#VanPoli | Vancouver Starved Its Parks — Then City Hall Declared the Park Board the Problem

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, Environment, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , , ,

There is a remarkable piece of political chutzpah unfolding at Vancouver City Hall.

For nearly two decades, successive City Councils have failed to provide Vancouver’s parks, swimming pools, community centres, playing fields and recreation facilities with the sustained investment they require.

Now, after years of deferred maintenance and inadequate capital funding — funding that was approved by voters at each election in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 — Vancouver City Hall has decided that the institution responsible for those assets, the Park Board, is the problem.

It isn’t.

City Hall is, as are all the Mayors and City Councils elected since 2008.

Mayor Gregor Robertson, who served as Vancouver Mayor from 2008 to 2018, cut Park Board funding

The modern history of this sorry affair begins with Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver, elected in 2008. Robertson’s administration inherited one of the world’s great urban parks and recreation systems.

Instead of establishing a long-term funding strategy to preserve it, the Vision Vancouver Mayor and Council imposed cuts.

In December 2010, the Vision Vancouver-led City Council approved more than $700,000 in reductions to the 2011 Park Board budget, with the consequences falling directly on parks: fewer flower beds, reduced lawn mowing and less street-tree pruning. Business in Vancouver subsequently reported that the cuts were visibly tarnishing the city’s parks.

The Park Board chairs during the opening years of the Robertson era — Raj Hundal in 2009 and Aaron Jasper in 2010–11 — were left attempting to manage an increasingly difficult financial situation. Constance Barnes chaired in 2012, Sarah Blyth from 2012 into 2013, and Jasper again in 2014.

And this is where the political responsibility becomes complicated.

John Coupar, who served as a Vancouver Park Board Commissioner from 2011 through 2018

From 2014 to 2018, the Non-Partisan Association controlled Park Board, with John Coupar serving as chair 2014–15, followed by Sarah Kirby-Yung in 2016, Michael Wiebe in 2017 and Stuart Mackinnon in 2018.

Yet the Mayor remained Gregor Robertson and Vancouver City Council remained ultimately responsible for the municipal purse.

The NPA cannot credibly claim it was merely an innocent bystander, although it fought like hell to have funding for Vancouver’s Board of Parks and Recreation increased. While the NPA controlled the Park Board, Park Board Commissioners found themselves unable to develop the political coalition necessary to force City Hall to repair the funding model.

Vision Vancouver cannot escape responsibility for the underfunding of Park Board.

Robertson’s decade at City Hall coincided with an increasingly obvious deterioration in the city’s recreation infrastructure. By the late 2010s, the Park Board was talking not about maintaining a healthy capital system, but about catching up.

Camil Dumont, left, and Stuart Mackinnon, right, Green Party of Vancouver, former Park Board chairs

Under the 2018–22 Park Board, Green Party chairs Camil Dumont in 2020–21 and Stuart Mackinnon in 2019 and 2022 presided over a system confronting the consequences of years of inadequate renewal.

Kennedy Stewart, elected Mayor in 2018, continued to cut Park Board funding during his term in office 

When Kennedy Stewart became Mayor in 2018, the political rhetoric changed, but the underlying financial structure did not. The Park Board remained dependent on City Council for the money required to maintain its facilities, monies that were not forthcoming during Stewart’s four years in power.

The numbers tell the story.

In 2022, the Park Board approved a staggering $539-million four-year capital plan, including $140 million for the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and $49 million for RayCam Community Centre.

Vancouver Is Awesome pointed out the fundamental problem: despite being an elected body, the Park Board does not have its own separate budget. It must request allocations from City Council.

In other words, City Hall controls the money and then complains about the consequences when the money isn’t sufficient.

After electing a majority ABC slate Park Board, Sim and Council tried to eliminate the Park Board

Then came Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver.

Ken Sim was elected Mayor in 2022 with an overwhelming mandate.

ABC also won six of seven Park Board seats. The chairs during this period tell their own story: Scott Jensen was elected chair for the remainder of 2022 and 2023; Brennan Bastyovanszky was elected chair for 2024; Laura Christensen chaired in 2025; and Tom Digby is the current chair in 2026.


December 5, 2023 Ken Sim calls press conference, announcing his intention to abolish the Park Board

In December 2023, Ken Sim announced his intention to abolish Park Board.

And here the hypocrisy becomes almost breathtaking.

