Vision Vancouver has five new candidates running in the upcoming municipal election and none of them will ever be described as “angry, old white men.”
Rookie politicians Trish Kelly, Naveen Girn, Sammie Jo Rumbaua and Coree Tull received the party’s approval to join incumbent Trevor Loke in running for park board after the June 22 nomination vote, while veteran VSB school psychologist Joy Alexander also received the thumbs-up to join Vision’s six incumbent school board trustees seeking re-election.
Much political hay has been made in recent weeks over Mayor Gregor Robertson’s controversial description of Non-Partisan Association members as a group of angry, old white men even though he did not, in fact, actually use the word “white” when dismissing his political rivals at the party’s annual general meeting held May 4 at the SFU Segal School of Business. (Courier reporter Mike Howell was there and recorded the mayor’s speech.)
Some might argue that ethnicity, not to mention age and/or gender, nonetheless played a part in the nominations, in which four young candidates for park board handily beat high-profile contenders Brent Granby, a prominent West End activist and former COPE park board candidate, and Catherine Evans, a lawyer and chair of the Vancouver Public Library Board.
“Our new candidates for park board and school board bring experience, energy and diversity to Vancouver politics, and are a big asset to the Vision team,” said party co-chair Maria Dobrinskaya in a prepared statement announcing the new nominees. “Vision’s new candidates will help bolster our team even more, and will provide a clear choice to an out-of-touch NPA in November’s election.”
Approximately 1,650 party members voted on the nominations. Kelly, a natural food company employee and self-described LGBTQ community member of Métis and Ukrainian descent, earned the most votes with 1,162. Girn, a member of the City of Vancouver Public Art Committee and project manager for the Komagata Maru 1914-2014: Generations, Geographies and Echoes art exhibits, came in second with 1,125.
Rumbaua, a youth settlement worker and 2011 winner of a Filipino Canadian Cultural Heritage Society award for community service, earned 1,029. Tull, a community organizer and co-chair of Out In Sports Society, earned the final spot with 894 votes.
“We’ve built a team that believes in compassionate leadership for Vancouver — one that shares Vancouver’s values and has a plan to keep our city moving forward,” added Robertson in the release.
The closest runner-up was Graham Anderson, the co-founder of a delivery co-op that uses cargo tricycles to transport goods, with 567. Evans ended with 526 votes and Granby 505.
Sitting Vision park board commissioners Aaron Jasper, Sarah Blyth and Constance Barnes are not running again, while outgoing commissioner Niki Sharma is seeking a seat on city council. Robertson and all seven incumbent councillors received party endorsements to run again.
The election is Nov. 15.
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