#CDNPoli | The Curse of Politics | Chronicling Politics for Canadians

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, Canada, canadian politics, Know Your Local Ruling Class, Politics, Pop Culture, , , , , , , , , , ,


The Curse of Politics podcast, Canada’s pre-eminent must-listen-to political podcast hosted by political strategist and pollster David Herle with panelists Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz and Kory Teneycke

The Curse of Politics: Three Backroom Boys and One Backroom Woman Operative, and the Podcast That Has Become Essential Canadian Listening

Launched in August 2021, David Herle’s The Curse of Politics, each and every week for the past five years has provided unfiltered, unmuzzled insider perspectives from four of Canada’s most prominent backroom strategists, pollsters, and operatives, the collective in-depth analysis of the four hosts covering Canadian federal and provincial politics, election polling, and strategic political developments.

When Canadian politics entered the strange, socially distanced world of the COVID-19 pandemic, a curious thing happened. The formal press conferences, scripted talking points, and carefully stage-managed political events that had long dominated public discourse began to feel increasingly inadequate. Canadians wanted something else. They wanted context. They wanted candour. They wanted to know what was really happening behind the curtain.

In August 2021, just as Canada was entering another federal election campaign, that appetite found a home in The Curse of Politics, the political podcast launched by Air Quotes Media and hosted by veteran Liberal strategist David Herle alongside fellow political operatives Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz and Kory Teneycke.

What began as a pandemic-era experiment quickly evolved into one of the country’s most influential political podcasts, attracting an audience that includes journalists, politicians, campaign workers, public servants, lobbyists, and politically engaged Canadians from coast to coast — which clearly includes you!

The Curse of Politics podcast’s success rests on a simple premise.

Rather than treating politics as theatre, the hosts discuss it as practitioners. These are not academics or detached commentators. They are campaign veterans who have lived through leadership races, election victories, crushing defeats, cabinet crises, and war-room battles. They know where the bodies are buried because, in some cases, they helped bury them.

At the centre of the panel sits David Herle, the show’s ringmaster and perhaps one of the most influential Liberal strategists of the past generation.

A Saskatchewan native, Mr. Herle cut his political teeth working in the 1980s with future federal Liberal cabinet minister and Saskatchewan Liberal leader Ralph Goodale, before becoming a key adviser to former Prime Minister Paul Martin.

During Mr. Martin’s rise to prominence and political power, David Herle emerged as one of the most respected strategic minds in Liberal politics.

Known for his blunt speaking style and encyclopedic knowledge of political history, Mr. Herle later became a commentator on the CBC and launched the popular Herle Burly interview podcast. Today he remains a partner at Rubicon Strategy, and one of the country’s most sought-after political consultants.

Among Mr. Herle’s many political accomplishments, none may be more impressive than how he transformed Kathleen Wynne from an underdog Premier into the leader of a majority government in Ontario’s 2014 provincial election.

When Ms. Wynne became leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in January 2013, succeeding Dalton McGuinty, the Liberals appeared exhausted after a decade in power. Polls frequently showed the party trailing Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives by double digits, with some surveys placing the Liberals as much as 15 points behind.

David Herle set about to craft a compelling campaign narrative, an engaging and thought provoking message that positioned Ms. Wynne as a  change agent, a progressive reformer with a bold vision for Ontario’s future. Mr. Herle’s strategy focused on defining the election as a choice between investment and austerity.

At the centre of the Liberal platform was an ambitious plan to expand public transit through a dedicated infrastructure fund, financed in part through pension reform and asset sales. The campaign also emphasized education, public services, retirement security, and economic growth through government investment rather than spending cuts — constituent elements of, perhaps, the most progressive election campaign ever waged in Canada. While critics attacked the proposals developed by Mr. Herle as fiscally irresponsible, he recognized that many Ontarians were weary of austerity politics following the global financial crisis.

Equally important was Kathleen Wynne herself.

