Frances Bula header image 4

Vancouver hurls millions of city money into housing and shelter as deadline approaches

September 26th, 2014 · 45 Comments

Since the first day that Vision Vancouver came into power, Mayor Gregor Robertson has turned up the flame on efforts to create new shelter spaces, interim housing, and permanent housing in the city. But this week, as the election and a Dec. 31 deadline for “solving street homelessness” approaches, the city has started doing something […]

[Read more →]

Tags: 2014 Vancouver Civic Election

Vancouver Greens: More from developers for low-cost housing, maybe luxury tax, lots more real talking with residents promised

September 18th, 2014 · 27 Comments

Feels like the municipal campaign in Vancouver finally started to pick up some speed today, as the Greens launched their platform and Vision Vancouver had the first news conference with real news, announcing more money for school lunches for poor kids. (And the NPA sniping away at that.) I mostly covered the Green announcement, as […]

[Read more →]

Tags: 2014 Vancouver Civic Election

What is the social-media score for all of Vancouver’s political parties?

September 7th, 2014 · 26 Comments

Because I have thousands of words to write in the next few days, this instead. There are 10 weeks left in the campaign. At the moment, this is how the various parties and their mayoral candidates rank on the social-media counters. Facebook: Gregor Robertson, by himself: 7,560 “Gregor Robertson and the Vision team”” 4,559 Vision […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Vision paints NPA’s LaPointe as inexperienced waffler, he paints Robertson as the guy who can’t deliver on his big promises

September 6th, 2014 · 48 Comments

I have to second the opinion of my colleague Mike Howell at the Vancouver Courier, who concluded his summary of this week’s election shenanigans with the question: Is it time for reporters to take a vacation until this campaign settles down to something reasonable? Vision’s Gregor Robertson held his first campaign news conference, accusing NPA […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Gregor Robertson holds steady with 59 % decided voters but NPA’s LaPointe starts strong

July 31st, 2014 · 40 Comments

I went to get some of my crazed summer-frizzed hair chopped the other day, so got to talk to my hairdresser, my infallible guide to the mood of the city. He has a lot of west-side clients, so he gets a sense of things percolating before I do. He told me when the tide was […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Former Vancouver Sun managing editor Kirk LaPointe launches campaign for mayor

July 14th, 2014 · 74 Comments

Busy day for me and all city-hall journos today as NPA and Kirk LaPointe finally went public, after six weeks of rumours, that he is definitely, really, no kidding, the mayoralty candidate. A group of those of us who cover city hall regularly got invited to meet him this morning at Kafka’s on Main (not […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Young, diverse slate wins big at Vision park-board nomination

June 23rd, 2014 · 39 Comments

I dropped by the voting and the announcement yesterday of the winner’s in Vision Vancouver’s run-off for park-board and school-board candidates on this fall’s slate. Obviously, Vision is touting this as a huge sign of democracy in action, with 1,650 voters out, and critics seeing it as a triumph of slate voting for a group […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Election 2014: NPA fundraiser sells out but no candidates yet; Vision announces its plans for slate numbers

May 2nd, 2014 · 28 Comments

The Non-Partisan Association, in an appreciated act of transparency, passed on the list of people/companies who bought tables at its upcoming gala. My story on that here and the complete list of supporters for the NPA follows here. Gold table buyers – – Vancouver Taxi Association – Concord – Rocky Mountaineer – O’Neil Hotels & […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Vancouver election time: $50,000 dinners, $25,000 lunches, candidates coming and going + more

April 8th, 2014 · 397 Comments

Tried to wrap up all various things going on election-wise with the two big parties these days, which is a fair amount. This is all I could cram in to my Globe story. But to sum up what’s in there, plus more: – NPA fundraiser/gala May 7, where they will announce some candidates. Apparently no […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized

Greens step up efforts to get seats on Vancouver council, COPE sets new policy

April 1st, 2014 · 188 Comments

All of us who care about politics in the city are waiting to see which of the potential Vision challengers will mount the most effective, publicly appealing option for those wishing to park their votes somewhere besides with the ruling party. The two parties on what some would describe as the left were in action […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Uncategorized