Vancouver Election 2018 Primer – Part 1 – The Parties

Tags

Coalition Vancouver, COPE, election, Green Party, municipal election, npa, One City, ProVancouver, vancouver election, vanelxn18, vanpoli, vision vancouver, YesVancouver

TL;DR – If you want a list of who to vote for, wait for the next blog post. This is just about the parties. OneCity is my favourite.

Vancouver is about to enter one of the most interesting and uncertain elections in recent history. The mayor and most of the current councillors are not running for re-election, a bunch of new parties with similar sounding names have formed, and new campaign finance rules are limiting the influence of big moneyed donors like developers.

Here’s my attempt to distill the issues and help make you an informed voter. Note, this is my personal opinion and is completely subjective. I have plenty of biases – I’m a parent, renter, computer nerd, environmentalist, cyclist, and urbanist.

The Basics

Election Day is October 20, but you can vote early starting on October 10.

You will be voting for 1 Mayor, 10 city councilors, 7 parks board commissioners, and 9 school trustees.

If you’ve voted in the past, there are 2 notable changes this year.

1. The order of names on the ballot will be randomized. The ballot is long, and a lot of voters just tick the first few names in each category. In elections past, most of the winners had last names starting with A, B, C, or D. That will change this year.
2. You can vote at any polling station in the city, not just the one assigned to you. So if you’re at the park or library on Saturday and there’s a polling station nearby, you can vote there.

If you want more details on how voting works, check out the city’s website.

The Options

Vancouver’s political axis

The official list of candidates won’t be known for another week and many parties are only starting to release their platforms. We do know there will be at least 10 different party names on the ballot. Some you will recognize and some are brand new.

Most of the parties are only running a handful of candidates for each position, so you’ll probably end up voting for candidates from several parties. I’ll release my list of endorsed candidates in the next few weeks. In the meantime, here’s a look at what the parties stand for.

The Cambie Report‘s listeners did a great job classifying the political parties along three axis: the traditional left/right axis, plus a municipal axis that classified parties as urbanist or conservationist. You might know COPE as a left-wing party and the NPA as a right-wing party but the urbanist/conservationist axis is more interesting and can help to differentiate the parties from each other.

An urbanist party is one that looks to actively change the shape of the city to feature more walkable neighbourhoods, mixed-use developments, bike lanes, and density (see the New Urbanism principles). In Vancouver, they’re often supported by the YIMBY and Abundant Housing groups.

A conservationist party is more concerned about preserving the current character of neighbourhoods and limiting change. They favour heritage preservation, limiting growth, restricting immigration, and lots of consultation with neighbourhood groups. In Vancouver, they’re often supported by the NIMBY and HALT groups.

The Parties

Vision
The party that has dominated city politics in Vancouver since 2008 under the leadership of Mayor Gregor Robertson. They’re responsible for introducing food trucks, backyard chickens, bike lanes, the Arbutus Greenway, and a plastic straw ban to Vancouver.

Vision has seen their popularity drop as they’ve been blamed for the housing crisis, and almost all of their incumbents are not running for re-election, which is never a good sign. They are widely criticized for not doing enough to keep Vancouver affordable and their close connections with developers, but in the past year they’ve introduced an empty home tax, restricted Airbnb rentals, and started construction on 600 units of temporary modular housing. Is it too little too late for Vancouverites fed up with the skyrocketing cost of living? Probably.

Vote for them if… you think the city is on the right (cycle) track.

NPA
The right-wing opposition to Vision over the past 10 years. They’ve traditionally been the voice of business owners in Vancouver, but the party is in turmoil. Of their 4 potential mayoral candidates, one left the party (or was kicked out) to start his own party (Yes Vancouver) and another joined Coalition Vancouver.

In the past two elections, they’ve campaigned on opposing Vision’s bike lane expansion and have a council candidate (Colleen Hardwick) who has actively campaigned against bike lanes in the past. They’ve seemed to soften their tone so far, but I’m skeptical.

Their housing policy is best summarized as “gentle density but only if neighbourhoods want it”, which is pretty much status quo for Vancouver over the past 20 years.

Vote for them if… you’re nostalgic for the days of Mayor Sam Sullivan.

