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ALTERNATIVE EMERGES TO ONE-PARTY RULE IN VANCOUVER
(This article is from the Oct. 16-31, 1999 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
VANCOUVER - Three years after the pro-business Non-Partisan Association swept the last civic elections, the end of one-party rule here may be near. Unlike 1996, when anti-NPA votes were divided among four other slates, a united opposition has emerged for the Nov. 20 election.
Building on an agreement reached last year, the labour-backed Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) and the Vancouver Greens have put together a strong joint slate of candidates for city council, school board and parks board. One of the Green candidates, Ann Livingston, was the top vote-getter for the left-wing Labour Welfare Party slate in 1996.
The COPE/Green slate is headed by mayoralty candidate David Cadman, who has a long record of involvement in environmental issues, the labour movement, and community struggles.
Cadman was nominated by COPE members at a Sept. 29 meeting in the Ironworkers Hall. "Tonight, we begin our campaign to win back Vancouver for all people living in this city," said Cadman. "As long as one political party controls all seats, no other voices are heard."
COPE's five council nominees include Dr. Fred Bass, a community health activist who polled a high vote as a Green candidate in 1996; Raymond Louie, a mailer at Pacific Press and a member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union from the city's east side; lawyer Tim Louis, who served on Parks Board from 1990 to 1996; poet and social activist Bud Osborn, a member of the Vancouver-Richmond Health Board and a powerful fighter for downtown eastside residents; and Andrea Rolls, a counsellor who trains front-line workers on violence against women and children.
The meeting also endorsed independent candidate Paul McDonell, a longtime labour activist. Another progressive independent will be endorsed soon, rounding out the slate's ten nominees for city council.
Many observers think the COPE/Green school board slate may crack the NPA monopoly, since the current NPA trustees have antagonized teachers, support staff, parents and students alike with three years of cutbacks and mismanagement.
COPE's six school board candidates combine a deep knowledge of education issues with a strong record of defending the public schools. They include Al Blakey, a former school principal and past president of the B.C. Teachers Federation; women's movement activist Jane Bouey, who won over 28,000 votes in 1996 to finish 11th in the race for nine trustee positions in her first COPE campaign; Noel Herron, a retired principal and a relentless critic of the NPA board; Robert Kiyoshk, a member of the Ojibway Nation who works as coordinator of First Nations Education at Vancouver Community College; Adrienne Montani, whose position as the city of Vancouver's child and youth advocate was axed by the NPA in September; and Allan Wong, a former on-call teacher and labour activist.
For Parks Board, COPE nominated four candidates: Muneshwar Prasad, a retired Trial Coordinator with a deep interest in horticulture; labour lawyer Dan Rogers; COPE Parks and Environment Committee chair Anita Romaniuk; and Loretta Woodcock, chair of the Canadian Auto Workers National Environment Committee, who has worked extensively on health and safety issues.
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