COPE HOPEFULS
Unless I hear from any more independent candidates running for park board, this column will wrap up information on election platforms I've received to date.
In previous columns I covered the NPA, Vision Vancouver, the Green Party and independent candidate Andrew Murray. Today it's all about COPE, Jamie Lee Hamilton and Eleanor Hadley.
COPE is running two candidates for park board as part of a joint slate with Vision Vancouver. They are longtime West End community volunteer, organizer and activist Brent Granby and Donalda Greenwell-Baker, who follows in her father's footsteps by seeking a park board seat. Greenwell-Baker is the former internal chair of COPE and secretary-treasurer for CUPE Local 15 and is the current chairwoman of the Hastings Park Conservancy.
If elected, COPE promises to work to ensure capital spending is based on evidence that projects will address inequalities in park space, services and facilities; oppose fee increases of services above the rate of inflation-unless the increases are used to encourage sustainable options; advocate on behalf of the park board at city council; and call for more public washrooms that work.
Who'd have thought something as simple as a washroom would become an election issue, but when the Vision Vancouver-dominated board proposed closing some toilets in city parks earlier this year as a way to save money, the proverbial poop hit the fan.
AT ISSUE
I have to give Jamie Lee Hamilton credit for knowing the hot button issues. Hamilton is running for the newly formed political party IDEA, (Independent Democratic Electoral Alliance).
Hamilton promises, if elected, to restore funding to pre-2008 levels for toddler, children and youth programming, support the replacement of the Mount Pleasant Pool, ensure safe and accessible washrooms are available, bring forward a motion to hold a plebiscite on keeping whales and other marine mammals in captivity, and support the retention of the Riley Park Community Centre.
Hamilton's platform also includes promises to work for the independence of the park board and restore the children's petting zoo and farmyard in Stanley Park with the addition of an urban farm.
INDEPENDENT STREAK
Anyone who's ever attended a park board meeting will likely have seen Eleanor Hadley at work.
Hadley has been an outspoken watchdog of the park board for 60 years and now at 90, she's decided to make her comments and observations official by seeking a seat as a commissioner.
If elected, Hadley promises to protect Stanley Park from development and commercialization, and is calling for a moratorium on restaurants on our city's beaches. She also opposes expansion of the Vancouver Aquarium.
Other independents running for park board include Juliet Andalis, a former nurse and president of the Filipino Association of B.C.; Peter Haskell who supports creating a tent city at Crab Park; Freyia Pri Toor, an accountant, longtime volunteer, civilian instructor with the Navy League of Canada and team manager of her son's minor hockey team; and finally, Tammy Truong, and her dog Bobo, who admits in her bio that being a park board commissioner is a "lousy job," due to the hard work and little pay ($8,000 a year) but also an important one.
For a run down of some of the park board issues residents are talking about, read my column on page eight. The polls are open at numerous locations across the city for early voting, including city hall and several community centres. For information on voting and candidates, go to Vancouver.ca. [email protected]
Twitter: @sthomas10
