Louie, Chow, Jang and Dhaliwal are nominated by Vision Vancouver to run for
a diverse Vancouver City Council.
Campaign sign for the joint slate of Kashmir Dhaliwal, Kerry Jang and Andrea Reimer at the voting site at Sir Charles Tupper School – photo courtesy of Patrick Tam – Flunging Pictures
It was a very happy party for the Vision Vancouver nominations results party last night at Science World. It was great to see so many faces that help make Vancouver such as vital and creative city. People like Naomi Singer – creator of Winter Solstice festival and Paul Wong – video artist, as well as Paul Faoro- president of CUPE 15, and Alex Youngberg – president of CUPE 391 Vancouver Library Workers. And I happily made a new friend with Jennifer Sweeney, who is Director and Co-Chair of the Campaign School for Canadian women Voters Congress.
I went down to check out the action at Tupper at 6:30pm, and saw many candidates and supporters all greeting the incoming voters with flyers. It was like a Chinese night market as people called out “vote for (fill in blank), hawking their preferred vote. I was greeted by Kerry Jang, Raymond Louie and Andrea Reimer – 3 of the councilor candidates that I gave personal endorsements to. Then a nice enthusiastic hug from Constance Barnes who is running for Parks board. I know Constance from her job as manager at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens. She is a warm friendly person whom whenever I talk with, I know I want to get to know her better.
After voting from 10am to 7pm at Charles Tupper, the candidates and their support teams all headed to Science World expecting results announcements for 10pm – just in time for the late evening news. I arrived after 9:30pm, to a very festive atmosphere. People were dancing beside and on the stage. Lots of greetings as new people constantly arrived. Warm hugs from Aaron Jasper, Parks candidate and his wife Arminder – they both were volunteers at the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner this year. I got to know Aaron during the Vancouver Civic Strike last year when he would bring water to our Library Square strike line.
It was great to see my old friend Sarah Millin and Imtiaz Popat from my Canadian University Press Days. I met the newly nominated Vancouver Fairview MLA candidate Jenn McGuinn, and discovered we knew many people in common. There were also people from the Green and COPE parties attending. My friend Stuart Mackinnon, the newly nominated Green parksboard candidate, introduced me to Ben West, Green Party chair. And I bumped into Green organizer Tom Cornwall who used to paddle on Gung Haggis dragon boat team many years ago. Another former Gung Haggis paddler was Meena Wong, who is seeking the councilor nomination for COPE. COPE school board nomination candidate Jane Bouey was also there.
COPE nomination candidates: Meena Wong for Council, Jane Bouey and Imtiaz Popat for School Board – Patrick Tam – Flunging Pictures
This event was also very family friendly. Children and adults were all playing with the different Science World displays. Andrea Reimer's young daughter was on stage dancing with Andrea. Kerry Jang's daughter was running and playing with other children. Raymond Louie's daughter was walking around with her mom.
But there were delays as they counted votes cast by a record number 4,500 people. And then there was a recount, as results for the last spots for council and school board were separated by only 17 and 8 votes respectively.
Mike Magee came to the stage just before 12 midnight to announce the results. Incumbent councilor Raymond Louie topped the votes, as all incumbent Vision councilors Heather Deal, Tim Stevenson and George Chow were easily nominated. Andrea Reimer led the polls for new council candidates followed by Geoff Meggws, Dr. Kerry Jang and Kashmir Dhaliwal. Geoff Meggs and his family were standing behind me when the announcement was made, and they were all very happy. Heather Deal was standing in front of me and soon handshakes and hugs were congratulating all the winners.
I am happy to say that 7 of the 8 winning nominated people for Vision's
council slate have very happily attended Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner
events in past years. Raymond and Heather were also very instrumental in helping to create the Tartan Day proclamation for City Hall this year. Heather has Scottish heritage, and she made it into a Vancouver Sun photo with us to help promote Tartan Day, when she joined us for a Kilts Night event. George, Heather and Tim also attended a photo recognizing Tartan Day proclamation at City Hall – even if Tim did hold the kilt up backwards, with the pleats in the front, “commenting that he can't do anything straight.”
Todd Wong congratulating George Chow – photo Patrick Tam – Flunging Pictures
Raymond Louie and Geoff Meggs, happy at the results – photo Patrick Tam – Flunging Pictures
Vision Vancouver mayor candidate addressed the crowd after the results, then invited everybody up for a well-deserved applause for a successful nomination campaign – photo Patrick Tam – Flunging Pictures
I was pleased to see that Parks Board candidates Sarah Blyth, Constance
Barnes, Aaron Jasper and Raj Hundal won their nominations. I met Sarah
this summer at the Taiwanese Cultural Festival, as I had been
encouraging the skate board enthuiast to try out dragon boat paddling.
I almost had Aaron and his wife Arminder in the dragon boat, after they volunteered for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner back in January. I am sure that Constance and I will be planning a joint event at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens in some form.
Meena Wong, Aaron Jasper, Todd Wong and Carol Reardon – photo Arminder
Winning School Board nominations were Sharon Gregson, Mike Lombardi, Patti Bacchus and Ken Clement. Clement hopes to be the first aboriginal trustee on the Vancouver School Board, helping to bring more diversity and recognition for First Nations issues.
There will be a recount as there were only 13 votes separating the 8th and 9th spots for Council candidate nominations. Only 8 names will be put forward. Top 9 Councilor Voting results are:
3746 Raymond Louie
3704 Heather Deal
3271 Tim Stevenson
3248 George Chow
2988 Andrea Reimer
2951 Geoff Meggs
2387 Kerry Jang
2240 Kashmir Dhaliwal
2213 David Eby
Total votes and results can be viewed on Frances Bula's blog:
http://www.francesbula.com/?p=363