Civic Election Analysis - not unlike my big toe

With the Vancouver Civic election now put to bed, time for some analysis and afterthought.

My decision to run in the election was a good one, no regrets at all. In fact it opened me up to a whole other world of "true" activism; something that seems to be currently missing in the Green Party of BC as it becomes more and more like the other two political parties in BC.

Hanging around people like Conrad, Betty K and Chris Shaw [the three people who inspired me to run] has taught me a few things. No longer can we pretend everything is business as usual. We have evidence of the 2010 Olympics affecting the direction of governments at ALL levels. The $100,000,000 in-camera bail out that pretty well caused the downfall of the NPA and Peter Ladner [and somehow left VISION unscathed] tells us the obligated parties will even sacrifice their political careers in order to maintain olympic level secrecy. The IOC indirectly has power over government policy, there is no better example of this than what recently happened in the Vancouver elections. Do you think VISION will do business differently ? We shall see !



The city of Vancouver has some hard realities to deal with. The issues rising from the downtown eastside need to be addressed from the ground up and not from the top down. The solutions to the major problems there are within the community already, the city needs to support those solutions and help make them happen and NOT get in the way. We can put a halt to crime by providing the drugs for people to use. If we reduce crime we no longer need an increased police force and can replace those numbers with mental health workers that deal with addictions and its related issues. However, my guess is the majority of people are not ready to accept the connection between drug addiction and crime, Drug addicts break in to cars and property in order to provide an income in order to financially fulfill their addiction needs. We simply break the cycle by refocussing our attention on prevention rather than crime. Too long have we used prohibition in order to further legitimise the need for more police.

For the rest of us who do not live on the downtown eastside we have to come to terms with the issues of the area. We have to recognise the problems in the downtown eastside have to be addressed in a constructive manner, simply throwing people in jail and telling them they are bad people is not going to work.



At the recent Green Party of BC AGM in White Rock, one of our guest speakers was Dr Gabor Matte. Dr Matte spoke on the root causes of addiction, mainly childhood sexual abuse and how this manifests itself in to drug addiction in later life. Too long have we failed to connect the these two blights on our society. If we dedicate more resources to eradicating sexual abuse of children, we simply reduce the number of drug addicts later on in life. However, I'm not about to suggest any course of action, other than we have to be more aware of the connection between the two. No longer can we afford as a society to blissfully push childhood sexual abuse aside without recognising the consequences of it years later; too often we treat the symptom with little or no attention given to the root cause.

In many ways the results of the Vancouver civic election came as no surprise. A very low voter turnout supported a VISION sweep of the school and parks board and city council with the precentages being split thus. Why voters gave Raymond Louie so much support baffles me, he was one of the main perpetrators behind Olympic-Gate, for some reason the voters neglected to connect him in the same way they connected Peter Ladner.



On a final note, it was with much regret I missed the last three days of the campaign, including the election night party for the WLP. Sadly the Thursday before I broke my big toe helping my friend Gretchen Elsner move from Gambier Island. I got my foot caught under the ramp roller that allows that ramp leading to the dock to move with the tides and waves whilst lifting something on to the ramp. It pretty well put me out of action for about 5 days. Not a pretty sight... but it does remind me of the civic election and many of the issues we now face in Vancouver.

So onward with the STV campaign, no bigger issue is facing the whole province of British Columbia right now. We have to change the way we vote in order to effect change in this province. We have to elect more opinions and more voices to Victoria, no longer can we rely on the voices of the NDP and Liberals to echo the diversity of opinions in British Columbia. Please support the STV vote on May 12th and get involved with the campaign.