Greens
The Green Party has a lot of momentum and a great brand. They’ve had success in recent provincial and federal elections, and in Vancouver they have elected representatives on all three boards (council, school, and park).

As an environmentalist, I should be a natural Green Party supporter, but I disagree with many of their policies. As you can see on the chart above, the Green Party leans toward the conservationist ideals, closer to the NPA on many issues than Vision Vancouver. They’ve opposed the Broadway subway, densification, and even smart meters – all policies that have received vocal opposition even though they’re important environmentally. They also opposed Amazon expanding the number of developers it employs in Vancouver.

That said, they have a few strong candidates that I may vote for, especially on park board.

Vote for them if… being ‘green’ is more important to you than actual policies.

OneCity

A fairly new party to Vancouver. They formed in 2014 and elected their first representative during the 2017 by-election. They’re a young (with candidates under 40), urbanist, left-wing party and have been getting a lot of buzz from people who have supported Vision in the past.

They’re not running a lot of candidates (only 2 for council and 3 for school board) but in my opinion they’re the strongest candidates with the best ideas.

Their housing policies include policies to crack down on speculation and build more affordable housing across the city.

Vote for them if… you want a hip, urbanist party to have influence in local politics.

COPE

The traditional left wing-party in Vancouver, but they’re a spent political force these days, having been completely shutout in the past 2 elections. Both Vision Vancouver and OneCity were originally formed from members abandoning COPE.

While OneCity is running a new generation of millennial candidates, COPE is running with the old-guard of Vancouver’s left-wing. Both Jean Swanson and Anne Roberts are in their mid-70s. That said, Swanson is a fighter and she probably is the party’s best hope of electing someone. They’ve distinguished themselves from the other parties by strongly advocating for a rent freeze and mansion tax.

Vote for them if… you think class warfare is what Vancouver needs.

Yes Vancouver

Formed only a few weeks ago when the NPA refused to allow one of their councillors, Hector Bremner, to run for mayor. He left the party and formed a new one. They seem to be positioning themselves as the only right-wing party that strongly supports urbanist ideals. They want to dramatically densify the single-family neighbourhoods of Vancouver’s west side.

They have the bottom-right quadrant of the political axis above all to themselves and it will be interesting to see how they do. They’ve got some rich backers and already have billboards up before the campaign has officially started, circumventing the campaign finance rules.

Vote for them if… you want to mass rezone all of Vancouver’s west side.

Coalition Vancouver

Started by the former Conservative MP who once compared Stephen Harper to Jesus, Coalition Vancouver’s driving force is ripping out bike lanes and ending the war on cars.

Vote for them if… you hate bike lanes.

ProVancouver

Yet another new party with a similar sounding name. They hate Airbnb, developers, and foreign buyers. They have some bold ideas to fix Vancouver’s housing market by controlling demand, some which deserve attention, but their candidates and supporters are some of the most toxic trolls on Twitter. They’ve also released one of the worst transportation platforms I’ve ever seen, with a promise to get rid of distance based pricing for transit and no mention of cycling.

Vote for them if… you think a bunch of online trolls should run the city.

Independents
Many pundits are calling this the “year of the independent” (1, 2). There are a bunch of really strong candidates with good chances of winning. Some of the ones I’m keeping my eye on are: Kenedy Stewart, Shauna Sylvester, Sarah Blyth, Adrian Crook, Rob McDowell, Graham Cook, Erin Shum, and Wade Grant (note: this is not an exhaustive list).

Vote for them if… you think political parties are toxic.

Fringe Parties
There are a few other parties with little chance of winning, including: IDEA, Restore Vancouver, Vancouver 1st, and the Work Less Party

Vote for them if… you want to throw away your vote.

Images from the City of Vancouver and the Cambie Report (with some tweaks).

In the next two weeks I’ll release my endorsed candidates. I have no idea who to vote for mayor (Shauna Sylvester, Kenedy Stewart, and Ian Campbell all have potential). For council, the OneCity candidates are a lock for me and I’m considering candidates from the Green Party, COPE, Vision, YesVancouver, and a few independents to round out my ballot. I’ve barely started to look at school and park board candidates.

If you have any recommendations on candidates you like, please add a comment.

