Vancouver municipal election, 2008

The 2008 Vancouver municipal election will be held on November 15, 2008. It will fill seats in Vancouver School Board, the Parks Board, as well as Vancouver City Council and the position of Mayor of Vancouver. It will be held at the same time as municipal elections throughout the province. There are three major civic parties represented: the Coalition of Progressive Electors, the Non-Partisan Association, and Vision Vancouver.

Potential mayoral candidates

Non-Partisan Association

Peter Ladner is a current member of Vancouver City Council. He entered the campaign for the NPA nomination against incumbent mayor Sam Sullivan on February 22, 2008.cite news|title=Ladner joins mayoral fray; Robertson days away|date=2008-02-22|publisher=Vancouver Sun|page=B1, B4|author=Frances Bula] At a nominating meeting on June 8, 2008, Ladner narrowly defeated Sullivan for the mayoralty nomination.cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/06/08/bc-npa-mayor-vote.html|date=2008-06-08|accessdate=2008-06-13|title=Ladner defeats Sullivan for Vancouver mayoral nomination|publisher=CBC News]

Independent

[http://runningformayor2008.wordpress.com/ RH Maxwell N Bur] plans to make some major changes in Vancouver including dropping homeowners' and business taxes by 2-5%. He will help the homeless and marginalized. He will work to create free college and university education for kids that have grown up in the city. He will stop the 2010 Winter Olympics and put the savings into repairing city morale. The city is presently spending exorbitant amounts of capital that could be better used to improve the lives of its citizens. Approximately 3% of the savings to the city budget will be absorbed by the Vancouver Police Department. Mr. Maxwell N Bur is an accountant by trade.

[http://www.jeffkuahformayor.com/Jeff Kuah] , a former resident of the Downtown Eastside is making public safety his number one priority. He plans to put into place a zero-tolerance policy for reoffending and hardcore criminals, and increase funding for law enforcement, which at its current state is unable to do its job properly. He also intends to end the issue of homelessness in Vancouver by clearing out drug use, providing more facilities for rehabilitation and education, and putting into place specialized job placement programs to allow stable income. By cooperating with the provincial government, Jeff Kuah will create affordable housing for Vancouverites in need.

As a family man with five young children living in Vancouver's worst neighbourhood, Jeff Kuah knows first-hand what these citizens go through, and knows what needs to be done to fix it. He also believes that law enforcement is the biggest issue as crime is creeping into all parts of Vancouver, and everyone in the city is, and will be affected personally. [http://www.jeffkuahformayor.com/]

Vision Vancouver

Gregor Robertson is the current NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview and a former businessman. He announced his candidacy February 24, 2008.cite news|accessdate=2008-02-25|url=http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=08a1d67f-aded-4b21-81b1-8ab162249773&k=36238|title=Robertson's Vision takes in mayor's office|publisher=Vancouver Sun|date=2008-02-24] On June 15, 2008, he beat two other candidates–current city councilor Raymond Louie and parks board commissioner Allan De Genova– in the first round of the nomination vote. Robertson got 3,495 votes, compared to 2,244 and 981 for Louie and De Genova, respectively. Louie intends to run to retain his council seat.cite news|author=Frances Bula|date=2008-06-16|page=A1, A3|publisher=Vancouver Sun|title=It's Robertson vs. Ladner for mayor]

Coalition of Progressive Electors

David Cadman is the only COPE member on Vancouver City Council. He has expressed interest in running, but only in a unified mayoral campaign with Vision.cite news|author=Frances Bula|publisher=Vancouver Sun|page=B1, B7|date=2008-02-06|title=DeGenova seeks Vision nod for mayoralty]

Others

* Betty Krawczyk is also a declared candidate for mayor. She is running as part of the Work_Less_Party_of_British_Columbia's campaign.cite news|author=Andrew MacLeod|accessdate=2008-08-06|url=http://thetyee.ca/Books/2008/06/26/FiveRingCircus/|title="Olympics as 'Five Ring Circus'"|publisher=The Tyee|date=2008-06-26]
* Angel L. Jimenez announced that he is running for mayor. His platform is focused on reforms,and to get an external investigation body to the Vancouver Police Department.cite|author=Angel Jimenez|accessdate=2008-08-14|url=http://angelformayor.com/|title="Angel For Mayor"|publisher=angelformayor.com|date=2008-08-14]
* On July 29th, 2008, marijuana rights activist Marc Emery announced that he is considering running.
* Patrick Britten (Nude Garden Party), Gölök Buday, Menard Caissy, Mike Hansen, Leon Kaplan, Jeff Kuah, and Bill Ritchie are also running. [http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/election2008/candidate-profiles-mayor.htm]

chool Board Candidates

Coalition of Progressive Electors

Al Blakey (incumbent), Bill Bargeman, Jane Bouey, Alvin Singh, and Allan Wong (incumbent) were selected as the COPE candidates for School Board on September 28, 2008. [http://www.cope.bc.ca/content/candidate-profiles]

City Council Candidates

Coalition of Progressive Electors

David Cadman (incumbent) and Ellen Woodsworth were selected as the COPE candidates for City Council on September 28, 2008. [http://www.cope.bc.ca/content/candidate-profiles]

References

External links

* [http://www.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/election2008/candidate-profiles.htm City of Vancouver Election Candidate Profiles]
* [http://www.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/election2008/ City of Vancouver Election Page]
* [http://onlymagazine.net/lotusland/ Daily Press Coverage of Vancouver Civic Election]
* [http://www.bcindividualist.org/ArticlesAndOtherCampaigns/ Various News]
* [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=453491 Our Campaigns]
* [http://www.gunzburger.com/ Politics1 Canada(Beta)]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gzlfb A Candidate's User Page]
* [http://www.facebook.com/politics/?ca&ref=en.wikipedia Canadian Politics]
* [http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=770 Radical Press]
* [http://www.nowpolling.ca/ Nowpolling.ca]