David Herle encouraged a campaign that highlighted her authenticity, optimism, and willingness to engage directly with voters. As Ontario’s first female premier and the first openly gay Premier in Canadian history, Ms. Wynne represented a significant break from traditional political leadership. Rather than downplaying those qualities, the campaign embraced them.

By election night, June 12, 2014, the political landscape had been transformed. The Liberals captured a majority government with 58 seats, while Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives fell well short of expectations. The 2014 Ontario election campaign remains one of the most remarkable campaign turnarounds in modern Canadian political history, and a testament to David Herle’s strategic brilliance.

Scott Reid brings a similarly deep Liberal pedigree, though one forged in a somewhat different mould. Reid served as communications director and senior adviser to Paul Martin during the latter’s tenure as Prime Minister. Smart, combative, outspoken and often — with a twinkle in his eye — delightfully profane and contrarian, Mr. Reid possesses a rare ability to dissect political messaging with surgical precision. His sharp wit has made him a favourite among listeners, particularly when discussions drift into campaign strategy, advertising, and voter psychology. While Mr. Herle often plays the role of storyteller, Scott Reid is the analyst, forever searching for the hidden logic — or illogic — behind political decisions.

If David Herle and Scott Reid represent the Liberal tradition, Kory Teneycke embodies modern Conservative politics. Teneycke emerged as one of the most formidable conservative communicators of his generation while serving as Director of Communications to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Later, he became a central architect of Ontario Progressive Conservative leader and Premier Doug Ford’s electoral successes, managing multiple winning campaigns. Mr. Teneycke’s style is unapologetically aggressive, deeply strategic, and occasionally provocative. He has long embraced the notion that politics is a contact sport.

One of the most fascinating developments in recent years has been Mr. Teneycke’s willingness to criticize his own side when he believes it is making mistakes.

During the course of the 2025 federal election campaign, he became one of the most prominent Conservative insiders to publicly question the strategy being pursued by federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. As Liberal leader and future Prime Minister Mark Carney gained momentum amid economic uncertainty and growing concerns about relations with the United States, Kory Teneycke argued that the Conservatives were squandering a commanding lead in public opinion polls, describing the campaign’s failures in remarkably blunt terms, warning that it would be remembered as a case study in campaign malpractice.

The criticism generated headlines across the country and underscored one of the podcast’s defining strengths: intellectual honesty. The hosts may have partisan backgrounds, but they are rarely partisan cheerleaders. Their loyalty lies more with effective politics than with any particular party.

Completing the quartet is Jordan Leichnitz, arguably the least publicly known member of the panel but, in many ways, the secret ingredient that gives the show its balance.

Ms. Leichnitz built her career in political strategy and public affairs, working extensively within NDP circles, particularly with the late Jack Layton during his external term as the federal party lead, prior to his untimely death on August 22. 2011, at the age of 61, just weeks after the 2011 federal election campaign.

While developing a reputation as a sophisticated campaign thinker and communicator, and decidedly less theatrical and histrionic than her colleagues on The Curse of Politics, Ms. Leichnitz often serves as the voice of moderation and practical political judgment. When debates become heated on the podcast —as frequently they do, or at least that was once the case — Ms. Leichnitz is often the one grounding the conversation in electoral realities.

Together, the three male panelists and Ms. Leichnitz have created something unusual in Canadian media.

The chemistry feels less like a panel show than an ongoing conversation among old friends who have spent decades fighting one another on campaign battlefields. They interrupt, tease, challenge, and occasionally exasperate one another. Yet beneath the banter lies a remarkable reservoir of political knowledge.

The Curse of Politics podcast’s influence has grown steadily because it offers something increasingly rare: expertise without excessive self-importance.

Listeners hear discussions about polling, campaign mechanics, advertising strategy, leadership performance, voter behaviour, and media relations from people who have actually done the work. The hosts frequently explain not merely what happened but why political actors behaved as they did.

