lotusland - nervous politics from a laid-back city

ben west emphasizes party growth at the bc green party leadership candidates meet the press event

i quite enjoyed hearing ben west discuss his commitment to party growth at the press event this morning, i must say.  the bc greens need to take some decisive steps in increasing membership and bolstering support to local organizers if they want to be in a viable position come election time.   ben west stated he would make both actions a priority as leader.  go, west.  he also advocated prioritizing critic portfolios, which would help disseminate green policies and responses to the government. 

there is room on the bc political spectrum for an alternative to the liberals and the ndp.   raise your mouse in the air (or scrolling finger) if youre damn tired of the bc liberals' proclivity to pay lip service to the environment by inserting the word green into any damn policy they see fit.   im glad to see that the bc greens have a candidate who is ready to get the party moving.

nothing really stood out in the other candidates' speeches.  damien kettlewell revealed an undying love for stv, sylvaine zimmerman discussed the green movement, and jane sterk stressed her experience and achievements as an elected official.  how bad is it going to sound if i dont remember the other guy's last name?  i think his first name was jack. 

note to candidates everywhere:  please plaster your name on things or people at events, so that adhd twits  such as myself can remember your damn name.  yeah.

lotusland goes potusland, fails to comment on much of anything

so, civic election, eh?  ive been reading a bit about it on the internets, but it's hard to focus on vancouver when one is lounging around watching (and recording everything humanly possible on) tivo in an idyllic, snow-dusted massachusetts town.  american thanksgiving is on a thursday, which means the japanese restaurant is closed, which means im eating more of those trader joes flaxseed nacho chips and kalamata olive hummus today.  trader joes and sushi in the boonies - this is why new england rules.  yeah, throwing a pseudo-hippie cloak over my rampant capitalism is not a lifestyle id be comfortable pursuing, but for a one-week vacation, it is pretty fun in a 'what happens in vegas stays in vegas' kind of way.

firstly, id like to express major disappointment that andrea reimer lost her school board seat.  she has a lot of ambition and a real community focus, which is obvious if you know her history of activism and involvement in one of those pamphlets i might have stuck in your house if you live in kitsilano.  she had a lot of goals she wanted to fulfil and i hope she gets another crack at making it happen.  also, i hope the new school board doesnt negate all the effort andrea's crew put in during the campbell (larry, bien sur) tenure.

you dont have to be totally conspiratorial to think that this low-turnout election was basically decided by the npa machine.  i once worked on a campaign that drew on many of the same westside right/centrist assets, and i can vouch for their organizational (and financial) prowess.  its not the most organic thing, and it reeks of a patrician vancouver i never knew beyond my parents' stories about racism/sexism in the 1970-80s. 

the vancouver i know is not a city of white, rich, nimby, westsiders.  oddly enough, the  vancouver i know doesnt stand up to be counted on civic election day.

also, how did "james green" get enough votes to drive sam sullivan over the top?  why was sam sullivan helping him with his rent dispute?   i think the opinion of this man, who has actually worked with the data, ought to be given a fair bit of clout:

But University of B.C. political-science PhD student Scott Matthews says a statistical analysis of the individual poll results showed James Green's proportion of the votes showed a direct correlation with the proportion of Jim Green votes across the city, indicating the likelihood that people voted for James Green by mistake was very high.

"There really is no other plausible explanation of those results," said Matthews. "Any other theory strains credulity. I think it's really unlikely that it didn't affect the election outcome."

burnaby had a pretty exciting vote as well.  team surrey, er, burnaby's barbara spitz won her council spot by one vote.  a right-wing burnabite told me she didnt end up voting, supplying some lame ass excuse like "i have kids and i have to buy groceries and work out and go to church and eat and maybe take a dump that day" ...  one vote does make a difference, kids.

burnaby citizens association: communists or not?

there is a lot of partisan grumbling in burnaby over the civic election.  some people grumble of team burnaby having conservatives, some people grumble over the bca being a bunch of communists.

are the bca a bunch of communists?

it's hard to tell what the bca stands for from their campaign pamphlets.  i dont know, maybe my parents' past electoral behaviour has made my house a write-off, but all we got are these stupid trading cards. 

seriously. 

they have a picture of each candidate, the bca logo, their name, and stats.  while i think including community contribution is an incredibly important piece of information for voters, it would be nice to have a bit of info about the slate in general.  the bca only talks about this:

• the bca record, the bca plan:  more resources in the classroom, academic excellence, and more student choices in public schools
• the bca record, the bca plan:  quality public services, no debt, over $400 million in reserves, low taxes, safe, livable communities - a prosperous burnaby for everyone

so yeah, i guess if refusing to discuss your ambitions in detail and resorting to succint mantras makes you some kind of communist, theyre pretty damned communist.

there is also a note on the back of each card which says "please take this card to vote" ...  isnt bringing propaganda into the polling station against the rules?

i dont know what im going to do november 19th besides strongly debate running for office since i dont trust any of these clowns.

