Met with Becca and went through the candidates list. Here're my choices. Now I'm off to cast my ballot…
☝K
ps. Some useful links provided, plus cursory contextual articles at the end :) K
Where and How To Vote info (City of Vancouver Page):
What’s on your ballot:
The alphabetized names of the mayor, council, park commissioner and school trustee candidates are found on one side of the ballot.
If a candidate is endorsed by an elector organization, the name of the organization appears beside the candidate’s name. Candidates who run as independents can choose to have either the word “independent” or nothing at all beside their name on the ballot.
In Vancouver elections, voters choose:
- One Mayor and ten Councillors for Vancouver City Council
- Seven Park Commissioners for the Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation
- Nine School Trustees for the Vancouver School Board
You will also vote yes/no for the allocation of the city budget for projects. Choose wisely and think of where your money is going, and where you want it to go. Is it going to help you individually, or you AND your society?
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KAJIN'S CHOICES ☛
A.) MAYOR
City of Vancouver Mayoral Candidate Profiles:
*DUBGEE FOR MAYOR*
Dubgee’s Civic Platform
Mission Statement : To get people engaged in civic politics and raise awareness about municipal issues. To prove that no matter what your disposition is, if you choose to make a change you can. Raise awareness about the importance of arts and culture on a civic level. Implement an open, honest government that actually listens to it’s citizens.
HOUSING
- Review all current developments in the west end and the Downtown eastside
- Work with local residents and developers to ensure developments work within the context of the local community (Grandview, Marpole, Soma, the DTES and Cambie)
- Work to improve services in the downtown eastside
- Restore the amount of units of social housing in the Olympic Village to 252. We will rent the suites out until they are sold.
- Work with citizens to make sure the little mountain site is developed in accordance with citizens input
- Create stricter rules for owners of SRO’s.
- Review the business relationship between BC housing and Altira Property Management
POLICING
- I will create a civilian led group to oversee police complaints
- Complete ban on Tasers by the Vancouver Police Department
- Creation of a civilian board to oversee police complaints and conducts
- Work hard to improve the policing strategies in the DTES
- I will take all responsibilty for the Stanley Cup Riots
- Creation of more Community Courts
- Re-evaluate our Liquor laws and improve them to at least allow liquor in movie theatres
- Education about the four pillars and how preventative costs are less than reactionary costs
- Criminalize the drug dealers of the DTES instead of the drug addicts
- Decriminalization of marijuana
- Decriminilation of Prostitution
CITY FINANCES
- Trim the fat of off municipal businesses such as the PNE
- Encourage tourism based business in the city to offer a discount to residents
- Taxing Fast Food and using the revenue to help fund food security education and options including providing healthy food in the DTES
- Limit the price of gasoline in Vancouver to a percent of the cost per barrel
- Freeze the mayors spending budget for three years while in office
- Stop the vehicle allowance for city councillors
- Reduce the salaries of the mayor, city councillors directly or indirectly
- By indirectly I mean that the salary will stay the same but a portion would have to be donated to a cause.
HEALTH AND WELL BEING
- Leave St. Pauls Hospital where it is and establish a complimentary hospital site close to the downtown core.
- Encourage more gardeners to host gardening workshops through community centers
- Encourage more late night activites for teens and children in community centers and schools
- Taxing Corporate fast food (not small business)
GENDER EQUITY
Women
- More women only shelters
- Work with local community groups as well as police to ensure the fair treatment of Downtown Eastside women
- Greater acknowledgment in civic instituitons of IWD
- Create more media awareness programming for young girls
- Launch an inquiry into the business dealings of Atira, BC housing and it’s ownership of SRO’s in the downtown eastside.
Men
- increase funding for mens service’s such as
- Community programming for dads and men
- Legal Advocacy
- Health Education
- Single Dad Activities
TRANSPORTATION
- Begin express service from Broadway station to U.B.C. with no in between stops.
- Run extra buses between Powell and Broadway along Commercial Drive
- Halt the construction of “Fare Gates” at Skytrain Stations
- Put pressure on Translink to use more revenue from advertising and commercial spaces to subsidize transit prices
- Bring the streetcar back to the Olympic line for easier access to Granville Island/Emily Carr University (Not extending it until it proves it’s worth
- Pressure Translink to reinstate the B-line on Granville to Marine Drive Canada Line Station
OTHER CAMPAIGN COMMITMENTS AND IDEAS
- Complete tranparency from City Hall.
- Implement a live broadcast of city hall meetings.
- Encourage citizens to volunteer more and spend money locally and less corporately
- Improve the cities relationship with the aboriginal community
- Change the school board curriculum to acknowledge the attempted genocide of aboriginals and the residential effect
- Modify or Create a new volunteer service within the city that will connect local small business’ and volunteers
- Will allow the peaceful protest by Falun Gong practitioners to continue demonstrating on Granville st. and in Chinatown
- Pressure the Provincial and Federal Governments to end the labour disputes within the Municipality
- Work hard to end all labour disputes within the city including
- PNE workers (CUPE)
- Rocky Mountaineer
- BC Place workers
ARTS AND CULTURE
- Encourage more murals around the city.
- More open spaces for performances
- Better planning of city events
- More affordable artist studio’s
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the changes I would like to be a part of in our city. Please, please and pretty please, leave some comments and let me know what you think about the ideas.
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B.) CITY COUNCILLOR
1. AQUINO, RJ - COPE
2. DEAL, Heather - Vision
3. FOX, Amy “Evil Genius” - Independent
4. GAROSSINO, Sandy - Independent
5. GILL, Lauren - R.I.C.H.
6. JANG, Kerry - Vision
7. LOUIS, Tim - COPE
8. REIMER, Andrea - Vision
9. WENDYTHIRTEEN - Independent
10. WOODSWORTH, Ellen - COPE
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C.) SCHOOL TRUSTEE
1. BACCHUS, Patti - Vision
2. BLAKEY, Al - COPE
3. BOUEY, Jane - COPE
4. BOUTIN, Louise - Green
5. CLEMENT, Ken - Vision
6. PAYNE, Cherie - Vision
7. SHARMA, Sandy - NPA
8. WONG, Allan - COPE
9. WOO, Sophia - NPA
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D.) PARK COMMISSIONER
1. ANDALIS, Juliet Victoria - Independent
2. BARNES, Constance - Vision
3. BLYTH, Sarah - Vision
4. HADLEY, Eleanor - Independent
5. HAMILTON, Jamie Lee - IDEA
6. HASKELL, Peter Raymond - Independent
7. SHARMA, Niki - Vision
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E.) RELEVANT LINKS:
Vancouver Observer coverage:
The Mainlander: #OccupyVancouver? Look to Hong Kong housing activists for inspiration
Artifice of Law: Information on the Structures By-Law
1. Robertson’s Taxes, Fees & Red Tape
2. Vancouver civic election “compass”
3. Vancouver Civic Election Endorsements - The Mainlander
4. Neighbourhoods For A Sustainable Vancouver (NSV)
5. Leading realtor calls Vancouver's housing market "unhealthy"
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