That insider perspective has made The Curse of Politics required listening for journalists and political staffers. It is not uncommon for themes raised on the podcast to migrate into newspaper columns, television panels, and broader political discussions. In an era dominated by social-media outrage and performative partisanship, The Curse of Politics offers a more substantive, if often profane, alternative.

The title itself contains a measure of truth.

Politics is a curse of sorts. It attracts idealists and cynics alike. It promises power while demanding sacrifice. It rewards ambition while punishing miscalculation. Few people understand those contradictions better than Messrs. Herle, Reid and Teneycke, and increasingly the voice of wisdom and ruminative introspection on The Curse of Politics podcast, the estimable Jordan Leichnitz.

Five years after its launch, The Curse of Politics has become far more than a podcast. It is an institution within Canada’s political culture, a place where practitioners gather to explain the game to those watching from the stands. The hosts have disagreed on nearly every major issue of the day, but that disagreement is precisely the point. Democracy is not built upon consensus. It is built upon argument.

Interestingly, some longtime listeners have suggested that the name evolved from the show’s conversational, discursive style before settling on The Curse of Politics, a title that better captured the hosts’ love-hate relationship with political life.

In that sense, the title is both humourous and autobiographical. The hosts understand politics better than most people because they have lived it — and because, despite all its frustrations, they have never really escaped its pull. That enduring attraction, equal parts passion and affliction, is the curse they discuss every week.

The podcast’s official description explains the idea this way:

“Politics. It’s a blessing and a curse. On good days, it’s about your friends in the foxhole with you. On bad ones, it’s the mountain of votes that went the other way. Either way, it pulls you back in, again, and again.”

The Curse of Politics title is both humorous and autobiographical.

The hosts understand politics better than most people because they have lived it — and because, despite all its frustrations, they have never really escaped its pull. That enduring attraction, equal parts passion, affliction and profanity, is the curse they discuss and engage in every week.

And every week, around a virtual table crowded with stories, scars, and strategic insight, four veterans of Canada’s political wars remind listeners politics is rarely as simple as it looks — and infinitely more interesting than most people imagine.

#ChatGPT | Raymond Tomlin: The Citizen Journalist of Vancouver

#VanElxn 2026, BC Politics, Cinema, fixin to die rag, Food & Health, Jude and Megan, Politics, Stories of a Life, Stories of a Life Redux, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026, VanRamblings, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


1977, working as an educator in the Interior. Raymond (26) with Megan in his arms and son Jude

Last evening, VanRamblings asked Open AI ChatGPT LLM (large language model) search engine to write a profile on the author of this blog, Raymond Tomlin.

Directly below, you may read what ChatGPT has to say about Mr. Tomlin.

Photo taken recently by Nick Ellan, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre

For more than two decades, Raymond Tomlin has occupied a singular place in Vancouver’s civic and cultural landscape.

In the 1970s, Mr. Tomlin was the Executive Director / Co-ordinator of the Tillicum and Fed-Up Co-operatives — the latter, a wholesaler responsible for the import of foods goods from across the globe — as the enterprise became the largest grassroots co-operative movement since the 1930s, Mr. Tomlin growing the food co-op from an initial gathering of 20 families seeking healthy foods, to a multi-million dollar enterprise, serving British Columbians and western Canada, as well as the Cascade region of the states of Washington and Oregon, working to create the Wild West Organic Co-operative, the Mountain Equipment Co-op, Uprising Breads, and the East End storefront co-operative.

In addition, Mr. Tomlin was appointed by the 1970s Barrett NDP government, and the Board of Governors and Student Forum at Simon Fraser University, as a liaison to the investigative committee appointed by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau-led federal government to recommend a made-in-Canada solution to the issue of affordable housing. Mr. Tomlin’s participation in the process was instrumental in the founding of the housing co-operative moment. Mr. Tomlin was also involved in the drafting of the initial terms of reference for the housing co-operatives that would be built across Canada.


