If you’ve been following the amazing race for mayor in the City of Vancouver, you will be aware of the latest candidate to throw his hat in the ring — Ian Campbell, hereditary chief of the Squamish Nation and friend of Mayor Gregor Robertson. Much has been said about the fact that if Mr. Campbell…
Category: social justice
A little technology, a lot of independence
With the recent passing of world-renowned physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, there have been many very interesting interviews on CBC Radio over the last few days. One of them was Tuesday, March 20 on The Current. Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed Gary Birch, the Executive Director of the BC-based Neil Squire Society. For more than 30…
No vision for Vision in progressive alliance
On Sunday, March 11, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) held a meeting to begin looking at what an alliance of progressive parties might look like in the upcoming October 2018 municipal election. The event was very well attended — in fact, it was the largest turnout for a COPE meeting in quite some time. Over…
Getting to first base with basic income
It’s been two weeks since the provincial budget was released. Many of you may be unaware of the fact that the new budget contained $4 million to “test the feasibility” of a guaranteed basic income for all British Columbians. The basic income movement has been around for many decades. In the 1970s, the federal government…
Calling the federal budget “progressive” doesn’t make it so
Many have suggested that Tuesday’s federal budget was a progressive one. I am not so sure. While it contained many welcome initiatives, such as improved parental leave and significant increases in funding for indigenous issues, I was very disappointed to see three critical items omitted. First on the list is a national childcare program. I…
Transit justice now: Bring HandyDART home
Many of you will be unaware of the fact that TransLink’s HandyDART service is not operated by TransLink. Instead, this very important shared ride service for people with cognitive and physical disabilities is contracted out to a third party — ultimately, an American, for-profit company called MVT. (The parent company of MVT Canadian Bus Inc.,…
My prediction: This won’t be the last we hear from Jean Swanson
The byelection results for the one seat open on Vancouver’s city council are in. As feared, the NPA candidate, Hector Bremner, won as a result of the progressive vote being split. To my disappointment, this means that my favourite city councillor, Adriane Carr, must continue without anyone on council to second her motions so…