North Vancouver District - 2022 Elections
Here’s how I will be voting on the weekend: Matthew Bond, Jordan Back, Jim Hanson, Catherine Pope, Ellison Mallin and Harrison Johnston.
Why? Because we need change in North Vancouver District and the existing council have repeatedly failed to produce this.
In North Vancouver, there are two big intertwined issues, transportation and housing. The majority of residents living in North Vancouver work somewhere else, the majority of people working in the North Vancouver live somewhere else. That’s because house prices here are so high and everyone has to come into the district.
These candidates seem to understand the problems that exist in the district and want to bring change and improvements. We can’t keep having single family homes across the district that no-one can afford to buy. We can’t keep increasing investment in cars and car infrastructure because it doesn’t solve anything, induced demand just keeps bringing more cars.
The best time to invest in active forms of transport was years. The second best time to do it is now. Specifically candidates who said things like “I cycled to this meeting along the Seymour Parkway, and let me tell you its not pleasant” will get my vote.
Who I listened to and won’t vote for.
Mike Little, Lisa Muri and Betty Forbes.
Betty Forbes is the person who got on council to ban pigeons, because her neighbour has one. She thinks that cycling is well funded and suggested that building more parking lots and having bus shuttles will reduce traffic. Yep, more parking to have less cars. So pretty clueless on that one.
Here’s Mike Little’s opinion on cyclists:
.@NVanDistrict incumbent Mayor Mike Little: if cyclists really cared about safety, they’d look like motorcyclists, with their protective clothing. But our cyclists won’t even go one block out of their way! They want to be on the main drag.
— Martyn Schmoll (@martynschmoll) October 13, 2022
Just doesn’t get it. Vote accordingly. pic.twitter.com/B3zUZREgR5
His opinion on traffic is that he’s working on a business plan for skytrain (sometime in the next ten years) and a replacement for the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. So in twenty years Mike might bring some change to the District. Maybe, but in the meantime it’s all cyclists fault. I’ll go tell my daughter to go buy motorcycle gear and stay out of the way of cars.
Lisa Muri is confusing, because she’s extremely good at talking and confusing the issue. But when I’ve listened to her I found undertones of being obstructionist, unhelpful and blaming others. Lisa has been a councillor for 25+ years and plays politics well - if you don’t want anything to change in North Vancouver she’s your candidate.
Peter Teevan? Well a life long worker in finance at automative dealerships wants to build a 6 lane each way multi level replacement to the Ironworkers Memorial bridge. One more lane will fix it, bro.