Another successful campaign

The ballots have been counted, the signs have been collected and the dust is starting to settle. Thank you to my incredible team of Ann and Byron, to my friend Susan and my colleagues Joanne and Donald who came out to help and to Louis for setting up the donation link. Thanks to the Killarney Service students who helped out too as part of their learning. Thank you to those who asked for a lawn sign. And a HUGE thank you to the kind people who donated money to the campaign.

It is amazing what a handful of volunteers and $2500 can do. Imagine if we had had more. 

Our goal was to give the voters a choice and we did that. My goal was to get 1000 votes and we did that --final result was 1230 votes, a 25% increase over the previous election.. So I would say the campaign was a success. We didn't split the vote or steal the vote. We earned our votes.

Time for a bit of a rest, collect our breath and then back into the fray. There is much to be done.

Thank you all for your support.

A message from Elizabeth May to voters on the eve of the BC election

Dear fellow British Columbians,

During my campaign in 2011, nearly everyone outside of my team and supporters said there was no way I could win. Even as polls were closing, the media was still saying I didn't have a chance. I recall one interview (with CKNW in Vancouver) days before the vote when the guest host for the Bill Good Show told me I couldn't be elected dogcatcher. And then the results came in - we won by over 7,000 votes (10.1%). It was a very decisive win!

Now that I've been working as an MP for two years, I've worked to improve civility in Parliament, reaching out across party lines within the principles I laid out during my campaign. I've proposed hundreds of amendments to Conservative omnibus bills, I've created two non-partisan caucuses that include members from all five parties, I've kept my constituents and fellow Canadians informed of all the secretive back-room politics that go on in Ottawa, and my fellow MPs even voted me "Parliamentarian of the Year".

Having Greens elected to the BC Legislature will be a win, not only for the Green Party, but for democracy itself. In this campaign, Jane Sterk and her fellow candidates have already pushed the NDP to adjust their decisions, such as with Mr. Dix's sudden refusal to allow Kinder-Morgan to use the Ports of Vancouver or Delta. Despite the NDP loss of a huge lead, Adrian Dix still has a commanding lead and will form government. A few Greens will have a very healthy impact on the NDP-Liberal partisanship of the legislature. Greens will be a powerful presence. Andrew Weaver, Adam Olsen, Jane Sterk, and other Green MLAs will be able to fight for a guaranteed livable income, a transition off fossil fuels, and support for the burgeoning clean energy industry in BC; they will keep us informed of what goes on in our Legislature, and they will model a new kind of politics that isn't about what party you belong to, but what values you hold dear. BC needs Green MLAs or none of that will ever happen.

So I'm asking you not to listen to the fear-mongering, the scare tactics, the vote-splitting propaganda, and to vote for what you believe in. Feel good about your vote - vote with hope, not fear. My election in 2011 gave hope to people across Canada. Let's do it again tomorrow and see BC take the lead! Let's make history again.

Election Day: tomorrow, May 14, 8am-8pm.

Elizabeth May
MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada

If not now, then when?

The following is from the Straight:

by Stuart Mackinnon on Apr 22, 2013 at 11:59 am

People ask me why they should vote Green. I answer because we need change. Real change. And if we don’t vote for change now, then when?

Voting for the Green party means voting for change. Radical change for some. It means not buying into the tired old ways of the mainstream parties. It means saying no to the cynical old methods of buying your votes every four years. It means taking a leap of faith that things can be better, politics can be honourable, and change can happen.

Voting Green means voting for positive change. It means voting for a clean, bright future. It means caring what kind of world our children will inherit, and their children after them.

I joined the Green party because I wanted to be part of the change that needs to happen. As a secondary teacher I want the best future possible for my students. I want a world that is safe, clean, and sustainable. I want a world where innovation and inspiration are what the economy requires. I want a world where clean air, clean water, and healthy food are the right of every citizen.

I’m running in Vancouver-Fraserview because I live, work, shop, and play in Fraserview and want to represent my community in the legislature. I live in the East Fraserlands neighbourhood. I teach at Killarney secondary. I shop on Fraser Street, Victoria Drive, at the Killarney Market, and other local businesses. I walk along the Fraser River and at Everett Crowley Park. I want to be sure that the issues that matter most to my neighbours are articulated. I want a healthy neighbourhood. I want a neighbourhood with diversity. I want a neighbourhood for everyone. Fraserview is a dynamic multicultural neighbourhood where you know your neighbours and where people care about each other. I like that.

