Vancouver-Burrard
This is an information page for the upcoming Vancouver-Burrard by-election.
When is by-election occuring?
October 29, 2008.
Does whoever that wins the by-election still have to run for the general election on May 12, 2009?
Yes. In theory they also have to be nominated by their party again, but presumably that will be an expedited process, assuming they do win the by-election.
That candidate could win in the by-election and lose their seat again in the general election; an example in the past was in Alberta’s June 12, 2007 by-election of Calgary Elbow - it was previously a Conservative seat (outgoing Premier Ralph Klein’s) and then became Liberal in the by-election. In the March 3, 2008 general election, Calgary Elbow became a Conservative seat again.
What were the 2005 results? (Ref: Wikipedia)
| B.C. General Election 2005: Vancouver-Burrard | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| BC Liberal | Lorne Mayencourt | 12,009 | 42.16% | -5.94 | |
| NDP | Tim Stevenson | 11,998 | 42.12% | +11.04 | |
| Green | Janek Patrick John Kuchmistrz | 3,698 | 12.98% | -3.21 | |
| Libertarian | John Clarke | 388 | 1.36% | ||
| Work Less | Lisa Voldeng | 170 | 0.60% | ||
| Sex Party | John Gordon Ince | 111 | 0.39% | ||
| DRBC | Ian McLeod | 82 | 0.29% | ||
| Platinum | Antonio Francisco Ferreira | 27 | 0.09% | ||
| Total | 28,483 | 100.00 | |||
What were the poll-by-poll results?
Elections BC 2005 Vancouver Burrard Poll by Poll (pdf).
What was the support and voter turnout in the 2005 election?
Maps illustrating the 2005 split of votes in the riding, and the voter turnout are as follows - click for an enhanced view:
Analysis
October 24, 2008 - Demographics are the key
Candidates
Marc Emery - British Columbia Marijuana Party
Arthur Griffiths - BC Liberal Party
Spencer Herbert - New Democratic Party of B.C.
Ian McLeod - BC Conservative Party
Drina Alicia Read - Green Party of BC
Questions
Asked on October 24, 2008 via e-mail / e-mail form on internet campaign site:
1. What is the number one major issue LOCALLY facing the people of Vancouver-Burrard, opposed to a provincial issue?
2. If you were elected MLA of Vancouver-Burrard, what specific measures would you do between November 2008 and April 2009 to address this issue?
Answers to Questions (in order of receipt)
Marc Emery - British Columbia Marijuana Party
The issue I’m promoting is how interconnected the homelessness, the drug addiction, the police over-presence, the gangs, prostitition, property crime in Vancouver is all tied into Prohibition as government policy. Repealing prohibition (of all banned substances) would impact more substantially on these locally viewed problems than anything else politicians will suggest, in futility, I may add. Politicians have thrown money and police at the problem for 50 years and neither solves the problem. Repealing prohibition is the only remedy to this problem of our downtown eastside.
To address this issue, if elected MLA, thus having a mandate to proceed, I would put forth legislation in Victoria to unilaterally have the province of BC take over jurisdiction of all drug & health matters from the federal government. I would propose eliminating prescription requirements for BC adults, saving tens of millions of dollars and reducing dramatically the wait times in clinics and doctor offices. I would propose to distribute heroin or oxycontin to all addicts at clinics nearest where the addict lives or works throughout BC. I would propose setting up regulations for the production of marijuana in licensed greenhouses across rural British Columbia. I would put forth legislation ending the use of the RCMP in British Columbia as a constabulary force and re-establish the BCP, the British Columbia police service. I would put forth legislation in Victoria to ban the use of Tasers in British Columbia. I would put forth legislation banning urine testing for job requirements. I would put forth legislation re-opening Riverview for the female homeless population, to provide safe haven for women at risk in the lower mainland. I would put forth legislation licensing and monitoring sex workers who work on the streets and create red light districts to regulate and protect the women from murder and violence.