Working with the National Farmers Union, Raymond became the BC Co-ordinator of the Kraft Boycott. Pictured, Cathy looking back at Raymond, to Cathy’s left, Laurie Birdsall, a very good friend

Part journalist, part educator, part activist, and part public intellectual, Mr. Tomlin is best known as the founder, publisher, and principal writer of VanRamblings, one of British Columbia’s longest-running independent political and cultural blogs. Since its launch on February 15, 2004, VanRamblings has evolved into a uniquely personal chronicle of Vancouver civic life, provincial politics, film culture, music, social justice activism, and the changing character of the city itself.

To understand Raymond Tomlin is to understand a particular tradition of engaged citizenship that has become increasingly rare in the digital age. He is neither a conventional journalist bound by newsroom constraints nor merely a blogger offering personal opinion. Rather, he has spent decades positioning himself as a participant-observer in the public life of Vancouver, writing from the intersection of activism, education, public policy, and culture.


Raymond, age 19, with Joy, one of his future wife Cathy’s best friends, at Joy and Cathy’s home, located just off the University of Alberta campus, in Edmonton 

Mr. Tomlin’s educational background reflects the breadth of his interests.

1970s & ’80s. Simon Fraser University campus, Burnaby Mountain

Raymond Tomlin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, Sociology, and Anthropology, followed by a Bachelor of Education degree specializing in Reading and  Early Childhood Education, and later completed a Master of Arts degree in Policy Administration, all at Simon Fraser University. The combination of social sciences, education, and public policy would prove foundational to his later work as both an educator and political commentator.

Before becoming known as an online publisher, Mr. Tomlin established a diverse professional career. Mr. Tomlin taught in the public education system, taking a year away from the public system to work with “gifted children” in a well-regarded private school.

Mr. Tomlin has taught at Vancouver Community College, on East Broadway, as a writing instructor, teaching literature and history, as well. Mr. Tomlin has also taken on instructor positions, not only at VCC, but at Langara College, as well as working at Simon Fraser University as a sessional instructor, focusing mainly on Early Childhood Education, but teaching Educational Psychology, Educational Sociology, curriculum development, and policy administration, as well.

In 1980 through 1982, Mr. Tomlin worked as the assistant administrator of the PDP 401/402 teaching programme at Simon Fraser University, as the primary liaison with faculty associates responsible for students enrolled in the education programme, acting as well as a student advocate when, and if, controversy arose with teacher education students.

Mr. Tomlin has two children (pictured above, and at the top of today’s column).

Megan (49) was a PhD candidates in the neurosciences at the University of Toronto, prior to meeting her husband Maz — an Iranian immigrant who arrived in Canada with his parents and sibling at age 14, going on to secure a degree as an engineer.

Megan and Maz moved to Vancouver, married and have raised three children, two boys and a girl. Megan has been active as a Parent Advisory Committee Chairperson at her children’s schools, working with VSB trustee Christopher Richardson, one of Mr. Tomlin’s best friends.

Jude (51) has played a significant role in British Columbia’s music scene, working as a sound engineer, and a prominent DJ on the underground scene, not only locally, but across British Columbia, Canada, the U.S., and internationally.

Mr. Tomlin’s professional experience extended beyond education.

Mr. Tomlin has worked at all 3 levels of government.

Throughout his educational career, Mr. Tomlin has demonstrated a consistent interest in how culture, politics, and institutions shape everyday life.

Municipally, he was involved in planning and development. Federally, he served as an administrator with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for a period of 12 years. Provincially, Mr. Tomlin worked within Dr. Ian Carter within British Columbia’s Ministry of Education, taking on the tasks of a policy administrator, and curriculum development. These experiences gave Mr. Tomlin a comprehensive understanding of governmental decision-making, a perspective that would later become evident in his political writing.

In the early 1980s, when Premier Bill Bennett dramatically downsized government — leading to what became known as the Solidarity Movement — Mr. Tomlin was hired as a policy analyst in the Government Division of the  British Columbia Teachers’ Federation.