Three of Mayor Ken Sim’s own ABC Commissioners — Bastyovanszky, Christensen and Jensen — broke with the Mayor, joined forces with Green Party of Vancouver Commissioner Tom Digby and opposed the abolition plan. Vancouver Is Awesome reported Bastyovanszky’s blunt assessment: Park Board had been underfunded by City Council, which is Council’s responsibility.

Former Vision Commissioner Aaron Jasper agreed, arguing that if the issue was maintaining parks and community centres, Sim needed to look at his own actions.

Mayor Ken Sim nevertheless proceeded, despite community backlash.

Mayor Sim’s disinformation argument was that the system was “broken,” that abolition would produce efficiencies and that millions could be saved.

Sim failed to point out responsibility for the maintenance of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system was — at the insistence City Manager Penny Ballem — transferred to the City and its crews, after which Ballem and City Hall ignored the needs of the community centres for necessary upkeep and maintenance.

Former Park Board chair Jasper weighed in with another obvious point: eliminating the Commissioners would save only their salaries — roughly $140,000 annually — while the staff, planners, horticulturalists, recreation professionals and maintenance workers would still have to exist.

That is not reform.

It is political theatre.

And the bill for decades of deferred investment continues to arrive.

The approved 2022 $539-million capital plan made a demand for renewal.

Vancouver’s aging aquatic facilities, community centres, playgrounds, playing fields and parks require billions in investment. At the same time, City Hall continues to make budget decisions that put pressure on Park Board services.

This is not an argument that every Park Board decision has been wise. It hasn’t.

The Board has suffered from political infighting, poor governance at times, and occasionally baffling priorities. Critics have legitimate grievances.

But those failures do not justify rewriting history.

The Park Board did not independently decide how much money Vancouver’s taxpayers would provide it.

The elected Mayor since 2008, and all Vancouver City Councils since 2008 did.

Vision Vancouver under Gregor Robertson failed to establish an adequate long-term funding model. The NPA-controlled Park Board proved unsuccessful in forcing the issue. Kennedy Stewart’s administration inherited the problem without solving it. Ken Sim’s ABC administration, for the past two years, attempted to turn the accumulated consequences into an argument for abolishing the institution.

That is the ultimate political sleight of hand.

Starve an institution. Watch its infrastructure deteriorate. Declare the institution incompetent. Then seize its powers.

That is precisely what Vancouver voters should reject come October.

And there is one final irony.

After spending years attempting to abolish the elected Park Board, Ken Sim reversed course in July 2026, announcing ABC Vancouver would run a full slate of Park Board candidates in the October election.

So, apparently the institution that Ken Sim once described as fundamentally broken is now worth fighting an election to control.

Vancouver voters going to the polls in October should remember that.

The Vancouver Park Board does not need Vancouver City Hall to dismantle it.

Vancouver Park Board needs Vancouver City Hall to properly fund it.

And after eighteen years of Mayors, Councils and political parties failing to do precisely that, Vancouver’s voters should ask a very simple question this October:

Who broke the Park Board — the Commissioners who kept asking for money, or the politicians who controlled the money and refused to provide it?

#VanPoli | Mark Halyk for Park Board Commissioner | Vancouver Liberals

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Kareem Allam, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , ,

Mark Halyk, a former Vancouver Park Board manager responsible for / transforming the concessions operated by the Board of Parks and Recreation, is running for the position of Vancouver Park Board Commissioner with the Vancouver Liberals.

 After spending more than a decade working inside the Vancouver Park Board as a senior leader in Commercial Services, Mark brings something increasingly rare to civic politics: real operational experience and firsthand knowledge of how the system actually works.

One of Mark’s proudest accomplishments during his tenure with Park Board was helping transform the concessions into a more financially sustainable model. Projects such as the partnership with Batch at Kitsilano Pool demonstrated how creative thinking and responsible public-private partnerships can revitalize public spaces while generating meaningful revenue to support parks and recreation programming.

Batch at Kitsilano Pool, the licensed Kits Beach concession stand, joint and patio — featuring great food

Mark — the must-elect candidate for Park Board in the 2026 Vancouver municipal election — believes that Vancouver’s Park Board can be both fiscally responsible and community-focused — a recreation and parks system in Vancouver that maintains pools, fields, community centres, and green spaces, while ensuring families in every neighbourhood across our city has access to modern, affordable recreation. Vancouver’s iconic amenities, including beloved destinations like Kitsilano Pool, deserve practical long-term planning that balances fiscal responsibility, climate resilience, and community access.

