Growing calls for Vancouver election unity
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.

PV Vancouver Bureau

With the November 2008 civic election in Vancouver looming nearer, there are rising demands for unity at the polls to defeat Mayor Sam Sullivan's right-wing NPA.

     The latest call was issued by the Coalition of Progressive Electors, the labour-left municipal party which has led the struggle for civic reform in Vancouver since the late 1960s. Speaking to a crowd of reporters at City Hall on Jan. 8, COPE councillor David Cadman and COPE Executive members Ellen Woodsworth and Rachel Marcuse urged all opposition parties and progressive groups to unite behind a single mayoral candidate and a common campaign.

     "COPE has been actively working for such a common campaign for some time," said Woodsworth, stressing that this will require agreement on a single candidate against Sullivan, a single list of candidates for City Council, Park Board, and Board of Education, and a common platform on the crucial issues of homelessness, transportation, environmental sustainability, safe neighbourhoods, and democratic leadership.

     "Vancouver faces unprecedented levels of homelessness, labour relations remain poisoned by the most bitter strike in the city's history, jammed busses continue to by-pass riders who have to cough up for another fare hike, and taxes for ordinary homeowners continue to increase, while Sam Sullivan and the NPA do nothing," said Cadman. "Despite promises that taxpayers would not be on the hook for the 2010 Olympics, the NPA are pouring tax dollars into the Games while community centre programs for seniors and youth are facing cutbacks."

     Rachel Marcuse urged Vision Vancouver members to support unity as that group prepared for its Jan. 14 annual meeting. "We call for a common campaign to defeat Sam Sullivan and the NPA," said Marcuse, "and we make this call specifically to Vision supporters. The damage being done to Vancouver by the NPA requires that we move beyond partisan politics."

     Despite the history of disputes between the two groups, the unity message was heard at the Vision AGM, where members voted to give their executive the authority to decide on the numbers of candidates for different positions. That effectively opens the door for talks on joint slates with COPE and other groups.

     Days earlier, the Vancouver Public Education Project, a recently-formed group of prominent advocates for public schools, issued an "Open Letter to Prospective School Board Candidates," also urging electoral unity.

     In full page ads published in the Georgia Straight and Vancouver Courier, the Project warned that "Vancouver's public schools continue to be eroded by provincial underfunding, a narrow and flawed `accountability' agenda, and an absence of leadership at the school board level. Where once the VSB took leadership in recognizing the needs of its diverse student population by being an outspoken voice for adequate provincial funding, and by developing a model of public engagement in budget and policy formation, in recent years it has lapsed into reacting to events and/or apologizing for provincial assaults instead of standing up for students with a proactive strategy for defending and rebuilding public education."

     Implicitly criticizing the NPA-dominated Board elected in 2005, the Open Letter stated that "A majority of our current trustees have publicly stated that it is educationally appropriate for thousands of students to learn in overcrowded classes. They have voted to reduce supports for vulnerable students, despite significantly increased enrolment of students with special needs. This impacts all classrooms and reduces the individual attention that all students need to achieve their potential.

     "Quality public education in Vancouver cannot withstand this continued lack of vision, failure to advocate and loss of transparency. In the past three years, we've seen record numbers of school-aged children in Vancouver choosing alternatives to public schools. This decreased enrolment reflects an erosion of public confidence and is having a devastating impact on our schools as it further reduces funding and leads to possible school closures and further reductions to educational services to students."

     Calling for "elected trustees who can effectively advocate for that funding, not trustees who cut services to students," the Public Education Project said it "has come together to engage all advocates of a strong public education system to reverse the current direction... We want to see candidates committed to a broad, comprehensive vision of public education, working together in a united effort to stand up for our schools and our students."

     The group called on "progressive trustee candidates who are considering running in the 2008 Board of Education election and who share our commitment to restoring confidence in Vancouver's Public Schools to run under a common slate with a common platform and participate in a common campaign."

     The Open Letter was signed by thirteen well-known education activists, including former trustees Adrienne Montani and Jane Bouey, key figures in the 2002-2005 COPE School Board majority. Others include Patti Bacchus, a former director of BC Society for Public Education and coordinator of Vancouver Parents for Successful Inclusion; Bill Bargeman, past president of Vancouver Secondary Teachers Association; Julianne Doctor, the current Chair of Vancouver's District Parent Advisory Council and Kelly Read, another district PAC member; longtime public education advocate Catherine Evans; Glen Hansman, President of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association; Barbara Laird, a 15-year member of the VSB's Special Education Advisory Committee; Helesia Luke and Dawn Steele, founding leaders of the Vancouver Save our Schools campaign; Allison McDonald, chair of King George Secondary School PAC; and Kathy Whittam, a founding Director of the Charter for Public Education Network.

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint10/Growing_calls_for_Vancouver_election_unity.html

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