Spencer Herbert - New Democratic Party of B.C.
1. The number one issue I hear about when speaking with voters in Yaletown, the West End, and Coal Harbour is the huge increase in homeless people living on our streets and parks in Vancouver Burrard. The number of homeless people has increased 373 percent under Gordon Campbell’s watch. After slashing all housing programs when he was elected we’ve seen the numbers skyrocket. All we’ve been hearing from Campbell, and his supporters is what a good job he’s been doing - when the evidence on the street is anything but.
2. As a Park Commissioner I have worked hard to get people off our streets, and parks and into housing. I had success when there was a tent city set up in one of our parks, and I rose the alarm saying no one should have to be living in our parks. The Campbell government were then embarassed in international media when the Beijing Olympics were on, and forced to act bringing 40 homeless people indoors so as to escape further embarassment. So far in Burrard the government has refused to act to get people out of parks, and off our streets into homes.
This by-election gives us the opportunity to send Campbell a message that we need action. I will work with community groups, the homeless, and the various levels of government to pressure Campbell into enacting the NDP plan of accelerated infrastructure investment into supportive housing to support those with mental illness, drug addiction to get off the streets.
We have a choice in this by-election - do we reward Campbell with another Liberal MLA who’ll tell Campbell what a good job he’s doing, or send Campbell a message that we need real action and change by electing an NDP MLA who’ll stand up for our neighborhood.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you on this issue.
Drina Alicia Read - Green Party of BC
1. Housing is the key issue in Vancouver-Burrard. This includes the lack of affordable housing for everyone, vacant foreign-owned suites when we have people living on the streets, and the weakest Residential Tenancy Act in recent history.
2. The costs of not having adequate housing affects us all: bedbugs are epidemic, skyrocketing healthcare costs when homeless people end up in emergency, outrageously expensive overcrowded emergency shelters, high rents force desperate people into prostitution, crime and drug addiction, seniors take in street kids because there’s insufficient access to social assistance, workers never see their loved ones as they go to two or three jobs, just to be able to pay the high rents.
The Green Party considers adequate, safe and affordable housing to be a basic human right. To solve the housing crisis in Vancouver, we would commit 1% of the annual provincial budget to increased building of affordable housing, including social housing and mixed-income co-operatives. Half of the housing built would be for people with disabilities and mental health problems and half for people with low incomes. A new co-op housing program for middle-income earners would be established to underwrite mortgages to help tenants to purchase and own their own apartment buildings. The Residential Tenancy Act will be rewritten to protect both renters and landlords from abuses. It’s time to bring back rent control. The Green Party would reinstate local Residential Tenancy Offices. Currently, the only office that takes complaints for the whole province is in Burnaby. The City of Vancouver will be encouraged to bring all residences up to code to protect people’s health and safety. The City will also be encouraged to force offshore owners to occupy or rent their units or face severe fines. New units will be required to be more energy-efficient, using materials that are suitable for BC’s climate. Improvements to housing go hand-in-hand with improved access to better social programs, such as a Guaranteed Livable Income, and more help for people with disabilities, mental health issues, and addictions. Not only is it unethical to not provide housing, we need the political will to be fiscally responsible. Let’s stop government waste.
As a Green Party MLA, I would pressure both parties to implement the above program and I would work with my constituents to bring their issues to the legislature. If this means starting a petition or having public meetings to bring these issues forward, then that is what I would do. We cannot live in fear of being evicted and we need to find immediate solutions to solve the homelessness crisis. I am a renter and a worker and I feel deeply committed to getting the government and the opposition together. The partisan bickering has to stop because people are suffering. These problems are not going away.
Where will the money come from? I would lobby the MLAs to stop corporate welfare and to re-focus the hundred of millions that are going to profit-making corporations into housing and social programs that will benefit the constituents of Vancouver-Burrard and province-wide. We need long-term thinking to get the job done.
Arthur Griffiths - BC Liberal Party - No answer.
Ian McLeod - BC Conservative Party - No answer.