MEC Election – Vote Steve Jones

Tags

board of directors, election, mec, mountain equipment co-op

If you’re an MEC member, I highly recommend you go and vote for Steve Jones.

I worked with Steve for 7 years at Pulse Energy. He’s a super smart guy and would be a huge asset to the Mountain Equipment Co-op board. He’s also really passionate about the outdoors. He spends most of his weekends adventuring in the mountains (check out some of his photos here) and the rest of his free time advocating for better parks.

He’s also really passionate about co-ops and has been a huge advocate for more member involvement in MEC. He’s both a champion for MEC when they get things right and an honest critic when they goof up – he’s been very critical of the logo change and excessive compensation packages for board members and the CEO.

The existing MEC Board doesn’t want Steve to win. For years they wouldn’t let him run and found reasons to deny his candidacy. He might be openly critical at times, but Steve is one of the most passionate and hard working people I know, and MEC would be well served to have him on the Board.

Vote Steve Jones for MEC Board of Directors.

Public Education in BC

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BC Liberals, bcpoli, british columbia, chart, data nerd, education, school, Vancouver School Board

I’ve started paying more attention to the province’s education system since our daughter was born. And it does not look good. Public education in British Columbia is a mess. The BC Liberal government has been systematically dismantling the system since it was first elected in 2001.

Looking at the data from Statistics Canada is depressing. From 2001 to 2011, BC and Newfoundland were the only provinces to see cuts to the total number of teachers – but Newfoundland’s population was decreasing during that decade whereas BC added an extra 500,000 people. BC now has the worst student-teacher ratio in Canada, and it is getting worse.

BC spends less per student than any province except PEI.

Between 2001 and 2006, BC lost 5.9% of its teachers.

From 2006 and 2011, the number of teachers in BC fell by another 3.2%.

BC now has the worst student-teacher ratio in Canada.

It’s the only province where the student-teacher ratio is getting worse.

 

The BC Liberals and Premier Christy Clark are downright hostile toward the public education system. They’ve torn up teachers contracts (then got in trouble in the Supreme Court), starved local school boards for money and forced school closures, and recently fired the elected school trustees in Vancouver. Not surprisingly, the Premier sends her own son to a private school (which receives generous tax support from the government), so she doesn’t even feel the pain she causes parents and their children.

We’re still 5 years away from sending our daughter to school, so there is time for the next government to fix things. I’ll do what I can to ensure the BC Liberals lose the next election. BC desperately needs a change.

BC needs a new government that invests in education not automobile freeways. That is our future. Not more cars. #bced #masseybridge #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/BaCNAZ1ftD

— Christopher Porter (@cdnveggie) October 18, 2016

Update to add a better chart from Nic Waller:

@cdnveggie Nice. I thought I could improve on Chart 13.1 so I tried inverting the scale: use same approach as MPG vs. L/100km. pic.twitter.com/FMuYnH4Db6

— Nic Waller (@nic_waller) October 24, 2016

 

Wayne Easter and Meat Politics

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agriculture, animal agricutlure, Canadian politics, cdnpoli, climate change, food guide, liberal, Liberal Party, Liberal Party of Canada, PEI, Wayne Easter

As evidence continues to mount that eating meat and dairy is not only detrimental to the planet but also to human health, politicians in Canada are stubbornly committed to supporting the animal agriculture industry.

Take the recent tweets of Wayne Easter, MP for Malpeque, PEI & member of Liberal Government of Canada, who proudly tweeted about his meeting with cattle lobbyists.

Good meeting with Minister MacAulay & PEI Cattle Producers. Agriculture is a great way to stimulate the economy. pic.twitter.com/89txlSQVgc

— Wayne Easter (@WayneEaster) July 27, 2016

@richelle_bee @L_MacAulay we talked about how livestock contributes to the economy, creating jobs, utilizes land, & provides healthy food

— Wayne Easter (@WayneEaster) July 28, 2016

When he was questioned about the environmental and health impacts of animal agriculture, he responded with: “have a T-bone steak. It will make you feel better”.

@richelle_bee @L_MacAulay have a T-bone steak. It will make you feel better.

— Wayne Easter (@WayneEaster) July 28, 2016

Which offended many people and as the outrage mounted he tried the “I’m not racist, I have black friends” defence.