Today, VanRamblings features a ‘Hey Dad’ video, filmed by Mark’s young son — as you’ll see, an up-and-coming Spielbergian master of the cinematic arts — which will provide you with insight into the issues of concern to the must-elect Vancouver Liberals candidate for Vancouver Park Board, the entirely tremendous Mark Halyk.

As a follow-up to what Mark Halyk has to say above, in Wednesday’s VanRamblings post we will publish an indictment of current Mayor Ken Sim, and each of the civic administrations that have formed municipal government in Vancouver dating back to 2008, as each successive Mayor and Council has utterly failed to provide Vancouver’s parks, gardens, arboretum, swimming pools, hockey rinks, community centres, playing fields and community recreation facilities with the necessary sustained investment they require to function properly and in the interests of those of us who live in one of the twenty-three, diverse neighbourhood communities, who elect Vancouver’s next Mayor and Council each election cycle.

#VanPoli | Mayoral Candidate Kareem Allam To Address Food Insecurity

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Cheap Eats, Food & Health, Kareem Allam, Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, , , , , , , , ,

Each month, the Greater Vancouver Food Bank supports 15,000 families directly and another 20,000+ families through 119 community partner agencies (shelters / transition houses) in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and the North Shore.

Separate organizations handle outer cities, such as the Friends in Need Food Bank serving Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, and local groups covering Surrey, Langley, and Richmond independently.

Food Banks BC reported that over 113,000 unique individuals utilize food banks across British Columbia in a single month, marking a sharp 44% surge compared to pre-pandemic levels.

  • Children: Make up roughly 25% to 31% of direct food bank clients in the region;
  • Seniors: Account for about 16% to 17% of individuals seeking food assistance;
  • Employment: Up to 30% of urban food bank clients in Vancouver report being currently employed, struggling with high housing and living costs.

Should they win power on October 17th, the Vancouver Liberals have committed to implementing a food security programme in the City of Vancouver.

This programme would address the issue of food insecurity for the thousands of families in need across Vancouver who make regular use of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, a programme not unlike the food security programme currently being implemented by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the University of British Columbia’s Community Food Hub Programme.

That is what today’s VanRamblings column is all about. Good on the Vancouver Liberals for addressing a critical need for so many families across our city.

Vancouver Liberals’ Mayoral candidate Kareem Allam sits down with Will Lich, founder of UBC’s Community Food Hub, to discuss food insecurity, and what might be done to address the issue

Vancouver Liberals’ candidate for Mayor, Kareem Allam, has developed a full-fledged plan to address food insecurity in the City of Vancouver.

Development of the Vancouver Liberals’ Food Insecurity Relief Plan would include implementation of a Community Food Hub with, over time, more than one such Food Hub Market to be located in neighbourhoods throughout Vancouver.

The development of Food Hub Markets across the city is but one facet, or feature, of the Vancouver Liberals’ Food Insecurity Relief Plan, about which VanRamblings will write at greater and in-depth length on another day.

At the University of British, the Community Food Hub is a campus-wide initiative designed to tackle student food insecurity through affordable groceries, educational workshops, and community-building.

The primary feature of the Community Food Hub is the UBC Food Hub Market, which operates out of the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability building, located on the UBC campus.

The programme offers several key resources and initiatives:

  • The Food Hub Market: A low-cost, at-cost grocery store for the campus community;
  • Workshops & Outreach: Educational sessions on food literacy, nutrition, and hands-on food skills.;
  • Food Prescription Programme: A pilot programme running at the Gateway Health Building allowing healthcare providers to screen for food insecurity and prescribe personalized food support.;
  • The Acadia Food Hub: Located in the Acadia Park Residence, this location offers food and baby supply distribution for families on campus.

The Food Hub Market is a not-for-profit community space offering affordable grocery essentials while fostering community social connection.

The Market is dedicated to improving access to affordable and culturally diverse grocery staples that support food security and meet the everyday needs of those who make use of the facility within a welcoming and inclusive environment.

The Community Food Hub also provides hands-on food skills workshops, community events and educational outreach on food literacy and nutrition. These programmes promote food literacy and food skills, helping the community navigate available food security resources, and strengthen community connections.

The Vancouver Liberals’ Food Security Programme is woven into the party’s broader agenda on affordability, economic opportunity, neighbourhood services, and community well-being.

Food Security Through Affordability

In part, the Vancouver Liberals approach to the issue of food insecurity emerges as a consequence of the rising cost of living. Throughout the Vancouver Liberals’ platform, Vancouvers’s newest civic party argues that Vancouver City Hall must focus on restoring affordability so families have more disposable income available for necessities such as groceries.