team burnaby says burnaby is the new surrey. OH NO, SURREY!!!!!!!!1111

yeah, im a burnabite, or whatever we burnaby-dwellers are called.  aside from a brief stint at my mothers childhood home in east van, ive lived in burnaby for my entire vancouver life. 

burnaby has had the same bca city council since the dawn of time. names like calendino and redman have been on the ballot since i was in elementary school. 

today, i got a pamphlet from team burnaby.  for a civic election propaganda leaflet, it is very big, colourful, and shiny.  in its folded-up state, it is bright red and simply proclaims CRIME IS THE ISSUE.  when you open it, you find out there are a few other issues. 

im basically going to conclude that team burnaby kind of sucks, which is sad, since the tired old cow known as the bca kind of sucks, too.  now, through brief commentary on the leaflet, i will chart the entire course of my decision to declare that team burnaby kind of sucks.  you read it here first, folks.

1. omg, surrey: while it is kind of obvious that burnaby crime is on the rise, team burnaby's framing of the issue is kind of insidious.  they say that burnaby crime "now surpasses surrey" because it shot up 22.8% in the past three years - five times greater than vancouver, eleven times the rate of coquitlam, seven times that of surrey.  poor surrey.  before 2002 (in 1993), burnaby actually had more crime than surrey. then we had less.  now we have more.  two things come into play.  first, size - burnaby and surrey are kind of the same size.   we are the big burbs.  secondly, as the almighty pdf concludes, burb crime rates are actually more related to the epicentres of crime action (the port of vancouver, organized crime throughout the city, etc) as well as prime real estate.  crime happens where people happen to congregate and so the general crime rate isnt necessarily an indicator of how unsafe the community is for its residents.  will more burnaby rcmp kick the crime out of burnaby as team burnaby claims?  there seems to be a correlation between the bca cop-hiring freeze and the crime rate. still, this seems to be more sensationalism than anything else.

2. team burnaby is against comprehensive schools:  this gets massive boo's from my corner.  they describe comprehensive schools as a "one size fits all" approach that ignores the diversity of parental and student needs.  they want to diversify the public school system and introduce more montessori and french immersion and gifted programs.  this, to team burnaby, constitutes choice.  i think parents have choice when every neighbourhood school can offer a wide variety of activities and programs.  being forced to drive your gifted/french immersion/special needs kid way out of the neighbourhood to get their elementary/secondary education on is not "choice" ... i believe the word you are looking for is inconvenience.   furthermore, i think the whole montessori-love is funny.  that program was developed for rural kids in italy who spent too much time working at home to learn (ie develop their cognitive and creative functions outside the realm of the workplace/farm) and whose parents had limited literacy.  this doesnt describe kids today.  maybe a more realistic and less trendy approach to early childhood education is in order.

3. no tax increases:  the bca says theyre also going to do that.  who do we believe.  nobody.  ha.

4. burnaby lake is disgusting:  burnaby lake is important because it's the first place in canada that was ever named burnaby.  if they actually clean it up, id have to give them props. 

bc ferries wants us to eat their shitty food

due to revamped transport canada policy in light of terrorist attacks on nyc, london, and madrid, bc ferries is considering changes which will force more people to consume ferry food. 

bc ferries apparently intends on following all the new guidelines, but theyre going to start by simply prohibiting ferry passengers from leaving the terminal.  they could start with, i dont know, checking id and doing vehicle searches if alarm bells toll, but im guessing that bc ferries intelligence has informed them that the fish-n-chips restaurant and other cutesy businesses around ferry terminals have the best bomb-making supplies in the lower mainland.

i dont think im being particularly conspiracy-minded when i declare this is just a cheap attempt to get folks riding the ferry to spend more of their money on overpriced ferry food, and less of it on actual food.

apparently, these actions are justified because ahmed ressam carried a bunch of explosives on the  victoria-port angeles, wa ferry (bc ferries do not appear to sail to the usa) during his nye 2000 bomb trip to l.a.

the ilo, the bctf, and campbell's liberals - selon joel bakan

in the vancouver sun last thursday, joel bakan points out that the bc government, under campbell, are the chief lawbreakers in the teachers dispute.  the bc liberals have written laws that made this strike illegal, which are actually illegal according to ILO standards canada ratified in 1972 (and 2003).  in fact, the bc government is actually the worst repeat offender (nine times in the past few years) in north america when it comes to violation of the treaty.

like the WTO, the ILO has no real enforceability.  the UN is not going to descend on victoria and pre-emptively strike the bc legislature.  what they will do is "FIRMLY REQUEST that the government ... avoid in futre having recourse to such legislated settlement."   see why gordo isnt exactly crapping his pants.

if youre going to judge bakan and his book by its cover, "the corporation," which had a briefcase man sporting devil horns, could possibly convince you that joel bakan is a raging leftista. i could buy him some pan-partisan cred by saying he is a law prof who is approaching the issues purely to ascertain their legal ramifications, but some people just want to believe some lawyers are wickedly socialist judicial activists who have spent too much time in red-as-stalin university settings to think for themselves.   his disdain for the bc liberals stems from their refusal to adhere to ILO treaties which canada has signed, but some people like to shit on the UN every chance they get, so maybe theyll oppose his assertions on those grounds. 