When Premier Bennett fired 8,000 teachers, Mr. Tomlin would soon be downsized out of a job with the BCTF. Prior to that circumstance, Mr. Tomlin was assigned the responsibility of becoming a liaison to teachers who had been laid off, helping them find new careers. In fact, Mr. Tomlin himself would find a new career as a successful entrepreneur, creating the first arts and nostalgia video store on the North American continent, the business located on Vancouver’s west side, later opening a combined arts video emporium and restaurant, called The Video Café, which also functioned as a theatre and vibrant arts venue.

Mr. Tomlin also built an extensive career in journalism and publishing.

In the late 1960s, not only was Mr. Tomlin the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper at his east side’s Templeton Secondary School, he also wrote for the city-wide student newspaper. In the 1970s, Mr. Tomlin was an Editor at The Peak student newspaper at SFU, taking on summer intern jobs with the then Southam-owned Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers.

Mr. Tomlin sat on the executive of the Canadian University Press, working with Vaughn Palmer — who would soon be hired by the Vancouver Sun, going on to become the Sun’s award winning provincial affairs columnist — to establish a “desk system” at Canada’s university, college and technical institute student newspapers. Mr. Palmer would become the first News Editor at The Ubyssey, while Mr. Tomlin established the Arts & Entertainment desk at The Peak, Simon Fraser University’s student newspaper.

In the 1980s, Mr. Tomlin worked as freelance writer, contributing various articles on the arts — film, theatre, dance — to the Vancouver Sun. Mr. Tomlin also wrote for the 23 community newspapers across British Columbia, owned by the Southam family, work that continued through the mid-1990s.

Mr. Tomlin wrote for Vancouver Magazine, where he served as Director of Special Projects. During the 1990s he founded Festival, a Vancouver-based arts magazine he created, working as both publisher and editor, later becoming Arts and Entertainment Editor for Two Chairs magazine. Mr. Tomlin also became a syndicated columnist whose work appeared in numerous urban and suburban newspapers throughout Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, and across the U.S.

Yet it is VanRamblings that is Mr. Tomlin’s most enduring legacy.

Launched in February 2004, at a time when blogging was still in its infancy, VanRamblings emerged from a belief that independent voices could contribute meaningfully to public discourse. Mr. Tomlin has written that friends — current Vancouver City Councillor Mike Klassen, and his Two Chairs editor, Jay Currie — encouraged him to create a platform after opportunities within traditional media had diminished.

The result was an online publication that would eventually produce thousands of articles covering virtually every aspect of public life.

Over the years, the VanRamblings blog has developed a distinct editorial identity.

Politics remains its core focus, particularly municipal politics in Vancouver.

Few independent writers have devoted as much sustained attention to city council, school board elections, park board politics, housing policy, neighbourhood planning, and local governance. Mr. Tomlin has embraced the role of watchdog, scrutinizing politicians, parties, civic institutions, and development decisions, his coverage frequently extending into provincial, federal, and international arenas.

Alongside politics, VanRamblings has long celebrated arts and culture.

Cinema — for years one of Mr. Tomlin’s great loves — occupies a particularly prominent place in Mr. Tomlin’s journalistic life.

Mr. Tomlin has written extensively about film festivals, directors, actors, and the cultural significance of cinema. At present, Mr. Tomlin continues work he began in 1994 with the prominent Japanese magazine, The Fraser Journal (monthly). Even through his various health travails, Mr. Tomlin has never missed a Journal publishing deadline, in 22+ years.

Music criticism, theatre and dance coverage, technology commentary, and reflections on popular culture also form significant parts of VanRamblings’ identity. In this sense, VanRamblings resembles the alternative weekly newspapers that once flourished in North America, combining civic affairs reporting with arts journalism and cultural criticism.

The writing style itself is also unmistakably personal.

