City of Vancouver 2014 Mayoral Candidates Debate
Tuesday, November 4
Time: 7 pm
Place: Room 1400, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street
Cost: Free, register
Join SFU Public Square as four candidates for Mayor of Vancouver debate the most important issues facing the city in an evening presented in partnership with the Vancouver Sun.
- Bob Kasting (Independent)
- Kirk LaPointe (Non-Partisan Association)
- incumbent Mayor Gregor Robertson (Vision Vancouver)
- Meena Wong (Coalition of Progressive Electors)
Candidates will be questioned by panelists Maureen Maloney, a professor in SFU’s School of Public Policy and Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun City Hall reporter. Sun Editor-in-Chief Harold Munro will moderate the debate.
Perhaps Meena Wong will opt to address the English-speakers in the audience at this debate at SFU on Tuesday; at the Mayoral debate this past Saturday in the Chinatown Plaza, the candidates for Mayor were given 2 minutes to respond to each question and were told repeatedly by their hosts to answer each question in both Chinese and English (translaters were present) within the 2 minutes. Meena was the only candidate who did not follow these instructions, speaking entirely in Chinese despite being able to speak English fluently. As an English-speaker who knows no Mandarin or Cantonese, I was offended at being excluded from her presentation, which was, presumably, intended to gain votes.
When I asked Kirk LaPointe about his party’s intentions for Point Grey Road, he replied that the NPA is pro-bike lanes, but he also said that he represents the Coalition of 25 Neighbourhood Associations that want extensive public consultation on every project or else will sue the City to stop every project. Democratically elected parties must be allowed to fulfill their mandate without being inundated with lawsuits from the electorate; otherwise, an election is meaningless, and Vancouver will lag behind its competitors.
Meena did, finally, speak English and admitted to being lonely, Bob was funny about not being lonely because he has 5 kids, Gregor said that more block parties in the city cure loneliness, and Kirk insisted that Vancouverites are lonely because Point Grey Road is “a gated community.” All in all, it was a most telling debate tonight.