@rhymerepartee @nigelsezyarr Totally agree that #proportionalRepresentation is better. #AviLewis agrees, said he. But also, the Cons have not won #VancouverCentre since the Cold War. #NDP consistently comes in 2nd here. So, this is not a riding which demands Strategic Voting. #CdnPoli #vanpoli #elxn45
Christopher Varga, People's Party: He seems like a reasonable person who lives in a different world than I do. It's also kind of funny that he's the son of Hungarian immigrants to Canada, who then moved to the States for a decade, and now he's supporting an anti-immigration party.
Drew William McPherson, Independent: No. My life is slightly worse for trying to find out more about this guy online.
Scott MacDonald, Green: I'm pretty sure he exists. Pretty sure ...
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/candidate/donald-scott-macdonald
Avi Lewis, NDP: I knew almost nothing about this guy going in, and ... wow. He was on Much and Al Jazeera. He seems to care and have an actual vision on how we can make this a better world. I need to look closer, but wow.
Hedy Fry, Liberals: Yo, there's a reason she keeps winning. I went in "meh", and ended up mentally high five-ing her for her tweets.
To summarize for social media:
Elaine Allan, Conservative: Potentially OK? Seems like a reasonable person.
https://vancouvercentre.conservativeeda.ca/
I spent the last few hours digging into the Vancouver Centre candidates. Thoughts: https://www.forgreatjustice.ca/2025/04/vancouver-centre-candidates/
A trio of slumlords bought the heritage building in 2010 and left it to rot at the expense of vulnerable tenants while the property value kept rising. When the building became uninhabitable, the tenants were “renovicted” and the building was subsequently sold off for $7.75 million in 2016. The developers who bought the building knew about the SRO bylaws but bought the building anyway. Councillors Fry, Bligh, and Orr were right to oppose. ABC has no solutions. #vanpoli
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vancouver-councillors-raise-alarms-loss-sro-units
Sean Orr, a political freshman who campaigned successfully on a promise to “grill Ken Sim,” had not even been sworn in before he was publicly smeared by the mayor.
Harrison Mooney interviews the new Vancouver councillor. #vanpoli
C'mon #translink
How about using #congestion pricing to raise some money instead of raising fares?
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-funding-plan-avoid-cuts-improve-services-fiscal-cliff
I've been involved in activism & political work for a long time, & based on my experience:
The organized social media mob attacks on new Vancouver city councillor Sean Orr are an obvious sign that some powerful interests are scared of him & of his stature & influence in the community.
Their ridiculous accusation of anti-semitism, when he was using sarcasm to attack an anti-semitic troll... We know it's not about anti-semitism. It's about his leftism and opposition to genocide...
#vanpoli
Climate Strike at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday, April 13th at 1pm. Show how much you want to see a green and fair economy. https://www.forourkids.ca/vancouver_climate_strike_april_2025 #vanpoli #climateaction
Quinn: "What did the 'Evict Ken Sim' banners and badges mean?"
Orr: "It means in 2026 we're going to have a new, progressive slate of councillors."
7/7
Quinn: "As one of four voices of non-ABC, opposition on council, what kind of change can you affect?"
Orr: "COPE has a history of keeping other parties honest, routed in our principles and where we stand. Pulling other members of council toward us and based on Vancouver's turnout in huge numbers to support that [at the by-election], maybe a few members will have a change in conscience. But there's a lot of work to do as an advocate for social justice."
6/7
Quinn: "On fully-funded and free public transit?"
Orr: "Be an advocate to higher levels of government. Jean Swanson fought for free transit for children under 12. On "fully-funded transit", in 1993, the NDP could've done a vehicle levee ($75?) on brand new cars. If we'd gone through with that, we'd have more money for transit"
5/7
Quinn: "We've seen a lot of the lower-rise, affordable apartments being sold off because the land has become so valuable -- development potential become so lucrative. What do you do with that as councillor?"
Orr: "Championing our platform with something Montreal does: the Right of First Refusal. The city has the right to purchase those buildings when they come up. Obviously expensive, but we can do it with a Mansion tax with homes valued over $5 million."
4/7
"There's also the question of infrastructure in the plan. Not a lot of schools and amenities. A previous COPE councillor voted against it [the Plan]. She wanted transit and density around transit, but she wanted people who ride the bus to be able to afford to live there. Jean Swanson"
3/7
Quinn: "Looking at one example, the Broadway Plan. What do you think generally of that as a strategy to provide more rental housing?"
Orr: "We need more rental housing around transit. We need density. But the plan was a little bit rushed. I don't think there was not a lot of forethought put into it in that we could have bought up a lot of that land around 15 years ago and earmarked it permanently for affordable housing - non-profit, non-market, co-ops, etc."
2/7