@SandraRamezani No problem with veganism. In fact I have many friends w that approach. No need at all for the individual to attack producers

— Wayne Easter (@WayneEaster) July 28, 2016

Before claiming that it was hard working farmers and their families that were being attacked, which is ridiculous as all of the replies to his tweets were respectful and focussed on public policy.

@CamilleLabchuk Camille. Policy I'm open but 4individuals 2 attack farmers who sweat blood & tears 2support their families is unacceptable

— Wayne Easter (@WayneEaster) July 31, 2016

Unfortunately the questions that Canadians were asking still remain unanswered. I wonder if anyone in the Liberal Government can explain:

• Why we subsidize animal agriculture when it is increasingly obvious it is not healthy for humans or the planet?
• Why does the Canada food guide still have sections “Milk and Alternatives” and “Meat and Alternatives”. If it was based on the best science, it would look like the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, which has a section for “Healthy Protein” and it recommends limiting milk consumption.
• How will Canada meet its climate change commitments made in Paris (to limit global warming to 1.5 C) without reducing the amount of animal products that Canada produces and consumes?

Good Bye Harper; Hello Trudeau

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canada votes, cdnelxn, cdnpoli, conservative, election results election, elxn42, Justin Trudeau, leadnow, liberal, megan leslie, ndp, stephen harper, strategic voting, Tom Mulcair

Mission accomplished. Stephen Harper is gone. Now it is time to repair the damage he’s done to this country.

Waking up this morning, I’m feeling relief that the Conservatives have been reduced to under 100 seats and Stephen Harper is no longer Prime Minister, but I’m disappointed that the NDP and Greens didn’t do better. It was clear in the last few weeks that the Liberals had the momentum and voters latched on to the hope that they could defeat the Conservatives. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm for change meant that some good NDP incumbents lost. The most tragic defeat was Megan Leslie in Halifax, whose passion and knowledge of environmental issues rivals Elizabeth May. That’s a huge loss.

After last night’s election results, it is time to finally declare that strategic voting is a miserable failure and the real problem is our voting system. LeadNow got the election result it wanted (the Conservatives lost) but not by looking at polling data and giving recommendations in each riding. Their nuanced local strategy was overwhelmed by the national numbers as progressive voters flocked to the Liberals for change, regardless of the local polling data. Ironically, the message on the LeadNow website is: “In 2011, a majority of people voted for a change in government, but our broken voting system gave the Harper Conservatives 100% of the power with just 39% of the vote.” The result in 2015, 39% of voters have given the Liberals 100% of the power. Is that any better?

I didn’t vote Liberal, but not because I disagree with their platform. The Liberal, NDP, and Green platforms are very similar and I like them all. I didn’t vote Liberal because I worry that they don’t have the courage to follow through with their promises. I hope Justin Trudeau proves me wrong, and it is up to progressive voters to ensure he does. I’ll be specifically watching to see that they follow through with these three promises:

Electoral Reform – The Liberals have promised that “2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system”, with an an all-party Parliamentary committee recommending a replacement by May 2017. Following through on this will forever change the Canadian political landscape, for the better.

Climate Change Action – The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris is only 6 weeks away. The Liberals pledges here will be an indication on how seriously they take climate change.

Marijuana Legalization – I’ve never smoked pot and probably never will, even if it is legal. That said, legalizing and taxing marijuana is smart, bold policy and I hope the Liberals follow through.

Why I’m Voting NDP

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canada, cdnpoli, election, elxn42, Justin Trudeau, liberal, ndp, strategic voting, Tom Mulcair, vote

Advance polls open this weekend and I’m ready to cast my ballot for the NDP. There’s a number of reasons why.