Mr. Tomlin often writes in the third person, a literary device that has become one of the site’s trademarks (as crazy as that makes his detractors), to create ironic distance, he suggests. Mr. Tomlin’s prose can be expansive, passionate, humourous and, in the past, frequently hyperbolic.

Admirers see this as evidence of intellectual independence; critics view it as overly opinionated, or “gossipy”. Either way, it has ensured VanRamblings possesses a voice unlike any other Vancouver publication.


Raymond Tomlin raised Jude and Megan as a single parent

Beyond journalism, Mr. Tomlin has consistently engaged in work as a community activist, a union organizer, president of union locals, and in the 1970s Learning and Working Conditions Chairperson for the BCTF, responsible for the north and south Okanagan.

In VanRamblings, Mr. Tomlin’s interests have centred on democratic participation, social justice, neighbourhood engagement, affordable housing, public education, and civic accountability.

Throughout his writing, Mr. Tomlin has argued that ordinary citizens must be involved in political decision-making rather than leaving governance solely to elected officials, developers, or institutional elites.

Mr. Tomlin’s influence has occasionally extended beyond commentary into the civic arena itself. Over the years, political figures, activists, community organizations, and journalists have regularly engaged with VanRamblings as part of Vancouver’s broader political conversation. During election campaigns, the site has become a destination for candidate profiles, endorsements, campaign analysis, and detailed examinations of local political dynamics.

In recent years, Mr Tomlin’s personal life has increasingly entered his writing, as he writes  candidly about serious health challenges, including two battles with cancer, and other maladies.

Mr. Tomlin’s personal essays, often collected under his Stories of a Life series on his blog, reveal a more intimate side of a writer often associated with politics and public affairs, as he explores the issues of aging, mortality, family, friendship, resilience, and gratitude. Such pieces have added a memoiristic dimension to VanRamblings, transforming it from a political blog into a record of an individual’s life experience.


Raymond and Gala Milne (currently Chief of Staff to Premier David Eby) at a Kits Beach protest

Now in his mid-70s, Mr. Tomlin continues to publish regularly, recent writing demonstrating the same enthusiasm that animated the site’s founding more than twenty years ago. Municipal elections, public policy debates, film criticism, music appreciation, and personal reflection all remain central to his work.

In an era when local journalism faces enormous economic pressures and many independent voices have disappeared, Raymond Tomlin represents a different model of public engagement. He is an educator who became a journalist, a policy analyst who became an activist, and an activist who became one of Vancouver’s most persistent chroniclers. Through thousands of essays published over more than two decades, he has documented the civic life of Vancouver while simultaneously participating in it.

Through VanRamblings, Mr. Tomlin has created an enduring archive of the city’s political debates, cultural life, and social transformations. In doing so, he has demonstrated that a single committed citizen, armed with curiosity, conviction, and a keyboard, can help shape the conversation of a city.

#VanPoli | Frances Bula | A Must-Elect Candidate for Vancouver City Council

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, canadian politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , , , , , , ,


Frances Bula, running as a OneCity Vancouver Council candidate in the 2026 civic election

After a career spent observing Vancouver City Hall from the press gallery, journalist Frances Bula is attempting something entirely different.

In 2026, Ms. Bula is seeking a seat on Vancouver City Council, as a candidate with OneCity Vancouver. As is stated on OneCity’s website, “Frances’s candidacy marks one of the most significant transitions in recent Vancouver civic politics — a reporter who spent years scrutinizing elected officials is now asking voters to entrust her with public office.”

VanRamblings wholeheartedly supports Frances Bula’s candidacy for Vancouver City Council. We believe Frances Bula, who we have long known and respected, to be a must-elect at the polls, in our upcoming October civic election.

As Frances has written — the information also to be found in OneCity Vancouver literature — Ms. Bula’s career in journalism spans more than four decades.

According to her own biography, Frances Bula began her reporting career in southeastern B.C. in 1983, the very day a province-wide general strike began. From those beginnings in community journalism, she gradually developed a lifelong fascination with cities, and the political systems that shape them.

