As of this writing, we’ve published well over 100 stories and opinion pieces focused on Saturday’s civic election. We covered breaking news and attended all-candidates meetings. We parsed out statements at press conferences and asked questions we believed voters cared about. We published 11 features, digging into the issues of housing, open government and campaign financing. We produced three online live streaming Q&A’s with mayoral candidates. We created a 16-page Voter’s Guide containing profiles of every candidate in the race and we invited candidates to post their own statements to our website.
Throughout the campaign, we probed, explained, criticized and cajoled. Everything was blasted out to social media. And now we’re putting the election once again on the front page.
You probably get the idea by now that we think civic elections are important. City council, park board and school board have more impact on your life than any other level of government in this country. It’s where you live.
All of our election-related work can be found on our Vancouver Votes page. Go there, look around, find out what you need. Also check out the fine election coverage of our colleagues at other Vancouver publications and news sites to get as much information as you need.
Then go vote. You have one mayor and up to 10 city councillors, nine school trustees and seven park board commissioners to elect. All will serve four-year terms.
If you have any questions about the procedures for voting or where you can vote, check out the city’s voting election site via Vancouver.ca. The city has nearly 120 different locations where you can vote, and you can cast your ballot at any one of them.
Once you’ve voted, join us online Saturday night, whether you’re at home or on your mobile device.
Saturday will be a big effort for us with our largest election team yet assembled to cover the night’s results. Look for frontline reports from acclaimed city hall reporter Mike Howell. Award-winning veterans Sandra Thomas and Cheryl Rossi will cover park board and school board races.
Megan Stewart, Andrew Fleming and a team of experienced contributors will cover the various parties and candidates. Online and social media editor Naoibh O’Connor will be handling our website and together with Michael Kissinger will head our social media efforts.
Chief photographer Dan Toulgoet will be joined by contributors Rebecca Blissett and Jennifer Gauthier to chronicle the night in an ongoing photo gallery. This year, we’re welcoming a squad of smart students from the University of B.C.’s Graduate School of Journalism to help out both at our election headquarters and in the field. It’s going to be fun.
Updates will be posted to our website. You can also follow us on Twitter at @VanCourierNews, on Facebook at The Vancouver Courier Newspaper and on Instagram at @VanCourierNews. If you have any news tips during the night, send them to me at blink@vancourier.com.
At approximately 10 p.m., Webster-winning Courier columnist Allen Garr and new columnist Michael Geller will join me for a live streaming discussion of the night’s results. I have no idea how the election will turn out, but thanks to the past couple of weeks I’m sure we’ll have much to discuss.
We look forward to you joining us.
blink@vancourier.com
