Vancouver-West End Candidates

It’s election season here in BC. Tonight was the All Candidates Meeting at the West End Community Centre, so I went there after work to hear ‘em out.

For posterity, here’s what I had to tweet:

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I went to the all-candidates Q&A for the Vancouver-West End riding tonight. Here are some quick thoughts on the candidates.

Note: I’m not a member of a political party or anything. I went because I have to choose between these guys.

#bcpoli #Vancouver

Spencer Chandra Herbert, NDP. Incumbent since 2008. I’ve voted for him several times.

He did pretty well. There were a few questions he didn’t really answer — for instance, when asked about vaccine mandates, he never came out and said whether he supported them, merely that vaccines are good. The other candidates gave him a few jabs, but there was a general acknowledgement among ‘em that he’s been a good MLA. Weird!

Jon Ellacot, BC Conservatives.

He ran last election for the BC Liberals, so he’s not one of those guys. He made the case against rent control, which I theoretically agree with, but it’s a terrible idea right now (IMO). He acknowledges climate change, but thinks we can innovate our way out. He wants more public-private partnerships in health care. Said no to vaccine mandates. Kept talking about finding “efficiencies”.

(I really hate the contention that we can cut taxes and increase service by finding efficiencies. Like, he said that about Translink, but they’ve been audited repeatedly and the cost savings have been minimal. His point that BC has double the health care administrators as Germany was good, mind, assuming it’s true.)

Eoin O’Dwyer. Green Party.

I like this guy! He stood up for the carbon tax, rightly pointed out that the NDP talks a good game about climate change but does little, said vaccine mandates were important, and — unlike the previous two candidates — actually lives in the West End.

(Reposted to thread.)

Carl Turnbull. Independent.

OK. So he’s the one who said climate change isn’t real. (“We’re at the coolest point in the last 500 million years.“) He didn’t get vaccinated against COVID, and lost his job as a bus driver for a year.

That said, his main principle was that the only way to deal with the housing crisis is to build more supply, and that’s 100% the truth.

(He also kept talking about opening up crown land for development. I wish he’d been more specific about where.)

At first I thought he was up there as a troll, but he was honest about his beliefs. We have some fundamental disagreements, but he doesn’t seem like a crank.

If we had ranked voting, then I’d probably give first preference to Eoin O’Dwyer, then Spencer Chandra Herbert. I’m not sure if I’d vote for the other two.

Alas, we don’t have ranked voting or STV or anything, so I need to decide if voting Green risks giving the seat to the BC Conservatives. And that’s mostly because I don’t like the party, not the candidate. Bleh.

Politics!

#bcpoli #Vancouver

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Edit: There was also a weird moment where Turnbull was arguing with the audience about vaccines. Something about Translink wanting drivers to continue wearing masks even after being vaccinated, because it was OK to catch COVID-19 from someone vaccinated but wrong to catch it from someone unvaccinated. I don’t think I have the details right — it was confusing.

That said, people have a weird understanding of vaccines. People act like the should be 100% effective, and that anything less is pointless. Really, the whole point is to establish herd immunity so diseases can’t spread, and getting a shot just means that your body has experience fighting the disease. You can still get sick, but it won’t be as bad; and you can still infect people.

The pandemic was traumatic, and it’s going to be a long time before people are normal again, if ever.