Wow, first full day of campaigning and already out of breath! Well, not completely, but it has been a rush. Since midterms took up most of my time the past two weeks, and the federal campaign was still on, the civic work hadn’t begun in earnest for me. But here I am in the thick of it suddenly, but it has been fun so far. So what did the day have in store?
STAND FOR HOUSING
At 1pm things got underway at City Hall. The demonstration was organized by the Citywide Housing Coalition and there was representation from Stands for Housing, Renters At Risk, West End Residents Association, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, and of course, COPE!
It’s obvious that housing is a key issue in this city, and this election. But the housing issue isn’t just a council issue. Parks Board should be dealing with this as well, unfortunately the NPA ruled Spencer Herbert’s motion on homeless in parks ‘out of order’. Go figure. For School Board, there are hundreds of students that come from unstable housing situations, students who have families that need to couchsurf in order to have proper shelter. And on top of that we have students that also come to school hungry. In this city, in this country, this shouldn’t be a problem, but sadly it is.
COPE OFFICE GRAND OPENING
At 3pm the COPE office officially opened its doors with great music, good food, and a few drinks! Rachel and Ivan and the rest of the team did an amazing job fixing up the old video store and turning it into a hub of political action! Please drop by if you have the chance, it’s at 585 East Broadway (1 block West of Fraser). It was great to see the turn out and having the support of our friends from Vision Vancouver was great as well. Don Davies managed to make it down as well after the housing demonstration and received a warm round of applause for his election night win in Vancouver-Kingsway. I’ve got to say, being in the office and seeing the photos of COPE members of old got everyone really excited about the next 28 days. In a way, i’m looking forward to a lot more tired nights and early mornings!
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