The Journalist Who Helped Interpret Vancouver City Politics

Frances Bula has spent so many years explaining Vancouver to itself that, for many residents, it is difficult to imagine the city’s civic conversation without her.

For more than three decades, Ms. Bula has occupied a unique place in Vancouver public life: part journalist, part historian, part urban anthropologist, and part translator of the often bewildering language of municipal politics.

Frances Bula’s career in journalism spans more than four decades.

The defining chapter of her career began in 1994, when she started covering Vancouver municipal politics and urban affairs.

Over the course of the following years, Ms. Bula became one of the most respected and recognizable civic-affairs reporters in British Columbia. At the Vancouver Sun, where she spent approximately two decades as a staff reporter, she covered City Hall, education, housing, transportation, homelessness, development, infrastructure, drug policy, and nearly every other issue that defines urban life.

One pivotal moment in Frances Bula’s life came in 1998-99 when she received the prestigious Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, after which she spent a year studying housing and homelessness issues, producing a major series and a documentary project that deepened her understanding of urban poverty and housing policy. Housing would become a central theme of her journalism.

Frances Bula Leaves the Vancouver Sun, to Re-Invent Her Journalism

In 2008, Ms. Bula left the Vancouver Sun, to become one of British Columbia’s most prominent freelance journalists, writing extensively for The Globe and Mail, as well as contributing to publications ranging from BCBusiness, Canadian Architect, Canadian Business, Western Living to The Guardian, and more.

Among Ms. Bula’s most influential post-Sun work was her column Urban Fix in Vancouver Magazine where from 2008 through 2015 she explored the challenges facing Vancouver as it grappled with growth, affordability, transportation, density, neighbourhood change, and urban planning, all while profiling a broad cross-section of political leaders, planners, community advocates, developers, architects, and the overlooked civic actors who influence how cities evolve, her work examining those in power and how power operates in urban environments.

Vancouver. Culture, Diversity, and Civic Life

Ms. Bula has long championed the idea cities are fundamentally about the citizens who reside in the city, and the communities in which they live.

Ms. Bula’s writing has highlighted Vancouver’s multicultural character, examining how immigrant communities shaped Vancouver neighbourhoods, transforming the city over time, reporting on Chinatown, the Punjabi Market, Richmond’s Asian communities, and Metro Vancouver’s changing demographics.

Similarly, Frances Bula has long possessed a deep interest in, and consistent supporter of, Vancouver’s cultural institutions and artistic life, her writing regularly exploring the connections between culture, public space, and civic identity.

Ms. Bula is also a supporter of the Vancouver International Film Festival, reflecting a broader interest that extended beyond politics, as she focused on film, the arts, and cultural expression, over the years emphasizing and prioritizing the importance of cultural institutions in creating vibrant, livable cities not solely about infrastructure, but about creativity, diversity, public life, and community.

Why Politics? What Frances Bula Hopes to Accomplish in Elected Office

The obvious question surrounding Frances Bula’s candidacy is simple: Why leave journalism for politics? Ms.Bula has offered a straightforward answer.

As she recently told journalist Kenneth Chan in the Daily Hive …

“Journalism was my service to the public for decades. Now I want to do public service more directly.”

After decades documenting problems and analyzing solutions, in 2026 Frances Bula has decided that she wants a direct role in civic decision-making.

In her run to secure a seat on Vancouver City Council, in her campaign literature Frances Bula has emphasized housing, livability, transparency, and effective governance, as well as fighting for civic improvements that will make Vancouver function better for residents. Few candidates in Vancouver history would arrive at Vancouver City Hall with as deep an understanding of municipal governance and the institutional knowledge about how Vancouver City Hall operates.

Based on her writing and public statements, several priorities appear likely to define Frances Bula’s approach to public office.