1. I hate strategic voting – it encourages the media to focus on polls instead of platforms and politicians to take boring, centrist positions. I want to be able to vote Green because I agree with their ideas without fear I’m wasting my vote. The NDP is committed to bringing in proportional representation before the next election, which will ensure the Conservatives never again get a majority with 38% of the vote.
2. Climate change action – next to the Green Party, the NDP has the best environmental platform. With MPs like Tom Mulcair, Megan Leslie, Nathan Cullen, and Linda Duncan, you won’t find a more dedicated core of environmentalists in any other party. I trust them to take action more than the Liberals, who have a horribly vague plan and a history of not delivering. They signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 but did nothing to reduce GHG emissions. I want real action.
3. Progressive policies – I like the NDPs promises to fund public transit, affordable childcare, a national pharmacare program, and interest-free student loans.
4. Principled leadership – You can count on the NDP to make the right choice even when it’s not popular. They opposed Bill C-51 when it was still popular, and they’ve rallied against the Conservatives racist policies targeting Muslims, even though it appear to be hurting them in the polls. I appreciate a leader who stands up for what he believes in.
5. Great local candidate – The NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre is former Parks Board trustee Constance Barnes. She’s an avid cyclist and passionate about urban issues. My current MP is Hedy Fry, who I can’t stand.
6. I want real change – If Canada ever had a chance to break out of the Liberal-Conservative cycle and try something new, this election is it.

There are a few things I like about the Liberal platform. I agree with increased infrastructure funding, especially for public transit. I agree that marijuana should be legalized. And the Liberals have committed to bringing in electoral reform, although they’re vague on the details and I wouldn’t be surprised if they renege on that promise if they win. I just don’t trust the Liberals to deliver, and it bothers me that Justin Trudeau is leader solely because of who is father was. That’s how George W. Bush became President, and we know how that turned out.

Trophy Hunting is Not a Sport and Should Be Banned

Tags

Andrew Weaver, animal rights, bcpoli, cecil, cecil the lion, hunting, lion, sport hunting, trophy hunting

Reading about Cecil the Lion has been breaking my heart. What a pointless end to such a beautiful creature. The rich American who killed Cecil deserves all the hatred coming his way right now.

Even as a vegetarian, I have no problem with people who hunt for food. But so-called “sport hunting” or “trophy hunting” is barbaric and should be illegal. If these big game hunters want to get a thrill shooting something, put them in a forest with other hunters and let them battle it out Hunger Games style. In real sports there’s a good chance you will lose.

Even here in British Columbia, the government permits trophy hunting of grizzle bears. Maybe Cecil’s death will spur support for Andrew Weaver’s private member’s bill to end trophy hunting.

Photo by Peter Glenday

Transit Referendum – Vote YES

Tags

bcpoli, India, metro, public transit, referendum, tranit, transit referendum, vanpoli

I might be half way around the world, but I’m still following the transit referendum in Vancouver. Being in India, I have a unique perspective of how important good public transit is. Many of the big Indian cities we’ve been to are choking with air pollution and traffic congestion.

Over the past few decades, Indian cities have seen spikes in population and car ownership without any new public transit projects. Now, they trying to play catch up and are investing heavily in rapid transit. It seems that every major city we’ve been to has a metro system under construction – Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, and Varanasi. In fact the Indian government is funding metro construction in any city of more than 2 million people.

Sadly, our current Canadian government ignores urban issues and the BC is no fan of transit. Neither recognize the importance to the economy. The BC Liberals have no problem spending billions on highway expansions and new bridges but won’t finance new transit projects. The best they’ve agreed to is a referendum on a new 0.5% sales tax in Metro Vancouver with the money raised going to fund transit and other congestion reducing projects (including bike lanes and a new Pautullo Bridge). It’s ridiculous that public transit has to beg for money via a referendum, but it is the best chance Vancouver has to get new infrastructure in the next decade.

So, I’m encouraging all my friends in Vancouver to vote YES. I’m happy that the mail-in ballots aren’t due until the end of May so I’ll have time to vote when I get back.

Details on the referendum.

Vancouver Election 2014 – Initial Reaction

Tags

city council, COPE, cope vancouver, data geek, data nerd, election, Green Party, Gregor Robertson, kirk lapointe, mayor, npa, park board, school board, Vancouver Greens, vanpoli, vision vancouver

I’m sure none of the parties are entirely happy with yesterday’s election results. Vision retains control of City Council, with Mayor Gregor Robertson and 6 councillors re-elected, but suffered big loses on Park Board and School Board. The NPA and Greens both gained seats, but neither had the breakthrough they were looking for at City Council. COPE, and all of the smaller parties, didn’t even come close to electing anyone.

