Pete Fry

The idea of an octogenarian rattling around an underutilized, empty-bedroomed $3 million Dunbar bungalow while young families are forced out of the city makes for a convenient if not somewhat mean spirited scapegoat — but let’s take another look Read More

Like many Vancouverites, I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to VCC.

I wrote my first lines of HTML code in a VCC classroom, allowing me to upgrade from print-focused graphics to remain successfully self-employed and engaged in newly emerging world of web design. During my lean years, the meat and baked goods shops at the downtown campus—serving deep discounted butchery and bakery student works—kept me well fed when I couldn’t afford much else. My wife successfully transitioned into a productive career thanks to the affordable and specialized skills upgrading she received at VCC almost twenty years ago.

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This morning, as predicted, the Bank of Canada cut our interest rate by .05 per cent. Ostensibly, the move is to head off a recession — spurred mostly by slumping oil markets that have dampened Alberta’s economic outlook — lower interest rates mean Canadians will spend more.

Lower interest rates also mean cheaper mortgage rates, which in turn will push up housing prices, particularly as investors look for safe places to park their money, like Vancouver.

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Firstly, it never should have happened — an absolute abdication of leadership—doomed to failure from the start. We elect leaders to make the tough decisions, not pass the buck; and that is precisely what Christy Clark’s government did by putting our transit infrastructure investments to plebiscite. 

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We’ve all heard anecdotes about global capital and foreign ownership. I recently wrote about the market externalities affecting my own community of Strathcona. A well-financed west-side investor set about purchasing a number of homes in the neighbourhood: in cash, with no subjects or conditions, and always over the asking price.

Strathcona has a limited land base, maybe 350 detached homes in all, and this particular investor may have purchased a dozen of them—about 5 per cent.

Coincidentally, five per cent is about the same number that the BC Real Estate Association claim as the relatively insignificant amount of foreign ownership in Vancouver. A little higher at 5.8 per cent is the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s figure for percentage of foreign ownership in the downtown peninsula.

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Housing affordabilty in Vancouver isn’t really news, of course. Since the federal government stopped funding new social housing in 1993, we’ve seen increasing pressure on low income Vancouverites. Today, after fifteen years of low interest rates and steadily increasing housing prices in Vancouver, what was once a social justice issue for this city’s most vulnerable and their allies, is increasingly taking its toll on middle-income owners — and the politicians and pundits are taking notice.

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The affordability crisis in Vancouver certainly isn’t news—it was a central theme of our most recent civic election, and the two preceding it—but in recent weeks, calls for senior government intervention have landed on the premier’s desk in the form of a petition seeking restrictions on foreign ownership of property.

Readers might be confused by Premier Christy Clark’s warning that implementing taxes on foreign real estate investors would cause housing prices to drop, while Housing Minister Rich Coleman insists the provincial government has no intention of even collecting data on foreign ownership, nor has it come up as an issue for his ministry.

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VICTORIA B.C. – Pete Fry was confirmed as the B.C. Green Party candidate for an anticipated Vancouver-Mount Pleasant by-election at a nomination meeting held on Saturday April 25, 2015. Fry was a candidate for Vancouver City Council with the Green Party of Vancouver in the 2014 local government elections. He received 46,522 votes, topping polls in Strathcona, Mount Pleasant and Commercial Drive, which are located in the provincial riding of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.

“I’m really excited and motivated to bring a new voice for our community, and this incredibly diverse and irrepressible riding,” Fry said. “This by-election is a real opportunity for East Vancouverites to vote for something that they believe in, rather than vote against something they do not. I look forward to sharing our Green Party vision of progressive values, climate leadership, and community advocacy.

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It seems like only yesterday I was out trying to hustle votes in the municpal election—but recent changes in East Van politics will see a by-election and no incumbent here in the East End… So I’ve decided to take the plunge, but I need your help!

I’ve put my name forward to seek the BC Green Party’s nomination for the upcoming Vancouver-Mount Pleasant provincial by-election. The seat is currently held by Jenny Kwan, but will soon be vacated, as she’s resigning to run for federal politics.

During the November 2014 Vancouver municipal election,in my first run for office I collected just over 46,500 votes, and was one of the top vote-getters at the polls in and around Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.

I ran for City Council in November because of my commitment to my community, the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant riding, I’ve lived, worked and volunteered in this district for over 25 years. We are a strong, resilient and caring inner-city riding, but we are not without our challenges: the ongoing privatization of BC Housing, unreasonably low welfare rates, poverty and affordability, gentrification, social justice, reconciliation, and the legacy of colonialism.

We need to provide opportunities for immigrants and underemployed; balance regional growth strategies and transit-oriented development with land value and speculation; as well as ensure healthy, safe urban neighbourhoods that respect our physical, cultural and socio-economic heritage. These are all real challenges for our community and provincial government.

I’ve been a local community activist for a number of years and served as chair of the Strathcona Residents Association. I helped lead the community’s response to the City’s proposed viaduct removal, redevelopment and traffic management scheme; and sat on the City of Vancouver’s DTES Local Area Planning process.

I’ve been committed to East Van for several decades. I’ve learnt the importance of Read More

Thanks for the kind words and well wishes everybody..

I had a relaxing morning, walking the dog and hanging out with Dawn in the hood. Of course, I was disappointed not to break onto council, but thanks to so much support from so many of you: we elected an unprecedented number of Greens, and Adriane Carr topped the votes for any councillor.

I feel great. I spent the election day campaigning on the Drive and gotta whole lotta love and validation. I know I topped the polls in most of my immediate East Van ridings, and polled high in most of the urban ridings — if we had a ward system, maybe things would have worked out differently.

I knew going into this that we were underdogs, with limited resources going up against well-greased big money campaign machines with robocallers, paid canvassers and million-dollar ad budgets. But even without those resources, we put up a great fight, raised the bar, and made some awesome gains.

I’m humbled by confidence that 46,500 Vancouver voters had in me.

Down but not out — I’m just gonna dust myself off and get right back into the ring!

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