#Cinema | The Tyranny of the Tomatometer: How Aggregated Scores Are Killing Cinema Going

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There was a time — not that long ago — when moviegoing required curiosity.

You read a few critics, maybe listened to a friend’s recommendation, and decided whether to spend two hours in the dark discovering something new.

Today, that act of discovery has largely been replaced by a single number. Before many people even consider seeing a film, they glance at a percentage on Rotten Tomatoes, or a numerical score on Metacritic. If the number is high, the film is deemed worth watching. If it is low, it might as well not exist.

The result is one of the most profound — and least discussed — transformations in the modern film industry.

Review aggregation has quietly reshaped the way audiences choose movies, the way studios finance them, and even the kinds of films that get made. In the process, it has flattened audience taste, suffocated mid-budget filmmaking, and helped create the blockbuster monoculture that now dominates cinema.

The Reduction of Criticism to a Number

Film criticism once thrived on disagreement. One critic might celebrate a bold experiment while another dismissed it as indulgent. That tension created a conversation around movies.

Aggregators ended that conversation by reducing criticism to arithmetic. On Rotten Tomatoes, reviews are translated into a simple binary: “fresh” or “rotten.” The site’s famous Tomatometer then calculates the percentage of critics who gave a positive review.

In practice, this system erases nuance. A film that receives dozens of mildly positive reviews can achieve a dazzling 90% score, even if no critic thought it was particularly great. Meanwhile, a polarizing masterpiece that divides critics — half loving it, half hating it —might end up with a mediocre score.

The number becomes the narrative.

And because audiences increasingly rely on that number to decide what to watch, a film’s reputation is often determined before the public has even seen it.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Success

Hollywood has noticed. In fact, studios have been obsessing over Rotten Tomatoes scores for years.

The industry’s anxiety became obvious during the summer of 2017, when several heavily marketed films opened far below expectations after receiving poor Tomatometer scores. Studios privately blamed Rotten Tomatoes for undermining their marketing campaigns, while highly rated films like Wonder Woman benefited from glowing scores and exceeded expectations at the box office.

Films are now judged almost instantly by their aggregated scores. A low rating can create a perception of failure before opening weekend even begins. A high rating can generate momentum and headlines. Either way, the number becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Once audiences internalize the logic of the score, they begin to behave accordingly: avoiding films with bad numbers and flocking to those with good ones.

The Crushing of the Mid-Budget Film


Kristen Stewart and Andrew Garfield on the red carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards ceremony

The biggest casualty of this culture is the mid-budget movie — the $20-$60 million drama, thriller, or adult comedy that once formed the backbone of Hollywood.

These films depend heavily on word-of-mouth and critical reception. That means they are far more vulnerable to aggregated scores than massive franchise films with huge marketing budgets. In fact, research suggests Rotten Tomatoes has a greater effect on smaller or independent movies than on major blockbusters.

For a mid-budget film, a weak score can be fatal. It discourages audiences from giving the movie a chance and convinces studios that similar projects are too risky.

The lesson Hollywood has absorbed is simple: if audiences are choosing movies based on numbers, studios should make films that are least likely to receive negative numbers.

The safest way to do that is to make movies audiences already know.

Sequels. Franchises. Superheroes.
The Homogenization of Taste

Aggregated scores quietly reshape the psychology of moviegoers themselves.

When audiences use a single metric to choose entertainment, they gravitate toward consensus. The safest choice becomes the one everyone else appears to like.

Over time, this process homogenizes the marketplace. Films that aim for broad approval — competent, inoffensive entertainment — perform better in aggregated scoring systems than films that take risks or challenge viewers.

The result is a feedback loop: audiences follow the scores, studios follow the audiences, and the entire system rewards safe mediocrity.

Gaming the System

Once numbers became powerful, the temptation was to manipulate them.

Studios now carefully manage early screenings to influence aggregated scores. Positive early reactions can create a high initial rating that attracts audiences before more critical reviews appear. In some cases, marketing campaigns have even tried to boost a film’s rating by selectively promoting favorable critics or delaying negative reviews.

Meanwhile, user scores on sites like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes can be distorted by organized campaigns known as “review bombing,” where groups flood a site with extreme ratings for political or cultural reasons unrelated to the film itself.

When the system becomes a battlefield of manipulated numbers, the illusion of objectivity collapses.

Yet the numbers remain.