I want to help my neighbourhood. I want to ensure seniors have a safe and caring place to meet. I want to make sure there is a Seniors Centre built—not just promises but action. I want to make sure there are local health-care options. Seniors shouldn’t have to travel across the city to access care.

I want to help improve public transit to a neighbourhood that is car-dependant because there aren’t buses that take you where you need to go. I want to ensure that residents can stay in their neighbourhood to shop. I want to support local businesses that give back to the community.

I want to make sure there is affordable housing in my community. I want to encourage a diversity of living models which include single family, townhomes, condominiums, and rental housing. I want the great cooperative housing movement brought back.

I want the best education possible for the children in my community. I want educators to feel respected, schools to be fully funded, children to be safe, and curriculum to reflect the challenges of the present as well as the dreams of the future.

Green politics are about more than land, water, and air. Green politics are about healthy communities, healthy families, and a healthy environment.

Join with me in making real change in British Columbia. Make your vote a vote for a healthy community. If you don’t vote for change now, then when will you?

Vote for positive change. On May 14, vote Green. In Vancouver-Fraserview, vote for Stuart Mackinnon.

Stuart Mackinnon is the B.C. Green candidate for Vancouver-Fraserview.

Stuart Mackinnon running for Greens in Fraserview

By Sandra Thomas, Staff writer Vancouver Courier, April 16, 2013

Former park board commissioner Stuart Mackinnon has been named the Green Party candidate for Vancouver-Fraserview to run in the May 14 provincial election.

I wasn’t surprised by the news because even though Mackinnon had officially left politics, I heard from him regularly about community issues, particularly those affecting the Fraserview/Killarney area. Mackinnon was unsuccessfully in a bid to get re-elected to the park board in the 2011 municipal election.

Mackinnon will go up against former city councillor Suzanne Anton, who is taking another kick at the can after losing her bid to become the B.C. Liberal candidate for Vancouver-Quilchena.

Mackinnon lost no time in criticizing the party’s choice of candidate for the riding. “I have to admit I was surprised the premier would approve someone from Kerrisdale to run in Vancouver-Fraserview.”
Kash Heed, the Liberal incumbent for the riding, is not running for re-election. The Liberals have won the riding in the last three municipal elections by narrow margins. The NDP candidate for the riding is Gabriel Yiu.

Mackinnon, a teacher at Killarney secondary, said he decided to run at the prompting of neighbours who told him they are unhappy with what they perceive as neglect from the city and park board.

Mackinnon told me if elected, his goals include pushing for a long-awaited seniors centre, an item of concern in several past municipal elections. As a resident of the community, Mackinnon says he knows first-hand just how badly underserved the community is when it comes to transit and that’s something he intends to work on. Mackinnon notes housing prices are also pushing residents out of the community so he wants more co-op developments built. The Champlain Heights neighbourhood of Fraserview is the city’s poster child for how to make co-op housing work and Mackinnon says he wants to expand on that success.

$$ for seniors centre
Speaking of that elusive seniors centre, April 15, the day before the provincial election officially launched, the B.C. Liberals issued a press release committing $1.3 million towards a new facility. Killarney resident Lorna Gibbs, who has been leading the charge for a seniors centre, told me she’s pleased the news came in the day before the writ was dropped. What it means for the future, she adds, is yet to be determined.

sthomas@vancourier.com
twitter.com/sthomas10

© Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier

Why I Do What I Do

For those of you who don't know it, I am a secondary special education teacher. I have a program for grade 8 and 9 students with severe learning disabilities. I teach them their academic subjects and hopefully prepare them for reintegration to the regular stream for grade 10.

Working with the kinds of kids I do, success is measured in inches not miles. Sometimes the improvement is hard to see. This is part of a note I received from a parent after I e-mailed that their child had done exceptionally well on a test. The student is one of those who I thought would probably not graduate when she started. Now she is honour roll. She has climbed mountains in the year and half that she has been in the programme.

