Pete Fry

For Vancouver

Tag: VANPOLI

  • Green politico Pete Fry sounds alarm about loophole in campaign-finance law

    Green politico Pete Fry sounds alarm about loophole in campaign-finance law

    Big money may continue to influence local elections in B.C., says a former city-council candidate. Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver claims that this is due to a loophole in legislation that was passed by the province last month regarding campaign financing.

    “That opens the opportunity for kind of an end run around getting a lot of that big money out,” Fry told the Straight in a phone interview.

    He explained that although the new law banned corporate and union donations and imposed limits on individual contributions, people with deep pockets may still sway electoral outcomes.

    According to Fry, the wealthy can affect the polls either by acting as or acting through third-party-advertising sponsors. These are individuals or groups that conduct election advertising independent of elector organizations and individuals.

    “A developer group could register as a third-party election sponsor and deliver messaging,” he cited by way of an example.

    The two-time council candidate noted that there is neither a limit on how many contributions can be made to these third-party advertisers nor a cap on how much they can spend in the election period, which begins in the calendar year in which an election is held.

    “I can see that being a real opportunity to reinsert big money into the political process despite this legislation,” Fry said.

    He pointed out that the only time the law imposes an expense limit on third-party-advertising sponsors is during the campaign period, which is the 28 days preceding the vote.

    Residents of B.C. who are either Canadian citizens or permanent residents can contribute to these advertising sponsors. They can give as much as they want, which is not the case when they are making a donation to elector organizations and candidates.

    Under Bill 15—or the Local Elections Campaign Financing Amendment Act, 2017—which passed on November 23 this year, individuals may contribute only up to $1,200 to an elector organization and candidates in a campaign.

    Follow Carlito Pablo on Twitter at @carlitopablo.
    https://www.straight.com/news/1009891/green-politico-pete-fry-sounds-ala…

  • Voting Vision is more of the same and voting NPA could block key budget votes

    Voting Vision is more of the same and voting NPA could block key budget votes

    The best part of political campaigns is meeting people and reconnecting with our city’s neighbourhoods.

    But it’s bittersweet.

    I grew up here, I love Vancouver. But I feel sad and ashamed at what our city is becoming. Too many folk are being pushed out. People are living on the street. Increasingly our city is becoming more about speculative investment and less about people who live and work here.

    This Saturday’s by-election gives Vancouver voters the choice between several different candidates, but it’s also setting the stage for the coming general election in 2018 to elect a whole new mayor and council. Electing me as a second Green councillor means we can broaden the conversation at Vancouver City Hall, introduce motions, and force public debate in this crucial run up to the 2018 election.

    Greens are the only elected party that don’t take donations from the developer industry. Where the primary function of city council is to determine land use, we consider it unethical to take financial contributions from the very people who benefit the most from those decisions. The decisions we make about land use and their bearing on affordability are too important to allow the market to direct. Transparency, good governance, and public interest must be at the forefront of the response to our housing crisis.

    I’ll fight for our city, using the tools available to our city council. I’ve made it a priority in this election to focus on actions our city council—not senior government—can take to more aggressively address housing affordability in our city. We’ve had 10 years of promises that always seem to rely on senior levels of government. We need to focus on what city council can achieve, while also advocating for the policies our city needs to see from senior government to solve our housing crisis.

    I’ve mapped out five quick-starts our city council can take right away to address our city’s housing crisis: fixing the definition of “affordable housing” to local incomes; a moratorium on demolition of purpose built rentals; easing the red tape on legalizing and protecting affordable secondary suites; a dedicated renter’s office and strengthening of the tenant relocation and protection bylaw; and kick-starting a co-creative city plan to determine how and where we can add affordable density for the people who live and work here.

    In 2014, as a community advocate and organizer, I ran for city council because I was frustrated by Vancouver’s top-down approach to city building that disempowered the people who live and work here. I was frustrated by issues around homelessness and housing affordability, good governance and transparency, and the struggles of our small business and arts communities. Although I came close but didn’t get elected to council—I’ve kept at it, working on those same issues with my community and neighbours in the East End and citywide.

    Today in 2017, those same issues I championed in 2014 are even more crucial. Additionally, Adriane Carr has put the call out to have me join her on city council, because increasingly, as the lone Green and non-developer-backed city councillor, she faces challenges in having many of her motions seconded. A number of her motions, on matters like tying the definition of affordability to actual local incomes rather than the market, are watered down, changed, or ultimately scuttled by other parties before they can even see the light of day.

    Electing me to join her as a second Green means I can second her motions and she can second mine. This way we can bring important policy ideas out into the open and move council to address the challenges we face in a way that puts public interest, not private interests, first.

    Electing Vision is more of the same. Electing the NPA risks having them block key budget votes and increasingly polarize council in advance of our upcoming general civic election next year. Other candidates, while well-intentioned, may be getting lots of attention but are promising policies that under our legal jurisdiction can only be delivered by senior governments.

    The most strategic choice and most effective vote in this by-election to to elect me to join Adriane Carr to bring real transparency and accountability to city hall. This is the best move for our city both in the immediate term and in preparation for the general civic election in October 2018.

    This Saturday, please vote for me to join Green Councillor Adriane Carr for a real alternative at Vancouver City Hall.

    Pete Fry is the Green candidate in the Vancouver council by-election on Saturday (October 14).

    https://www.straight.com/news/980971/pete-fry-voting-vision-more-same-an…

  • On Vancouver’s new logo

    On Vancouver’s new logo

    The City’s new logo is not a lot of things.
    It’s not inspiring, it’s not reflective, it’s not exciting, it’s not very good — but at $8,000, it’s not a rip off.

    I’m not at all suggesting this was money well spent — it’s not. Of course the actual cost of implementing this logo across the city’s print collateral, web presence, social media, mobile apps, signage, et al will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands (at least) of dollars. It’s a bizarre priority for a city with so many real priorities like affordability and housing and homelessness.

    That being said, $8k is not a lot to pay for a professional redesign of something as important as our city’s logo. I’m happy that our city did not resort to the exploitive “design competition” model and actually paid an apparently local business for product.

    But as they say, you get what you pay for — considering the ultimate outlay of cost to replace the logo city-wide, as tax-payers we would have been better served if the city took the time to get it right— and $8k doesn’t buy you a lot of professional design team time to do it right.

    Sure, it’s scoff-worthy to look at the logo, easily replicated with the Gotham font and low end desktop publishing software (*with no manual kerning ability, apparently) — but in truth, the road to get to that logo probably took a lot more submissions, versions, and revisions that we can ever imagine. I’m confident in suggesting that no self-respecting designer would have submitted this particular work as their top choice. It reeks of what we refer to as “design by committee”.

    I suspect the real problem here was who exactly approved this design. A majority of city councillors (none of whom have design backgrounds as I’m aware) approved the logo — but who shortlisted this particular version into the staff report that was ultimately approved?

    I suggest the real lost opportunity here was not tapping into the wealth of local creatives in our city to guide this design process, to critique and approve the final version.

    It’s a visual manifestation of irony: in a city hemorrhaging its creative potential that we can’t even get our new logo right.

    Read the full staff logo report here: http://council.vancouver.ca/20170222/documents/pspc3.pdf