Cinema as Data

Perhaps the most troubling consequence of aggregation culture is philosophical.

Cinema is an art form built on subjectivity. The experience of a film is deeply personal —shaped by mood, taste, memory, and emotion. Turning that experience into a percentage suggests a false precision.

And so cinema — one of the most expressive art forms ever invented — has been reduced to a metric.

Rediscovering Curiosity

The tragedy is not that Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic exist. Aggregating reviews can be useful. The tragedy is how completely those scores have come to dominate the conversation.

A score should be the beginning of exploration, not the final verdict.

If the future of cinema is decided by percentages alone, the industry will continue drifting toward the safest, most predictable movies imaginable.

And the next generation of great films — the strange, polarizing, risky ones that critics initially disagree about — may never get the chance to exist.
The tyranny of the Tomatometer is not just changing how we judge movies.

It is quietly changing which movies get made at all.

#VanPoli | Backgrounder on Vancouver’s 2026 Municipal Civic Election

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As is almost always the case, the 2026 race for power at Vancouver City Hall is shaping up as one of the most consequential elections in the city’s history.

Four years ago, voters handed a sweeping mandate to current Mayor, Ken Sim.

In 2026, the central question of this year’s civic election is a simple one: has Vancouver become a better, more affordable, more livable city under Ken Sim?

For Mayor Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver, the answer is yes. For many others — and certainly members of the opposition parties — the answer is an emphatic NO.

In 2022 Mayor Ken Sim’s party, ABC Vancouver, campaigned on public safety, housing approvals, reducing street disorder, and delivering major civic projects.

Mayor Sim has repeatedly highlighted the city’s efforts to hire 100 additional police officers — ABC Vancouver has, in fact, hired well more than 100 new police officers — and 100 mental-health nurses — the latter commitment would have to be considered an abject failure, with Business in Vancouver reporting that 41 mental health workers were brought on to staff various response teams … as of June 2026, only about half of those hires were registered nurses — to accelerate housing construction approvals, and prepare Vancouver for the  current FIFA World Cup.

ABC Vancouver has argued that it has brought a business-oriented approach to City Hall after years of political fragmentation.

Yet for many Vancouverites, the Ken Sim years have been anything but smooth.

Housing affordability remains the defining issue in Vancouver.

Despite record levels of housing approvals, rents remain high, if not tagreehe highest in Canada, while home ownership continues to be out of reach for most young families and workers.

Public safety, homelessness, addiction, and visible street disorder remain persistent concerns, particularly in the DTES and surrounding neighbourhoods.

Concerns about transportation, climate policy, development pressures, and the spiraling costs associated with hosting FIFA World Cup matches have also entered the civic conversation. Polling released earlier this year suggested Vancouver residents remain sharply divided in their assessment of the ABC administration, with many polls registering  ABC Vancouver at 10% support among Vancouverites.

Those divisions have fuelled a broad anti-Sim movement on the political left.

The most visible expression of that opposition has been COPE’s “Evict Ken Sim” campaign.

Led by COPE Mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) has framed the election as a referendum on what it describes as an increasingly corporate and developer-friendly City Hall. The slogan has become a rallying cry among activists who believe Sim’s administration has failed renters, marginalized residents, and neighbourhood communities. COPE’s fundraising appeals openly ask supporters to help “evict Ken Sim” as Mayor.

But make no mistake, COPE is not alone in its criticism of the Mayor.

Recognizing that vote splitting helped ABC achieve its landslide victory in 2022, Vancouver’s progressive parties have once again attempted something unusual.

COPE, OneCity Vancouver, and the Green Party have negotiated an electoral co-operation agreement intended to reduce competition among progressive candidates and maximize their chances of defeating ABC candidates. Sadly, the agreement has not proved entirely successful at the centre-left unity goal.

As we wrote last week, the Mayoral field itself remains crowded.

Ken Sim is seeking a second term and remains the clear front-runner — at least according to civic election commentators, lawyer Kyla Lee and This is Vancolour’s Mo Amir, a sentiment the two have expressed in their role as civic affairs panelists on CBC Vancouver’s On The Coast afternoon programme — in part because he benefits from name recognition, an established — if broken, in the eyes of many — political machine, and the advantages of incumbency.

OneCity Vancouver has nominated William Azaroff, an affordable housing advocate whose campaign has not only emphasized affordable housing, but protections for tenants (provincial jurisdiction), climate action, and expanding public services.