"Hello Mr. Mackinnon

We are very proud of her achievements too. She has come a long way. Just to share with you, after the quiz, she was a little nervous that she did not do well.  Yesterday, when I asked her, she put on a sad face and pretended that she failed. She’s getting good at it too, we may need to enrol her in drama class!

On behalf of my husband, we want to say thank you very much for your encouragement and assistance throughout the  2 years. You have also given her confidence and opened her up.  She started as a shy little girl sitting way at the back hiding behind the books."

I really don’t take credit for the success. I am only the pathfinder. She has not only climbed mountains, she has moved mountains. She deserves all the credit for putting in the time and effort.

Most of the students I get feel worthless in the beginning. Their educational experience has not been a positive one. My goal is to give them first the confidence to be successful and then the tools to learn. From there I really think they learn in spite of me.

This is the most rewarding job I've ever done. I know I learn as much, or more, from them as I will ever give back. The biggest lesson I have learned is that no child is disposable. Every child is worthy of our best efforts. Every child deserves an education. Every child must be given the opportunity to achieve to their utmost potential.

Stuart Mackinnon is the Green Party of BC candidate for Vancouver Fraserview

For Immediate Release

12 April 2013 Vancouver - The Green Party of BC is pleased to announce that Stuart Mackinnon will represent the party in Vancouver Fraserview in the May 14, 2013 provincial election. 

Stuart is a former Vancouver Park Board Commissioner who represented the Green Party from 2008 to 2011. He focused on parks and public space issues and fought against fee raises for children and the closing of the Bloedel Conservatory.

“Fraserview deserves better” comments Stuart Mackinnon. “I want to give the people of Fraserview a choice in this election. I want to fight for a better tomorrow for Fraserview and all the people of British Columbia by offering them a clean, bright future based on sustainability and green ideals.”

Stuart lives in the Fraserlands neighbourhood and teaches at Killarney Secondary school. He is also a Governor of the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association and a board member of Axis Threatre.

“The Green Party represents a change from the old style politics and brings a sense of hope for a brighter, more honest political system” continued Mackinnon. “Fraserview needs an MLA who lives, works, and plays in this neighbourhood, not someone who just represents it. Fraserview deserves better. British Columbia deserves better.”

Stuart joins a team of passionate people who want to represent the citizens of their constituency in the BC Legislative Assembly,” comments Jane Sterk, leader of the Green Party of BC. “These are new times. Our candidates have new ideas.”

“A vote for Stuart Mackinnon is a vote for real change,” concludes Sterk.

-          30 –

Media contact: Stuart Mackinnon: 778-389-1956 or stuart.mackinnon@greenparty.bc.ca

Aren't Pipelines Supposed to be Safe?

With all the Enbridge advertisements flooding our airwaves I think it's time to show another kind of flood. This is footage of the oil spill in Mayflower Arkansas. This is not what I want for British Columbia.

This is what Reuters had to say:

Exxon cleans up Arkansas oil spill; Keystone plan assailed

 

By Kristen Hays and Matthew Robinson

Sun Mar 31, 2013 7:26pm EDT
 

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil on Sunday continued cleanup of a pipeline spill that spewed thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian crude in Arkansas as opponents of oil sands development latched on to the incident to attack plans to build the Keystone XL line.

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said on Sunday that crews had yet to excavate the area around the pipeline breach, a needed step before the company can estimate how long repairs will take and when the line might restart.

"I can't speculate on when it will happen," Jeffers said. "Excavation is necessary as part of an investigation to determine the cause of the incident."

Exxon's Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was shut after the leak was discovered late Friday afternoon in a subdivision near the town of Mayflower. The leak forced the evacuation of 22 homes.

Exxon also had no specific estimate of how much crude oil had spilled, but the company said 12,000 barrels of oil and water had been recovered - up from 4,500 barrels on Saturday. The company did not say how much of the total was oil and how much was water.

Allen Dodson, Faulkner County judge who is the top executive for the county where the spill occurred, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday that the smell of crude was less potent on Sunday as cleanup efforts continued, saying it was weaker than the smell of fresh asphalt laid on a road.
"The freestanding oil on the street has been removed. It's still damp with oil, it's tacky, like it is before we do an asphalt overlay," he said.

Exxon said it staged the response to handle 10,000 barrels of oil "to ensure adequate resources are in place."

