Spacing Vancouver brings together contributors from all facets of the urban experience – transportation policy wonks and affordable housing activists alike. Our contributors are volunteers, flaneurs, and professionals, with interests as diverse as our city’s urban landscape.
While we would not presume to tell you how to cast your ballot, you might be feeling lost with only one day left before election day – so we’ve compiled a list of council candidates that we think deserve a closer look. Check out the City of Vancouver’s website for details on how and where you can cast a vote to support our shared urban environment on Saturday, November 19.
More than a dozen contributors have pooled their preferences to produce the following list, ordered in rough decending order. All four major slates are represented, as are the lone Green and key independent – and while the vast majority of those who contributed plan to vote for Gregor Robertson to continue as mayor, Randy Helten and Suzanne Anton did register in our poll.
For Mayor:
The Top 10:
Another 5:
But don’t just take our word for it. To complete your research, please consult a variety of sources, including surveys (such as the Vancouver Public Space Network and Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition) and op-eds (the Georgia Straight is a good resource for this). Don’t forget about your nine votes for school board or seven for parks.
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Spacing Vancouver will continue to bring you periodic updates as the race progresses – you can find the complete list here.
2 comments
Raul,
Our suggestions encompass every major party/alliance and even an independent. If we are partisan, we aren’t very good at it! 😉 This list isn’t an official endorsement of any candidate, rather a recommendation to our readers about who to give a closer look when deciding who to vote for, if they haven’t already made up their minds.
You are correct that Spacing is written by different people, and the way this list was determined reflects that. Each Spacing contributor was invited to anonymously submit their picks. The results were pooled and the names above came out on top. Although each candidate was picked by several contributors, I doubt there is any one Spacing contributor that picked all of the candidates listed. I certainly didn’t.
As for whether we should be supporting specific candidates at all: There is a longstanding tradition of media outlets supporting specific candidates. If we are partisan, so is the Vancouver Sun, the Georgia Straight, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, etc. As well, several other local websites (partisan and non) have suggested candidates.
If Spacing Vancouver has a bias, it is towards candidates who understand the urban landscape and are interested in issues like public transit, urban design, public art, community planning, and sustainable development. I personally believe that these issues cross partisan lines; and—if these recommendations are any indication— I’m not alone.
Actually, it looks like someone did pick that ballot about half-way through the voting – we almost should have had a pool for that. Most were somewhere between 5-7 of them.
We also saw votes for several other NPA candidates and most of the NSV slate (not to mention De-Growth and RICH) – and from different people, not just one or two partisans.
I’m also not aware of any contributors with strong party ties, except one very famous NPAer.