The Green Party of Vancouver is seeking the balance of power on city council so it can implement a series of policies outlined in an ambitious platform released Thursday to kick off the party’s civic campaign.
To do that, Coun. Adriane Carr, who is the party’s lone representative on council, would first need candidates Pete Fry and Cleta Brown to get elected to a council presently dominated by Vision Vancouver.
Then the party would have to seek alliances on the 11-member council, which has been ruled by Vision Vancouver since 2008. The NPA has two spots on council with George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball.
“If there’s no majority, it’ll be a better council — it’ll be a more fair, it’ll be a more transparent, it’ll be a more democratic council,” said Carr from a gazebo outside the Telus World of Science, where she was joined by the party’s candidates for council, park board and school board.
Earlier this year, the Green party’s membership decided against seeking alliances with any parties in its campaign. Green members also chose not to run a mayoral candidate or endorse someone running for mayor.
Those decisions, Carr said, should not be read as the Greens wanting to go it alone if she, Fry and Brown are elected. But Carr wouldn’t say which party or parties the Greens would seek alliances with in a new council.
“The way Greens have worked in jurisdictions where they’ve been elected all over the world — forming coalition governments in many, many cities, states, countries — is to not do those alliances beforehand,” Carr said. “But to wait and see what the electorate delivers and working with those who are elected towards collaborative decision making at the council table.”
The Greens’ candidates for park board are former park board commissioner Stuart Mackinnon, who is a special education teacher, and Michael Wiebe, a business owner and vice-president of the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association. Longtime parent advisory council leader Janet Fraser, who is a chemist, is running for school board along with Mischa Oak, a teacher and queer rights advocate.
The Greens’ platform outlines a variety of initiatives, including revamping the city’s planning process to involve more people, holding public hearings in neighbourhoods, increasing development fees and moving morning and afternoon council meetings to the evening for more working people to participate in decisions.
On the park board side, the Greens want to give community centres independence to make planning decisions that “reflect the community needs and values,” according to the platform posted Thursday on the party’s website. The party also favours a plebiscite on whether to keep whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity at the Vancouver Aquarium.
The party’s education planks includes working to build more schools in the International Village, Coal Harbour, the former Olympic Village and East Fraserlands.
Also, the Greens would fully implement the updated sexual orientation and gender identities policy and “monitor its implementation and success at every school.” The party would upgrade the LGBTQ support worker to full time.
At the root of the party’s platform, and what became a common refrain at Thursday’s press conference, is the Greens want to get more people involved in decisions, particularly those fed up with Vision Vancouver and its model of public consultation.
“We are seeing a council dominated by Vision where the decisions are made in caucus meetings behind closed doors,” Carr said.
Mayor Gregor Robertson responded to the criticism Thursday, saying the city has had “unprecedented levels of engagement” and consultation in neighbourhoods. He said Vision Vancouver is committed to “keep improving on that front.”
The election is Nov. 15.
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