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) also were on site to investigate the spill.

Fifteen vacuum trucks remained on the scene for cleanup, and 33 storage tanks were deployed to temporarily store the oil.

The pipeline was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak. An oil spill of more than 1,000 barrels into a Wisconsin field from an Enbridge Inc pipeline last summer kept that line shuttered for around 11 days.

The 848-mile pipeline used to transport crude oil from Texas to Illinois. In 2006 Exxon reversed it to move crude from Illinois to Texas in response to growing Canadian oil production and the ability of U.S. Gulf Coast refineries to process heavy crude.

The Arkansas spill drew fast reaction from opponents of the 800,000 bpd Keystone XL pipeline, which also would carry heavy crude from Canada's tar sands to the Gulf Coast refining hub.
Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the impact of developing the oil sands and say the crude is more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil. On Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.

"Whether it's the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, or ... (the) mess in Arkansas, Americans are realizing that transporting large amounts of this corrosive and polluting fuel is a bad deal for American taxpayers and for our environment," said Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Supporters of Keystone XL and oil sands development say the vast Canadian reserves can help drive down fuel costs in the United States. A report from the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, put together by oil and gas consultancy Penspen, argued diluted bitumen is no more corrosive than other heavy crude.

A year ago Exxon won a court appeal to charge market rates on the Pegasus line, or rates that are not capped and that can change along with market conditions without prior approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

That decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. said the Pegasus pipeline is now the "primary avenue" to move Canadian crude oil to the Gulf Coast. The ruling also said Exxon moves about 66,000 barrels per day on the line.

Last week PHMSA proposed that Exxon pay a $1.7 million fine over pipeline safety violations stemming from a July 2011 oil spill from its Silvertip pipeline in the Yellowstone River. The line, which carries 40,000 barrels per day in Montana, leaked about 1,500 barrels of crude after heavy flooding in the area.

Exxon has 30 days from the March 25 order to contest those violations.
According to PHMSA, the U.S. has 2.3 million miles of pipelines.

CLEANUP
Exxon said that by 3 a.m. Saturday there was no additional oil spilling from the pipeline and that trucks had been brought in to assist with the cleanup. Images from local media showed crude oil snaking along a suburban street and spewed across lawns.

Twenty-two homes in the affected subdivision remained evacuated on Sunday, though Mayflower police were providing escorts for residents to temporarily return to retrieve personal items.
Jeffers said a couple of homes "appear to have small amounts of oil on their foundations," but he had no information on damage estimates or claims. Exxon had established a claims hotline for affected residents and said about 50 claims had been made so far.

Dodson said oil that made it to the street went into storm drains that eventually lead to a cove connected to nearby Lake Conway, known as a fishing lake stocked with bass, catfish, bream and crappie.

He said local responders that included firemen, city employees, county road crews, police quickly built dikes of dirt and rock to block culverts along that path that stopped crude from fouling the lake.
"We were just in the nick of time," he said.

Exxon later deployed 3,600 feet of boom near the lake as a precaution.
Dodson said crude also got into several homeowners' yards, which will take longer to clean up.
"We've just gotten used to having pipelines go through cities and counties, and you hope something like this doesn't happen. My heart goes out to all of the people personally impacted," Dodson said.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Bernard Orr, and Chris Reese)

Old Vision Vancouver hands raging over park board mess

By Allen Garr, Columnist Vancourier.com February 14, 2013

 

Just so you know: a battle has been raging for the past couple of weeks in the back rooms of Vancouver’s governing party. A number of old Vision Vancouver hands are livid over the damage being caused to the party’s reputation particularly among its own supporters by the park board’s assault on community centres and the blow back in the community.

There is no clear winner yet on that one although there has been movement.

This week, Vision board member Maria Dobrinskaya, appearing in her regular city hall panel slot on CBC Radio’s The Early Edition, conceded that the shenanigans of the past few months have been destructive to whatever good will existed between community centre volunteer boards and the Vision-dominated park board.

This week, too, a senior Vision insider at city hall made this observation: the attempt by the park board to control revenues raised by those volunteer boards and manage programs at their centres was never part of Vision’s election platform. This was: Over the next three years, the Vision Vancouver park board will “focus on making programs affordable for everyone by introducing a pilot program of specific free-of-charge family days at recreation facilities and ensuring that the universal Flexipass and Leisure Access Cards are honoured at all Park Board facilities.”