Kareem Allam has repeatedly framed the Vancouver Liberals’ broader objective as creating “a city where young people are able to stay and raise a family,” arguing that municipal government should measure every policy against that standard.

Within that framework, food security becomes one key element of overall household affordability. If housing costs, transportation costs, and municipal taxes consume less of a family’s income, residents will be better able to afford nutritious food.

The Principal Tenets of the Vancouver Liberals Platform

  • 1. Lower the cost pressures on households 

    The Vancouver Liberals argue that controlling property tax increases and improving fiscal management will leave residents with more money available for everyday expenses, including groceries. They contend that City Hall should concentrate on efficient delivery of core services rather than expensive capital projects that do not directly improve residents’ quality of life;
  • 2. Build an economy that supports working families 

    Kareem Allam frequently links food affordability with employment. His speeches emphasize attracting better-paying jobs and ensuring young people can remain in Vancouver rather than being forced to leave because of living costs. In the party’s view, food security is strengthened when residents have stable employment and rising incomes;
  • 3. Strengthen neighbourhood infrastructure 

    The party proposes significant investment in community centres, parks, libraries, and other neighbourhood facilities. While these proposals are not described specifically as food security initiatives, such facilities often serve as locations for community kitchens, seniors’ meal programmes, food distribution initiatives, and neighbourhood support services;
  • 4. Improve frontline municipal services 

    The Vancouver Liberals propose hiring 400 additional frontline unionized employees to improve municipal services. Their argument is a better-functioning city creates healthier neighbourhoods and stronger communities capable of supporting vulnerable residents.

Vancouver Liberals’ Mayoral Candidate Kareem Allam’s Perspective

Kareem Allam consistently argues that municipal government should concern itself with whether ordinary families can successfully build their lives in Vancouver.

Kareem’s public messaging repeatedly returns to several themes:

  • Vancouver must once again become affordable for young families;
  • Municipal spending should prioritize essential public services;
  • Economic growth is necessary to sustain strong social programmes;
  • Public investment should focus on practical improvements rather than prestige projects.

Vancouver Liberals’ Council Candidate Jessica Walton’s Contribution

Jessica Walton brings perhaps the strongest personal connection to food affordability within the Vancouver Liberals.

Her candidate biography highlights several experiences directly related to food insecurity and rising living costs:

  • Working retail jobs from the age of 15 while helping support a family member living in poverty;
  • Experience in restaurants and service-sector employment;
  • Advocacy for a fair and livable wage;
  • Concern that rising food costs are forcing students and young people to leave British Columbia;
  • Frontline government work connecting residents with public services.

Jessica’s biography specifically identifies “rising food costs” as one of the major pressures facing younger generations. Rather than presenting food insecurity solely as a charitable issue, Jessica Walton frames it as part of a broader affordability crisis affecting students, workers, and young families.

Ms. Walton also emphasizes accessibility, inclusion, and ensuring government programmes are understandable and reachable by those who need them most. Her experience helping residents navigate government services informs her belief that municipal programmes should be practical and accessible.

Relationship With Existing City Policy

The Vancouver Liberals’ emerging approach differs from the City of Vancouver’s long-established food policy framework. Vancouver already operates a comprehensive food strategy supporting community food networks, urban agriculture, food access programs, and local food system planning.

The Vancouver Liberals have not proposed eliminating these initiatives.

Instead, their emphasis has been on improving affordability, strengthening neighbourhood infrastructure, and restoring confidence in municipal governance.

As the October 17th Vancouver Municipal Election Approaches

Kareem Allam presents food security as inseparable from creating a city where working families can afford to remain and prosper. Vancouver Liberals’ candidate for Vancouver City Council Jessica Walton reinforces that message from personal experience, speaking about poverty, rising grocery costs, fair wages, and the barriers confronting students and young families.

The Vancouver Liberals are dedicated to publishing  a definitive food security platform in the lead up to this autumn’s civic election campaign that will expand on the provision of specific municipal initiatives and measurable policy commitments.

#VanPoli | An Insight into the Top 3 Candidates Seeking the Mayor’s Office in Vancouver in 2026

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, Housing, Kareem Allam, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , ,

There are only three serious-minded candidates seeking to become Vancouver’s next Mayor in the 2026 Vancouver civic election: COPE’s Stephanie Allen, the Vancouver Liberals’ Kareem Allam, and the Green Party of Vancouver’s Pete Fry.

Today we’ll turn our focus to those three outstanding candidates for civic office.

