The Globe and Mail has named Vancouver Quadra one of the 45 battleground ridings that can change the country.
So get out and vote, UBC! Students need to make themselves heard this election.
UBC area voting stations will be at:
* Place Vanier
* Walter Gage Residences
* Acadia Park Commons Block
* Old Barn Community Centre
* UBC Golf Club
“The Ottawa NDP, they’re not listening to BC.”
That is the tagline of the first attack ad I have ever seen targeting the NDP. I saw it a few minutes ago on Global BC, in the middle of Oprah. The ad features a greying, bald head from behind, with its fingers stuck in its ears as the narrator talked about crime and road construction. I think the Conservatives could have picked a better Layton double, myself.
If I were Jack, I would take this as a good sign. The NDP is finally being seen as a credible threat in BC. I wonder, are the Conservatives running similar ads elsewhere?
I’m trying to find the ad at the moment. When I do, I will post it here.
So my old professor Michael Byers plans to run for the NDP in Vancouver-Centre.
I can’t say I’m surprised. It was no secret at UBC that he was planning to run for something… although the rumour at the time was that he was going Liberal. And, at that time six months ago, I wondered why not NDP. I guess I was proven right in the end.
It seems everybody on the Maclean’s blogs has something to say about this event. So does the Vancouver Sun, unflattering as that article is. The part that interests me is that he decided Stephane Dion’s “Green Shift” wasn’t any good and he preferred the NDP’s environmental plan. Dion must have better marketing, because I don’t remember what the NDP’s environmental strategy is, other than that it’s not (NOT!) the same as the Liberals’.
Still, I’m not sure why Byers doesn’t like Dion’s plan. It seems fairly consistent with his lectures on environmental issues in class. It’s also fairly consistent with the problem he posed to the class: how to ethically dispose of an SUV his family won in a grocery store contest. He didn’t want to drive such an environmentally-damaging car, but nor did he want to sell it, because that would mean somebody else would drive the gas-guzzler all over Vancouver. I don’t know what they finally ended up doing.
His lectures on environmental problems or on many international issues were quite good though, and the support he gave to his students was admirable. Like any good politician, he knew everybody, and would frequently enlist his contacts to help out on student projects.
Anyhow, Prof. Byers, should you ever read this, feel free to comment or drop me an email. I’d love to know why you think Layton’s strategy is better than Dion’s. And what you did with that car.
Several UBC students were arrested last night, April 4th, at a protest on campus.
I walked by the protest earlier in the evening, when it consisted basically of a couple of bands and an enthusiastic crowd of maybe 20-30 students. This was not unusual in any way for that area.
Later last night, apparently, the protesters lit a bonfire. This is more unusual. When police arrived to put it out, it seems one student stood in front of the hose. That person was arrested, as were more students who then objected to the arrest. According to CP, at least 25 students were arrested. This seems more than a little ridiculous to me.
CBC has some actual footage of the arrests, and a little story too. I really recommend you watch the movie clip. It’s pretty harsh.
For some background:
Since September at least, there has been an ongoing protest in the parking lot next to the Student Union Building, where students set up an impromptu park, complete with grass, a sandbox, chalk drawings on the concrete, and more recently, a couple of free-standing tentlike structures made out of plastic and cloth. The area, called “Trek Park” by the various students who set it up, occasionally falls into disrepair but is generally well-maintained and has at least a couple of students at it during the day. Sometimes they have little concerts and rallies there. I thought that was all last night’s protest was.
Students have been protesting the planned conversion of the area into an underground bus loop, and the apparent lack of student consultation when the decision was made. At least one group also wants there to be more space available for free public use on campus.
This all happened about a block from my home, and also about two blocks from the campus RCMP station. Just so you know.
Exactly one week ago, the Biological Sciences building at UBC was in lockdown. No one was hurt, and the explanation received from the university and RCMP is that there was an “unspecified threat.”
By piecing together various quotes from the RCMP, we can speculate that there was at least a suspect, that the threat was specific to the building, and that the police thought that the suspect might have been in the building. Clearly something was wrong if they had SWAT teams sweeping the building and were giving people secret words and such.
Today we’ve had another unspecified threat, even less specific than the last - this time it didn’t mention a building. They still closed down the bioscience building, because of last week’s incident, but classes were still being held elsewhere and students were urged to be vigilant.
An email forwarded from UBC president Stephen Toope yesterday afternoon says,
What can we all do when faced with such a threat? We are taking the advice of the RCMP to treat the non-specific nature of the threat with a higher level of community vigilance but to otherwise continue our normal activities.
He’s right, I think, but I hope this sort of event doesn’t start happening every week.
My latest story is on the front page of today’s Ubyssey. You can also find it in their online edition.
City looks to extend Millennium line to UBC - The Ubyssey, December 4, 2007
“Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan is pushing a plan to extend the Millennium Line to the University of British Columbia. (…)”
For this story, I interviewed Mayor Sam Sullivan, City Councillor Suzanne Anton and various other people. I had a pretty good time with this overall.
As promised, here is the little radio piece I put together about the convention. It contains a bit of Jim Sinclair’s speech and part of an interview with MLA Gregor Robertson. If it’s a little rough, it’s because it’s my first.
A classmate of mine, Jeff Phillips, has entered the Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister contest with a YouTube video explaining water trading and conservation issues in a Canadian context. Far be it from me to influence the contest, but the video is a nice summary of these issues of water privatization and water trading, and how Canada might want to act on them. It is an important issue that more people should be aware of.
This afternoon I attended the British Columbia NDP convention in Vancouver for an assignment. The big story of the day was the resolution to increase female representation in the party by making sure that a certain percentage of candidates in the next election are women. The resolution itself is a little more complex, but that’s its essential part. I thought it an interesting move for a political party - to basically integrate an affirmative action policy. This is done informally on every level of government, I suspect, but to make it official policy is a big step.
The resolution was passed with a significant majority. I’m sure if you look it up tomorrow morning, exact numbers will be all over the papers. Frankly, I don’t know how people managed to count. We all popped up from our little media corner to see, but all I could get was a rough estimate of 4/5 or so of the candidates. Then again, I’m pretty short. The next election should be worth watching to see how successfully this policy gets carried out.
The NDP also voted and approved their environmental policy package, which was roundly endorsed by visiting speaker Thomas Homer Dixon . This could have a significant impact in the years to come as well, though it is probably less interesting from a purely political standpoint.
I managed to grab some fun audio, including an interview with MLA Gregor Robertson, which I might post up here once it’s all downloaded and packaged. I’ll probably post the story I do anyway - assuming it gets a good mark.
EDIT: Here’s the link to my post with that bit of audio.
I am pleased to announce a piece of real journalism that I’ve done, that you can find on the Thunderbird, the UBC School of Journalism’s online publication. Please take a look at some of the other stories too - my classmates did some really good work on this project. We, like all news outlets, are always looking to build readership, so leave comments and make some student journalists happy.
My story is called “Don’t wait for wireless.” It is all about community-driven wireless Internet programs, particularly one just getting off the ground in Vancouver. Enjoy!