Most, if not all, of the community centre boards are already willing to negotiate these conditions; it wasn’t necessary to threaten to wipe them off the face of the earth. But that’s what happened when Vision threw the first punch. Here is how Trout Lake Community Centre board president Kate Perkins saw it unfold. She is one of the most onside with the park board’s desire to renegotiate the 40-year-old joint operating agreement (JOA).
 
But first a bit of background. Rewriting the JOA has been on the agenda of the past few park boards. Vision operatives have been dealing with the matter for the past five years, increasingly annoyed at the surpluses building up in the coffers of some community centres while others went wanting
.
But the matter never got tackled. Until now.

Which brings us to this process and the first punch. Park board general manager Malcolm Bromley arranged to meet with the presidents of the community centres last February to see, as Perkins says, “if we could land on something” that would work.

But that cordial atmosphere abruptly ended when Bromley disappeared only to return with an ultimatum. “This is the deal” Perkins recalls him saying, and adding, “We hope you’ll be part of it. If not, we’ll find someone else” and replace your board. It was non-negotiable.

The “deal” meant the community centre boards would lose control over programming and revenues.
You can imagine how that went down. But the park board seemed unmoved by the building anger. And as Perkins says, when you “start getting (the more moderate) Dunbar, False Creek and Trout Lake boards angry, you’ve done something terribly wrong.”

In January, community centre boards asked for a facilitator. Bromley responded with a demand the negotiations be settled in three weeks. Perkins and the rest rejected that as unreasonable.

Then followed the ridiculous nine-hour park board meeting at the West End Community Centre that ran until 3:30 in the morning. It only served to inflame the public against the park board even more. In spite of that, the position of Bromley and the rest continued to shift as more community centres agreed to come to the table with the offer of a mediator or facilitator to help move things along.

Where we are at right now is a bit of a pause for most community boards while a mediator or facilitator is being sought and approved. The issue of controlling revenues and programming is still the most contentious. Meanwhile, the most determined community boards are boycotting the process and using some of their surplus funds to launch a campaign and build public support against the park board.

As for Vision Vancouver, the internal dispute continues. Even the most adamant Vision soldier will say they are doing the right thing, knowing full well the process has been deplorable and the whole exercise is costing them politically.

agarr@vancourier.com
twitter.com/allengarr

© Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier

 

 

 

‘Have-not’ community has idea to solve Vancouver park board saga

February 13, 2013 

By Emily Jackson Metro Vancouver

Sure, it’s down at the bottom on Vancouver park board’s “have-not” list, and yes, it’s all for a little more equality between community centres.

But the Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre, the centre in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood according to a city ranking, still isn’t a big fan of the park board’s proposal to collect all the revenue and redistribute it to level the playing field.

Instead, Marpole’s community association president Danny Yu is looking for a way forward with an idea for an alternative financial model – a middle ground that’s been largely absent from the saga between the board and the city’s 23 centres as they negotiate a new operating agreement.

Yu suggests a taxing model where the board and associations come up with a formula where a percentage of revenue would go to the board based on size, programs or usage.

The current model, where the associations don’t give up any revenue to the park board despite getting the buildings rent free, isn’t working perfectly, Yu said.

“If you have a store in a shopping mall, you pay rent,” he offered as a comparison to his proposal. “That leaves a little bit for volunteers to continue to provide good programming, and the park board gets their money.”

A similar idea was rejected about two years ago at an Association Presidents Group (APG) meeting, he said, but it will likely be more palatable since the board’s proposal to control all the revenue. Former park board commissioner Stuart Mackinnon proposed a similar idea in a recent blog post.

Both APG chair Kate Perkins of Trout Lake and park board commissioner Niki Sharma did not want to discuss potential funding models as the matter will be negotiated at the bargaining table.

“All ideas will be welcomed at the table. We will take a look to see what works to meet the goals of better equity and access,” Sharma said in an email.

 Copyright 2001-2013, Free Daily News Group Inc.

What is the ultimate purpose of life?

"What is the ultimate purpose of life? It is to give. Start giving. See the joy of giving."
Narayanan Krishnan