First up, the true change candidate in 2026, COPE’s Stephanie Allen, who is running on a platform committed to re-establishing the Renters Office; increasing the Empty Homes Tax; set to follow the lead of Montréal’s municipal government in establishing a programme that would — with the aid of senior levels of government — purchase purpose-built rental apartment buildings across the city, converting these buildings into permanently affordable public housing and housing co-operatives; in an age of increasingly powerful storms, forest fires, heat domes, and other extreme weather events, develop and implement a climate defense strategy; work towards fully-funded and free-to-ride public transit for all, starting with the expansion of free public transit for youth under the age of 18; support the expansion of active transportation and Vancouver’s cycling infrastructure; establish a lobbyist registry; protect and empower the office of the Integrity Commissioner; prioritize citizen participation in decision-making at City Hall; expand and democratize the City’s Advisory Committees; make public access to City Council chambers easier; improve livestreams of City Council meetings; and, overall, improve and transform transparency of governance at Vancouver City Hall, because democracy matters.

Given her years of service to the people of British Columbia in her role as a well-respected, ‘can do / get ‘er done‘ Vice-President of BC Housing — committed to the construction of social and affordable housing across our province — a Mayor Stephanie Allen would hit the ground running on her first day in office, as she works with Council towards transforming civic governance by putting power back into the hands of those of us who call Vancouver home, and not the billionaire class all Mayors of Vancouver this century have dedicated their political lives to bringing to fruition, at your expense and amoral degradation.

Just wait till you see and hear Stephanie Allen at next month’s and October’s Mayoral debates, those must-attend civic forums set to take place in neighbourhoods across our city. We guarantee Stephanie Allen — that mesmerizing voice, a powerful and resonant voice that envelops you — will simply knock your socks off, as the candidate of change you have longed for at the head of Vancouver’s civic government, ready to serve you each and every day, to make your life easier, better and more fulfilling — because that’s what an elected Mayor and Vancouver City Council committed to change for the better can and will do for you.

Make sure you read the Vancouver Liberals’ platform of change that will enhance your quality of life

What is the change that the Vancouver Liberals’ candidate for Mayor, Kareem Allam, the peerless, achingly intelligent and capable beyond all human understanding candidate for Mayor of our fair city, and his first rate slate of Council and Park Board candidates — and soon to announce School Board candidate slate — are committing to you, should the Vancouver Liberals form government following election night, this upcoming autumn evening, Saturday October 17th.

Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals are committed to extending the Millennium Line to UBC

In a century when very little of consequence has occurred in Vancouver — other than serving the avaricious interests of developers and their unwholesome, phallocentric commitment to building unlivable towers across our city while displacing residents from their affordable homes — finally, in Kareem Allam, we have a candidate for Vancouver Mayor whose sole interest is serving your interests, and the interests of your family, neighbours, friends and associates, your extended family, your co-workers and everyone, every single person you care about.

The Vancouver Liberals have committed to making $1.35 billion available through Vancouver’s well-funded capital budget — citizen approved monies that are readily available for construction purposes — in an investment over the next four years of a Vancouver Liberals-led civic administration that would renew the city’s aging parks and neighbourhood community recreation centres, reverse an unconscionable Park Board funding decline that began with the election of a Vision Vancouver civic administration in 2008 — monies that have never been restored to the Park Board budget — protect Vancouver’s elected, independent Park Board, build a new aquatics infrastructure, including a 50-metre Olympic size pool, as well as construct community pools in neighbourhoods across our city, and finally — after citizen capital expenditure approval at the polls in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 — build the long-awaited, egregiously overdue Marpole Community Centre, which would be the first new community centre approved by a Vancouver civic administration in more than 20 years.

Having worked with the federal and provincial governments in senior policy implementation positions, as well as working in Metro Vancouver regional civic governments in a ‘can do’ administrative capacity, there is no individual seeking the Mayor’s office in 2026 who is more qualified, who better understands the intricacies of civic government decision-making and implementation strategy than the achingly bright and monumentally well-qualified Kareem Allam.

When Kareem Allam tells you he’s going to get something done you’ve been longing to see done at the municipal governance level, you can take it to the bank Kareem Allam is 100% guaranteed going to deliver for you, to get that project completed on time and under budget, for all the citizens of Vancouver.