basically, if youre going to play the partisan card and say his criticisms are horseshit because of who he is, go right ahead.  i just happen to be old fashioned and think that canada, in most cases, should live up to treaty obligations.  i fail to recognize multilateralism as satans own doing. 

if we are multilateral enough to do international business, then we are multilateral enough to obey international law. 

vancouver civic election 2005: arent you pumped?!?

sullivan vs green!  council! school board!  parks board!  free heroin!  no larry!

it seems those last two come up when most people i know talk civic politics (along with obsessive nimby rants from my westside friends).  youve begun to bore me.  theres more to this citys governance, really.   you wanted a christyless race and the npa hardliners delivered by connecting her egotistical ass to the cold, hard, curb.  lovely, yes?  now it's time to move on and read up and vote and all that.  it is also time for me to spew my electoral preferences all over the fair internets.

the green platform

no, not jim. these folks.  you know that free heroin thing the entire city obsesses over?  the greens proposed it years before it became law.  just sayin.  im sure you can guess that the green party is going to bring us another platform based on economic/social/environmental sustainability and innovation in participatory democracy.  here are some more keen ideas:

-lobbyist registration:  sure, it might scare the suits a little, but transparency is valuable.  no, im not simply supporting this because posting changes to the list would make for good blog fodder.  vancouver voters have a right to know who is at the table.  the government keeping a list makes this information accessible, which is what we like to call tangible evidence of a commitment to transparency and voter education.  this would be conducted on a voluntary basis until the bc government passed binding legislation.  stop smirking, campbell wont be there forever. 

-more council meetings at night:  another tangible commitment to participatory democracy, enabling the 9-5 set to sit in on the proceedings.

-better economic thinking:  the greens advocate exploration of alternative revenue sources in order to reduce vancouvers reliance on property tax and provincial transfers.  in terms of operational costs, local sourcing will be preferred if its economically competitive.  moreover, they suggest using open source and freeware as an alternative to more expensive software.   

-least cost planning for transportation projects:  uh, how many millions did air conditioning on the skytrain cost (and since when does vancouver weather call for a/c, anyway?).  this frugal approach inevitably favours pedestrians and the non-motorized set, which isnt so bad.  the suggestion of removing parking lanes on streets such as commercial and davie will elicit some knee-jerk whining, but trekking an extra block or two is worth it in the end as the wider sidewalks will make the high-traffic neighbourhoods more accessible and comfortable to explore.

-bring back full library hours:  this speaks for itself.

-promoting comprehensive schools:  the magnet schools were created to give students and parents 'choices,'  which is stupid, considering that taking programs out of neighbourhood schools eliminates choices.  some kids dont have parents who have enough free time to act as personal chauffeurs (a role so many parents in the burbs have decided is 'normal' ... ?!), so keeping programs as local as possible is highly important.

-converting the vancouver aquarium to a wildlife rescue and education centre:  this also fits in with the green party's desire to expand on vancouver's tourism successes (especially in the area of ecotourism).

-encouraging more native plants in park landscaping:  why are we wasting time and money making sure that the trees and bushes we planted to make this place look more like "home" (read: toronto/jolly old england) dont die?  why not plant the stuff that was there before we took over? 

there are more statements on more issues at the vancouver greens site.  as the campaign chugs along, ill likely post green positions on some of the major issues. 

im sure that readers who vote in civic elections are aware of the fact that this election they likely will not vote for slates.  there are ideological splits and popularity contests wreaking havoc in the major parties.  the greens are smart as hell for fielding six candidates - just another bit of evidence of green thinking, which prioritizes efficiency and impact.  i hope you people will consider green candidates when you are rounding out their ballots. 

im not a fan of hers

boo-urns to this.  im no fan of hers.  this all started when i met her in her capacity as education minister at a community event.  we were discussing bc high school grads and she was surprised that my grade 12 sister would have trouble getting into ubc with a b average.  this was a well-documented fear at the time due to the double cohort, and the fact the cutoff for ubc arts acceptance is usually a b average regardless. lame.

i reserve the right to hold petty grudges based on cabinet ministers not knowing much about matters pertaining to their portfolio (and i do believe the fate of high school grads is a concern of the ministry of education). blah blah blah, idealism, the civil servants are the one whose job it is to know stuff, etc... i dont care.

terasen gas patriot act something something?

so terasen is being bought by texans, kinder morgan to be exact.  i was just in texas.  it is very hard to find a breakfast fit for human consumption in texas.  only the british isles do morning grease well, in my opinion. 

does this us company owning some information about us mean i have to sound the big brother alarm?

meet layton and siksay

this post is aimed at all the burnaby-douglasians who frequent this merry url.  our mp, bill siksay is hosting an open house at 4453 hastings (at willingdon) on july 9th from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm. jack layton will also be in attendance, and refreshments will be served.