December 14, 2009 - 10:31 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Retiring Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae is sick and tired of the hopeless fiscal situation of municipalities.
The political retirement of veteran Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae is not particularly significant for us here on the west coast as a stand alone story. Rae was Toronto’s first openly gay politician, and spent 18 years as the representative for Toronto Centre-Rosedale.
What is significant from the perspective of Vancouver, and indeed all BC municipalities however, is his reasoning for doing so.
In fact, in light of Vancouver’s current budget crunch, local Councillors and critics alike would be wise to use his experience as an indicator of what could be our future.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 25, 2009 - 9:32 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
The financial bridges to Toronto's City Hall will be dramatically changed if City Council accepts the recommendations handed to them yesterday.
If you read Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight or SFU Professor Kennedy Stewart with kind of regularity, you would think that the only type of electoral reform to consider for civic politics comes in the form of wards.
But as pointed out in Smith’s above-linked article, Vision is looking at other means of changing the parameters of voting in the City of Vancouver:
“Jang said the Vision caucus’s priority in electoral reform is to come up with a “comprehensive package” that covers issues like campaign finance and disclosure rules.”
If that is the case, Jang et al. should look east to the City of Toronto, where corporate and union donations are on the verge of being banned from civic elections.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 2, 2009 - 7:08 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
To Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight, wards mean the dawn of a new political age in Vancouver.
Wards, wards, wards…if you are reading the Georgia Straight these days, Charlie Smith seems to have little interest in covering anything else these days.
Read the rest of this entry »
September 17, 2009 - 11:07 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
“When we talk about democracy, I think it’s important to have people throughout the city of Vancouver elected, and not just from one narrow geographic area” – Vancouver Park Board Chair Raj Hundal, offering comments on why he supports a ward electoral system
