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.
God knows I have waded into this debate previously. I was peripherally involved in the Wards campaign back in 2004 (here were my reasons at the time). I then had some pretty edgy comments following last year’s municipal election, in consideration of the fact that I was the campaign manager to both Kashmir Dhaliwal and Raj Hundal, where while Hundal was elected (with a lower vote total than his fellow Vision candidates), Dhaliwal was the only Vision Council candidate not elected. And now, I am not exactly sure where I stand, in consideration of some of the inter-ward battles and pedestrian politics that happen in cities that elect councillors in this fashion.
First of all, Smith’s obsession has disallowed proper coverage of City Council passing a 10-year plan to become the worlds greenest city or debate over how to proceed on a a mental health and addictions plan.
Secondly, Charlie’s entire argument rests on questions of race. He seems to indicate that South Vancouver, where the majority of the city’s South Asian populuation is concentrated, should have a representative of South Asian origin.
I find this kind of thinking extremely demeaning, to be honest.
I am half South Asian. My wife is South Asian. Many of my friends and contacts are South Asian.
But why is a South Asian candidate necessary for an area where South Asians only make up 13 per cent of the population (if you are basing it on the Vancouver South federal riding demographics)?
Smith argues about how the at-large system “benefits candidates with Chinese surnames and undermines the chances of candidates with South Asian names.” But if wards were to be created and South Vancouver ended up having a ward with similar boundaries to its federal counterpart, 45 per cent of the population would be Chinese.
Having worked with or for federal Minister Herb Dhaliwal, Solicitor General Kash Heed, former Attorney General Wally Oppal and Kashmir Dhaliwal, I am aware that South Asian representatives are more common in the area. But the numbers alone do not support Charlie’s main thesis.
My point is that Wards are not the be all, end all of solving the ills of Vancouver’s electoral problems, race is a poor argument upon which to base support for the idea.
