours a week on Park Board business. Not to mention that they don't even control their own budget. Council sets the budget for Parks and Recreation every year, and then the Park Board is left with making the hard choices about which programs to fund and what cuts have to be made. So basically, Council cuts the budget, but Park Board bears the brunt.

I suppose, like the aforementioned Leslie Knope, one would have to have a real sense of civic duty in order to take on this thankless task.

As an outsider looking in, I'm not sure if the support for the BCA is indicative of a left-leaning electorate so much as an electorate that is satisfied with the good, competent government the BCA has provided and sees no reason to fix what ain't broke. They've given fiscal conservatives nothing to complain about with low taxes, minimal debt and prudent management, so the opposition usually ends up consisting of loony, unelectable social conservatives.

Off topic. But still recall back in 2005 when Dianne Watts won the Surrey mayoraity race. Was not really familiar with her beforehand but could sense that she was political gold, for whatever reason. Turns out that I was correct. Very rare polis in that regard.

Most of the rest are your usual run-of-the-mill candidates.

Watching the Metro Vancouver muni races tonight, I sense that perhaps another Dianne Watts might be in the making. And never heard of her or seen her speak before tonight. I am talking about the new mayor-elect in Maple Ridge - Nicole Read. Saw her on TV tonight on election coverage and she is a poli natural. Never seen the likes of same since Dianne Watts 2005 election. BTW, she defeated right-wing dinosaur Ernie Dakin.

Watch her. She has a bright poli future ahead of her. Suspect in prov and fed poli as well down the road.

http://www.news1130.com/2014/11/15/newcomer-becomes-maple-ridges-new-mayor/

PS. Still do not have a good sense of her poli leanings yet.

terrytowel wrote:

The call to vote strategically works again

Gregor Robinson said "To stop Kirk LaPointe, you cannot vote for Menna Wong"

And it worked! That is now three in a row following Wynne & Tory.

Three in a row?  What about Winnipeg Mayor Gord Steeves, whose campaign of "to stop Judy W-L, you cannot vote Brian Bowman" earned him a whopping 9% of the vote?

genstrike wrote:

terrytowel wrote:

The call to vote strategically works again

Gregor Robinson said "To stop Kirk LaPointe, you cannot vote for Menna Wong"

And it worked! That is now three in a row following Wynne & Tory.

Three in a row?  What about Winnipeg Mayor Gord Steeves, whose campaign of "to stop Judy W-L, you cannot vote Brian Bowman" earned him a whopping 9% of the vote?

Because Brian Bowman was more effective and better at framing the strategic voting narrative than Gord Steeves.

“Let’s be clear: if you vote for Gord Steeves, there is a good chance you are going to end up with Judy as mayor,” Brian Bowman said. “This is taking the sentiment, really, that Gord Steeves himself has been saying throughout the course of the campaign and now is the time for those that may have previously supported him to listen to his words and get behind us.”

“I think a lot of voters will vote strategically, I think we will get a higher turnout in this election as a result of this poll,” he said. “Those who want Judy to be the mayor will turn out and won’t sit at home complacent that she will win and those who don’t want Judy to win will be going to the polls to vote for who they think we defeat her.”

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/10/21/bowman-a-vote-for-steeves-is-a-vot...

So that actually makes it FOUR in a row where strategic voting worked.

terrytowel wrote:

The call to vote strategically works again

Gregor Robinson said "To stop Kirk LaPointe, you cannot vote for Menna Wong"

And it worked! That is now three in a row following Wynne & Tory.

Let me guess - the next act will be "To stop Stephen Harper, you cannot vote for Tom Mulcair."

From the numbers, it looks like there was actually very little, if any, strategic voting that went on. COPE voters mostly stuck to their guns. Polls had Meena Wong at 9 percent and she ended up with...9.2 percent. Gregor got a healthy 46% all on his own. There was no last-minute "strategic voting" movement from COPE to Vision, as there was federally from the NDP to the Liberals in 2004.

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.

Chow or Tory, I didn't care which one. As long as it was not Ford.

The difference between Tory and Ford was less than 6%. So if 65,000 voters switched to Chow, Ford would have won.

genstrike wrote:

Also, as others pointed out, in Vancouver, there wasn't really a last-minute stampede from COPE to Vision.  Do you have any proof that strategic voting happened on a large enough scale to change the result?  And that a candidate emphasizing strategic voting helped increase the amount of strategic voting to a significant degree?

You're so desperate to prove your point that you keep repeating that you're making stuff up that has little basis in fact, and forcing the data to fit your conclusion even if, as in the case of Winnipeg, it totally disproves it.

I was just repeating what Gregor Robinson and Brian Bowman were saying in the waning days of their campaigns. Both of them touted strategic voting on the eve of election day.

All four candidates (Wynne, Tory, Bowman and Robertson) urged voters to vote strategically. And all four won.

Whether or not the numbers bears out strategic voting is open for discussion and dissection.