The Green Party has nominated popular incumbent Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry, who has positioned himself as a pragmatic progressive focused on neighbourhood planning, sustainability, and balancing growth with livability.

COPE has put forward Stephanie Allen, whose campaign has focused on renters’ rights, social and affordable housing, labour issues — including re-instating the Livable Wage Programme jettisoned by Mayor Sim early in his term of office — working with the provincial and federal governments to implement an affordable $40 a month transit pass for those whose incomes fall below $40,000 a year — which is an laudable environmental initiative, as well — and challenging what Ms. Allen describes as the monied backers of ABC Vancouver, and the elites influence over civic politics that ill-serves the interests of most citizens.

Meanwhile, Councillor Rebecca Bligh has launched the new Vote Vancouver party, creating another centrist option that could attract voters dissatisfied with both ABC and the traditional left.

Colleen Hardwick, and her TEAM for a Livable Vancouver civic party, have also launched a campaign for elected office, focused on neighbourhood empowerment, and transparency in decision-making at Vancouver City Hall.

Perhaps the most hopeful campaign for office in 2026 comes in the form of Kareem Allam and his Vancouver Liberal party, whose platform is centred on fiscal discipline; a socially progressive approach to governance that is focused on making the city affordable again for working and middle-class families; addressing the drug crisis on the DTES by ridding our city of the cryptocurrency ATMs so well loved by Mayor Ken Sim and the offshore drug lords who fuel the drug crisis that has taken so many lives in our city and our region; ridding Vancouver of our city’s disturbing rat infestation; working collaboratively with opposition Councillors; requiring fewer managers while hiring more front line workers; strengthening the role of the City’s Integrity Commissioner, and funding Vancouver’s Park Board properly in order that Park Board Commissioners might work to repair and renovate Vancouver’s increasingly delapidated community recreation centres.

The controversies surrounding Ken Sim are likely to dominate much of the coming Vancouver municipal election campaign.

Critics have accused ABC of excessive centralization of power, a lack of transparency in decision-making, and governing in a manner that has marginalized opposition Councillors. Debates over policing, housing policy, encampment responses, development approvals, and FIFA-related expenditures have all generated political friction. Former allies have occasionally become critics, and opposition parties have attempted to portray the Mayor as increasingly disconnected from ordinary Vancouver residents.

Mayor Ken Sim’s re-election strategy will likely emphasize stability, competence — it is but to laugh — and the argument that major reforms require more than a single four-year term.

The mechanics of the 2026 Vancouver civic election are already taking shape.

Vancouver has announced expanded voting opportunities for 2026, including more advance voting locations, larger voting sites, and more than 2,200 election workers. Election Day is Saturday, October 17, 2026.

While the city has not yet finalized all advance voting dates, advance polls are expected to open in the weeks leading up to Election Day, continuing Vancouver’s recent practice of offering multiple opportunities for early voting.

Voters will elect not only a Mayor but also 10 city councillors, 7 Park Board commissioners, and 9 school trustees. We will also decide several capital borrowing questions that could shape municipal infrastructure spending for years to come.

In many ways, Vancouver’s 2026 election has become a contest between competing visions of the city itself.

One vision, represented by Ken Sim and ABC emphasizing growth, public order, and managerial governance. The other, represented by the city’s progressive parties, argues for stronger social programmes, requiring landlords to repair pest infested and rundown SROs, legislating deeper affordability measures, taking an activist approach to rebuilding infrastructure, opening up City Hall to citizens, and adopting a community-driven approach to development in our city.

By the evening of October 17, Vancouver voters will have decided whether Ken Sim’s sweeping victory in 2022 marked the beginning of a new political era — or is merely an unfortunate interlude, a one and done for Mayor Sim’s right-of-centre civic party — in the city’s long tradition of progressive municipal politics.

The answer will determine not only who occupies the Mayor’s office through autumn 2030, but what kind of city Vancouver hopes to become in the decade ahead.

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

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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.

Recently, Mr. Teneckye took a break from The Curse of Politics, moving to British Columbia  to help Caroline Elliott secure the leadership of the Conservative Party of British Columbia. Sadly, despite Mr. Teneycke and his team’s best efforts, Ms. Elliott fell just short, securing 49% of the vote to Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s 51%

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 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 extended 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 of the podcast 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.”

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

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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.