Vancouver voters go to the polls three weeks from tomorrow, although for those so inclined, Vancouver civic election advance polls open on Wednesday, October 10th and run through October 17th — whatever the case, whenever it is you decide to cast your ballot for Mayor, City Council (10), Park Board (7) and School Board (9), please, please please keep yourself informed, and please vote for the progressive candidates running for office in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, October 10 – 17, 8am til 8pm …

• Vancouver City Hall, 453 W 12th Avenue

• Roundhouse Arts & Rec Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews
• Britannia Community Services Centre, 1661 Napier Street
• Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings Street
• Renfrew Park Community Centre, 2929 East 22nd Avenue
• Killarney Community Centre, 6260 Killarney Street
• Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive
• Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street
• Marpole | Oakridge Community Centre, 990 West 59th Avenue
• Kerrisdale Community Centre, 5851 West Boulevard
• Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre, 2690 Larch Street
• West End Community Centre, 870 Denman Street

Next week, VanRamblings will publish a feature interview with our friend Rob McDowell, who is seeking a seat on Vancouver City Council, running as an independent in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election. Rob is a must-vote, one of the most brilliant men we’ve ever met, with broad support across our community, an individual who hasn’t missed a meeting of Council in seven years, and a future member of Council who will hit the ground running when he’s elected to office on Saturday, October 20th, to make life better for you (not to mention: the other Council candidates we’ll be endorsing, Christine Boyle, Derrick O’Keefe & Sarah Kirby-Yung, to name just three, who will find themselves over-the-moon at the opportunity afforded them to work with the accomplished & adroit Robert McDowell!).

There is no question Charlie Smith, the well-respected veteran editor of The Georgia Straight, is the most beloved journalist in our town — as has long been the case — loved not only by his peers, but the many thousands of his readers, and followers of all things civic, provincial and federal politics.

Now, we here at VanRamblings aren’t quite sure how Mr. Smith managed to acquire the transcript of the conversations the Devil recently had with many of the current and more serious (?) candidates for Mayor in the City of Vancouver, but he did — and for our amusement and edification, he published those conversations. We’re glad, and we bet you’re glad, he did.

Somehow, in these busy days, VanRamblings managed to overlook the independent candidacy for Vancouver City Council of Abubakar Khan, even though Charlie Smith identified Mr. Khan as one of the noteworthy independent candidates running for civic office in the current Vancouver municipal election. VanRamblings thanks our friend (and, as it happens, saviour — we’ll write about it someday), author Maureen Bayless, for bringing Mr. Khan’s recommendable candidacy to our attention.

As Mr. Khan wrote in a recently published article in The Straight …

My name is Abubakar Khan, and I’m running for Vancouver City Council to break down the pervasive isolation in our community, to help all of those of us who live in Vancouver to feel less alone and better cared for, to connect them to a government that cares, and neighbours with the time to know their names.

And that means doing two things.

First, it means dealing with the affordability crisis in an innovative way. It means supporting traditional policies — like creating high-density zones and using municipal funds to build affordable housing — while also partnering with the tech industry to solve local problems.

Second, it means tying people together, directly. It means securing full provincial coverage for psychotherapy, so we can have support when we really need it. It means more citywide events — food festivals, block parties, art projects — and cheaper community centre fees. It means building our shared memories together.