  • Housing will almost certainly be central. Throughout her career she has treated housing affordability as Vancouver’s defining challenge;
  • Advocating for evidence-based policy making, drawing lessons from successful initiatives elsewhere;
  • Ms. Bula has also expressed an interest in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal government. Her own experiences navigating the permitting process while building a laneway house provided first hand exposure to the frustrations many residents experience when dealing with City Hall;
  • Balancing growth with livability, recognizing Vancouver must accommodate more residents while preserving the qualities that make neighbourhoods attractive;
  • Strengthening public trust in local government through transparency, accountability, and thoughtful decision-making.

For 30-plus years, Frances Bula sat inside Council Chambers, notebook in hand, watching elected officials wrestle with the complexities of governing a rapidly changing city, observing the administrations of multiple mayors, political parties, planning movements, housing booms, and civic controversies, chronicling their triumphs and failures, ambitions and unintended consequences.

Few people understand Vancouver’s civic history as comprehensively as she.

Now, Frances Bula wants in, to step into the story she once covered.

For decades, Vancouver residents relied on Ms. Bula to explain City Hall.

In 2026, VanRamblings endorses the candidacy of Frances Bula for Vancouver City Council, as she asks the residents of our city for the opportunity to serve.

The journey — from reporter to candidate, from observer to participant — may prove to be one of the most intriguing civic stories Vancouver has seen in years.

VanRamblings asks you to vote for Frances Bula for Council this October.

#SundayMusic | Perfection | John Prine’s Remarkable, Eternal 1971 Début Album

A & E, Essay, fixin to die rag, Jude and Megan, Music, Politics, Pop Culture, VanRamblings, , , , , , , , , ,


Guitarist Jason Wilbur played on stage with John Prine for 1999’s  Live from Sessions at West 54th

One of the most celebrated singer/songwriters of his generation, John Prine was a master storyteller whose work was often witty and always heartfelt, frequently offering a sly but sincere reflection of his Midwestern roots, writing about the lives of ordinary people in a remarkable and perceptive way.

Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for his signature blend of humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, often with elements of social commentary and satire, as well as sweet songs and melancholy ballads.

John Prine’s first record, simply titled John Prine (Atlantic, 1971), featured a photograph of the slightly impatient-looking young singer-songwriter seated on a bale of hay, hands cradled in his lap, with his guitar standing upright nearby.

The austerity of the image was a good reflection on the album’s contents: a baker’s dozen songs clocking in at about 43 minutes, performed mostly on acoustic guitar with a spare backing combo, delivered in a straightforward nasal drawl, with titles like Sam Stone, Donald and Lydia, Hello in There, Illegal Smile, and Souvenirs.

Beneath the casual simplicity of the presentation lies a treasure trove of lyrical beauty: detailed portraits of despair and loneliness, interspersed with witty cultural commentary about dimestore patriotism, back-to-nature movements, and the justice system’s obsession with people’s “illegal smiles.”

That first record wasn’t a big seller.

It peaked at #156 in the Billboard charts in 1972, a year after its initial release. But that small splash had big ripples down through the years. John Prine not only set the tone for his half-century career, it influenced several generations of American singer-songwriters working in the rock, country and folk traditions.

1971 was a year of disaffection and ennui. The Beatles had broken up, the hippie dream was over, four kids were shot in Ohio by National Guardsmen and you had Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young singing a protest song that was powerful at the time but who wants to listen now? Prine’s eyeglass was focused on all of the same things but his was an ironic, detached P.O.V. that remains vital and relevant.

The record is of that time but it is somehow of this time too, though Prine’s delivery and from where in his throat he’s singing obviously owes something to Dylan.

All through the 1970s Cathy and I would attend annually at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with a packed audience gathered to appreciate John Prine.


John Prine on stage and singing with Iris DeMent (who we will write about another day)

Some artists are one hit wonders and one album wonders. Not Prine. He kept doing it and gathering up new fans right until the end, even when sickness made a physical mess of him.

John Prine died on April 20, 2020 of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2), the pandemic coronavirus that became known as COVID-19.