A Kareem Allam-led Vancouver City Council will: restore public library hours; keeps annual property tax increases to 3.8%, or less — rather than the 26% property tax increase implemented by Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver over the past four years; ban foreign travel for Councillors and staff; focus on accountability, affordability, public safety, by delivering results people can actually see in their communities; promote transparency at City Hall by reducing the cost of Freedom of Information requests; put a referendum before the people of Vancouver at the next civic election, asking us if we want neighbourhood representation (sometimes called a ‘ward system’) at City Hall — as is the case with every village, town and city in every province and territory outside of British Columbia.

Remove all parking meters in front of beaches and community centres throughout the city; crack down on Bitcoin ATMs that are commonly linked to money laundering, fraud, organized crime, and drug trafficking; support proper staffing, long-term funding, and transparent deployment planning to ensure firefighters have the resources they need to keep Vancouver safe; work to ensure the Millennium line extension to UBC begins construction next year; protect local businesses during transit expansion by reducing property taxes by 50% during construction; deliver an effective food security programme in Vancouver (which VanRamblings will write about next Monday); and, reduce taxes on medical clinics.

On Day One, a Vancouver Liberals’ administration commits to reversing Ken Sim’s cruel ban on supportive housing to ensure our most-vulnerable citizens receive the supports they need to live a safe, secure and fulfilling life; tackle Vancouver’s rat problem, because rats are a major reason for the spread of disease and are a public health risk to citizens; introduce a tree canopy strategy in every neighbourhood across our city that is not treed, where our city’s west side is treed, and our east side neighbourhoods are not.

Bring back our city’s once thriving Festivals scene by legislating affordable policing for all community events; stop Ken Sim’s cynical plan to sell off our parks; protect Vancouver’s industrial land to keep jobs in Vancouver; create North America’s first Artist Land Reserve; modernize zoning and business rules to support small businesses, and the next generation of Vancouver’s economy, building a city where innovation is encouraged, not regulated out of existence.

Maybe this whole hopey changey thing that both COPE’s Stephanie Allen and the Vancouver Liberals’ Kareem Allam are promising is just a bit too much.

Maybe, the people of Vancouver don’t want a woman as Mayor — uh, yeah, we do! — or, maybe, the people of Vancouver don’t want some random Muslim-appearing guy, no matter how qualified he seems to be, as our city’s next Mayor.

Again, uh, yeah, we do!

Maybe we just want another white-appearing guy sitting in the Mayor’s chair.

After all, Vancouver has had 41 Mayors since it’s founding, and only one of those Mayors — and man, oh man did the first non-white guy to be elected Mayor of our city prove to be a bust (yeah, we’re talkin’ about you, Ken Sim) for those of us who give a good gall darn about our city.

What a walking disaster this Sim guy turned out to be.

Maybe Vancouver voters want to play it safe, maybe we don’t want change, maybe we have no interest in getting things done, maybe we could give a good gall darn about the state of our parks and recreation system, and we don’t care at all about the unhoused — yeah, that’s the ticket (not!) … like, get a job, will ya — maybe we simply want another kind of good lookin’ white-appearing guy.

How bad could it be, really?

No question: Pete Fry has name recognition. Eight years on Council, on the evening news almost every night, a good-spirited guy.

Look at the reassuring picture of the smiling Green guy in the photo above. Like, who wouldn’t want to cast their ballot for this warm-hearted guy?

Plug-in solar panels on your balcony to offset your electricity bills and power the myriad electrical devices in your home. Licensing mini electric shuttles in the downtown area. Bring back the Renter’s Office. Restore lifeguards at key Vancouver beaches. Hire a city comptroller to ensure transparent budget efficiency, and asset management. Enact a landlord licensing by-law to flush out bad landlords.

Restore essential postal services in Chinatown. Amend the Vancouver Charter to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections. Protect the Champlain Heights forest trail network. Bring back the Stanley Park bike lane. Strengthen Vancouver’s code of conduct legislation to restore public trust in decision-making at Vancouver City Hall. Phase out in-sink garbage disposals. Build more public washrooms across the city. Build a Japanese Canadian interpretive centre at Hastings Park. Re-introduce a Vancouver by-law that would forbid the use of methane gas to heat new buildings. A lobbyist registry. Climate action.

The decision is yours to make.

Come early October when Vancouver’s municipal election advance polls open, or during the course of Election Day on Saturday, October 17th, cast your ballot for the Mayoral candidate — and a few of the folks s/he is running with — who you believe represents your best interests, who will build the city in which you want to raise your children, make a living for yourself and your friends and neighbours, and when the time comes, retire in, to live out your life in peace.

Take back your power! Your vote is critical to building the city you love!