politics
http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Richard Florida is comin' to town
On May31- June8 UBC in Vancouver will be hosting Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences conference. Most presenters will be of the academic variety and will no doubt be spewing jargon left and right (stuff I personally love), but it is worth a look.
One of the saddest aspects of our society is our level of civic engagement. Time and time again it is the same crazies that come out to the type of lectures that inform our policy. It is so important that citizens are there to represent the peoples' voice. Policy doesn't come from nowhere- there are academics and experts whose research informs political actors. A lot of research is good and a lot of research is bad. But most importantly, a lot of good research is misinterpreted and used as justification for neoliberal policy. Subsequently, bad research and misinterpretation of good research is used to justify policy documents such as Project Civil City that takes a clear 'broken windows theory' approach (a theory that makes lay-sense, but is all correlational with no real proof or statistical evidence that physical maintenance and image of a city afffects crime rates etc).
http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/05/vote-for-me-as-if-voti...
TheVancouverManifesto is on VoterMedia.org: Media for voters, funded by voters. This is a pretty recent invention aimed at democratizing media in a few ways (put the emphasis on the right syllAbles and you'll get it). By viewing a wider range of media (i.e. instead of reading the same newspapers that are all owned by CanWest, or the shit from the "free daily" that depressed middle-aged women hand off to you at the skytrain and UBC) the voter can make a more informed decision thereby electing better leaders and better public policy.
By samanthaorwell on March 22, 2008 - 3:29pm
READ IN FULL HERE:
http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/03/front-page-news-points...
http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/03/front-page-news-points...
http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/03/front-page-news-points...
The front page of The Vancouver Sun posted a story entitled, “The cost of homelessness”. (Note that the online equivalent reads, “The high cost of homelessness”- which was published earlier on Friday, March 21, 2008- the word "high" a bit much for the front page?).
The Vancouver Sun, Saturday, March 22, 2008.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=11fdf74c-9130-41b3...
"Every homeless person costs system $55,000, an amount that could buy supported
housing for each of them…annual total of $644.3 million in health,
corrections and social services spending for all the homeless in B.C."
By samanthaorwell on March 17, 2008 - 11:04pm
m speechless. How did we almost become conservatives? Do you hate Joyce Murray so much that you must vote Conservative?
Honestly, I thought Van Quadra would vote progressive or at the very least with the status quo.
check it out:
http://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts_e.aspx?ed=1323
Liberal 36.1%
Conserv 35.5% (seems incredibly high)
NDP 14.4%
Green 13.5%
Rhino 0.4%
CAP 0.1%
How did Liberals win by only 0.6%?
Ridiculous. I'm s ashamed of Vancouver Quadra.
Voter Turnout: 28 121 out of 83 121.
33.9% voter turnout.
What's the deal? You think it's the weather's fault?
By samanthaorwell on March 11, 2008 - 11:05pm
Read whole post here:
http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/03/vancouver-quadra-by-el...
Yes, I live in Vancouver Quadra and I do plan to vote on March 17, 2008.
Now I have only been a serous voter for a few years now. I'll be honest, I used to know zero politics and I really never used to care. But I'm getting used to being serious about my civic duties as I get older. I don't know who's bright idea it was to let me vote when I was 18. I seriously didn't deserve it. I basically picked the best, or funniest, name on the ballot and went with it. Yeah, that's right..I voted based on name. For example, in the last civic election I voted for Loretta Woodcock. Come on, Woodcock? How could I NOT vote for her if all I do is go by name? That's a funny name. I also was willing to vote for unnecessary long names or names I had no hope in pronouncing. Good times..
But those times are over. I'm taking my elections seriously. No more Woodcock. Wood... cock.
Ok, get over it. Let's put my serious face on.
So I'll give you a breakdown of Vancouver Quadra, info care of CBC http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/riding/302
-Bound by Arbutus St., 16th Ave., Oak St., 41st Ave. and Granville Street, and UBC
-6th Wealthiest riding in Canada
-2001 Census found that 36% were immigrants (largest proportion Chinese)
By Ray on December 26, 2007 - 8:00am
...And I bet you're thinking, "It's on the plates, Stupid!" - But you'd be wrong!
By Ray on December 26, 2007 - 7:51am
By Ray on December 22, 2007 - 10:59am
This nice young man seems to have run afoul of his federal Liberal party...
...and we're wondering what the real story is on all this. You aren't going to find out today by reading this article in The Vancouver Sun but you might get a few clues from it, if you put two and two together. It sounds to me like a family feud that got out of hand, and since it concerns a politician, the media has obviously declared "Open Season"
on him. So your first task, should you accept this assignment, is to find out who the relevant spin-doctors are, who put them up to it, and why. Getting to the truth may take just a little longer, Folks. And why would our federal Liberals give one of their own such a Christmas Gift ? Do they actually eat their young ? Stay tuned, Folks...
By Ray on December 22, 2007 - 10:29am
There's something going on in West Van, and we haven't heard it all yet...
By Ray on December 14, 2007 - 12:20pm
It's amazing what you can find on the web...