Only 11 of the 27 candidates I voted for won, but I’m reasonably satisfied with the results. Vision still has a majority at City Council and can continue to push improvements to bike infrastructure and the urban realm. I hope that Adriane Carr will find a way to join Vision on the Greenest City plan instead of opposing it and everything else.

I plan on doing a deeper analysis of the election results once the spreadsheets are published to find out what happened (my big questions are listed at the bottom), but here is a quick look at the numbers.

Turnout

• 25% more people voted this election than last time. That is huge!
• In 2011 there were 144,823 votes cast. In 2014 there were 181,707 – 36,884 more.
• Turnout will likely still be less than 50%, but take it with a grain of salt.
• People who move away or die are rarely removed from the voters list, inflating the number of registered voters and skewing turnout percentages.

Mayor

• Gregor Robertson did well, winning with 83,500 votes (6,500 more than 2011).
• The narrower victory was a result of COPE not a stronger NPA.
• COPE’s mayoral candidate, Meena Wong, received nearly 16,800 votes.
• The NPA gained 15,300 votes, but its vote share only increased by 1%.
• Nearly 3,000 voters chose “None of the Above” for a mayor, twice as many as in 2011.

City Council

• 6 Vision, 3 NPA, and 1 Green
• Only change is Melissa De Genova replacing Tony Tang.
• Adriane Carr did amazingly well, attracting 74,077 votes from across the spectrum.
• Carr’s popularity didn’t extend to other Green council candidates, who weren’t close.
• Randomized ballots are needed. Top 5 vote getters have ABCD names.
• 3 elected NPA candidates outpaced their Vision rivals, but didn’t extend to full slate.

Park Board

• 4 NPA, 2 Green, 1 Vision
• Vision got wiped out.
• Lots of contentious issues: whales in the aquarium, community centre independence, bike lanes in parks.
• Most disappointed that Brent Granby missed a spot by 1392 votes.

School Board

• 4 Vision, 4 NPA, and 1 Green
• Closest race last night: Ken Clement misses last school board spot by 255 votes.
• Incumbents Woo and Denike (expelled from NPA for homophobic views) are trounced.
• After just missing spots in 2011, NPA elects Ballantyne and Robertson.
• Not sure why newcomer Joy Alexander did so well, other than listed first alphabetically.

Note: All charts show candidates receiving more than 10,000 votes.
Asterisks (*) indicate incumbents.

Some questions I’d like to answer.

• How important is being one of the first candidates alphabetically?
• Where are the regional pockets of support (harder to tell with open voting)?
• Why did Vision do so bad on Parks Board?
• Which candidates had the same supporters? See 2011 council correlations.
• Was vote splitting a problem?

Opposition to Upgrading Vancouver’s Seawall

Tags

bike lane, bike path, Green Party, Hadden Park, parks board, Stuart Mackinnon, vanpoli

I appear to have kicked off an internet storm when I reposted Green Parks Board candidate Stuart Mackinnon’s reply to my question about bike paths in parks.
https://twitter.com/betterparks/status/529073112030380032

It’s lead to 3 blog posts on Gordon Price’s blog and more than 175 comments.

At issue, the enhancement of the Seawall, Vancouver’s gem and my favourite running route. As much as I love the seawall, there are sections that could do with some improvements. For much of its length, the Seawall has separated pedestrian and cyclist paths that ensure everyone has enough space.

But it is inconsistent. In Jericho Park, the seawall is a gravel path. Through Kitsilano Beach, Hadden Park, and Charleson Park the seawall is frequently congested as pedestrians and cyclists share a narrow path.

I’d love to see it all upgraded to the same standard, but there is a vocal group opposing any change. They think any new pavement would destroy our parks.

Tarp action 2 @savekitsbeach @haddenpkdefence Expect bike lane back on table if @VisionVancouver re-elected #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/Lc5Zn0uTn3

— Elvira Lount (@elviralount) November 2, 2014

It’s a bizarre view, but they’re welcome to it. However, it bothers me that politicians like Green Party candidate Stuart Mackinnon appears to agree with them. Only Vision and COPE parks board candidates answered the HUB survey asking if they would support separated bike lanes in parks. Mackinnon’s only response was to complain about the question on twitter.
https://twitter.com/betterparks/status/524630627778187264

I wish Stuart Mackinnon would realize there is more to being green than maintaining grass.