I am very grateful for all the support but we are getting a bit off track. In any race, nomination or election, there will always be successful and unsuccessful candidates. The unsuccessful ones, like me in this case, all go through the same stages of mourning:
~Denial “wtf!? Did I hear it right? Mike, give me the print out of numbers!”,
~Anger “This is bullshit! Everything in my closet is in shades of blue and green!”,
~Bargaining “maybe if I iron it out…the Banana Republic will accept the refund.”,
~Depression “they won’t accept the refund…what kind of a gay man has 6 of the same shirt in different shades of blue and green?!”, and
~Acceptance “okay…fine…I’ll just buy new clothes and start working for the successful candidates.”

The key thing to take away in all this is: we need to accept the loss and get back to work. There was a flock of 37 of Vancouver’s most progressive and passionate community organizers running to Vision – we all knew that 21 were going to be unsuccessful. Despite all our differences in policy, ideology, and background…we have to remember the following: we all came to Vision because we wanted change.

The changes we want are still within reach. However, the first step is to get the Vision team elected. There are committees within Council, Park Board, and the Board of Education. What we need to focus on now is getting progressive candidates elected that will listen to us and work with us. During my campaign, I made promises: better youth services, sustainable living, and sustainable transportation. I have no intention of falling back on those promises; I’ll just have to do it without the title or salary.

Among the successful candidates, we have a living example of progressive leaders reflecting an array of Vancouverites (ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, political affiliations, and experiences). Embrace that. Then embrace me, because I could still use a hug.

I do like your writing style – amateur or not! just wish I knew your real name.

the community garden project in Baghdad and my best-selling book Dancing in the No Fly Zone

http://arrisbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=14

which contains some chapters about it, are both mentioned in my brochure and on my primitively designed but free myspace site

http://www.myspace.com/hadaniditmars

My comment on bargaining power with COPE, boosting numbers etc wasn’t very well expressed due to my (still) looming deadline (am working on another CBC Dispatches doc – this one on Iraqi artists in exile) – and would welcome your thoughts on why so many people were recruited despite the slate having been signed, sealed and delivered months earlier (see Kerry Jang’s comments in today’s Courier)

And if you’ve ever read anything I’ve written about the state of public transit in this town, you’d know my thoughts on how murderous instincts must be suppressed on a daily basis at rush hour on the 99bline!

Since it is nearing the end of Ramadan, my thoughts have been with my friends in Iraq, whose facebook messages about life over there have been interspersed with ones about comparatively petty civic politicking – often offering a rather absurd from Baghdad to Kitsilano style contrast .

You might be interested to know, that post invasion the US militarized parks and green space in Baghdad – leaving locals with little safe public space – partly the inspiration for my project there.

Meanwhile am heartened to know you are drafting a letter to the executive about voting irregularities.

I’ll say a prayer for you if you say one for me. whatever your name is.

Hadani

Thank you for your posts detailing how we have to get past the name calling. I enjoyed them, especially the part where you pictured me violently beating a fellow transit passenger. Sadly, you also implied I was some sort of professional writer. This when I’m so very attached to my amateur status.

Your apologies on Iraq and Afghanistan are unnecessary. These are clearly places of importance, just not in the context of a park board nomination race. Your community garden experience in Iraq, on the other hand, may very well have been. It’s a shame you only saw fit to mention it after being goaded by an irritating and anonymous blog comment.

I do feel for you on one point: complaining about being stabbed in the back by Raymond Louie seems far too common an occurrence in Vancouver politics. But with that point made, you had to undercut yourselfon the issue of bargaining power with COPE. I’m sure your estimable presence on the ticket shook the pillars of Heaven, but I’m reasonably sure that Vision’s 16, 000 members and wildly popular mayoral candidate might be more direct sources of power in that negotiation.

I would be dishonest if I did not agree with your point about voting irregularities. There were far too many on that day, and I have drafted up a letter to the Vision executive about that I plan to send once I’ve inserted more scathe and barely-contained violence. I hope that exercise gets me through my next commute without murdering anybody. Pray for me, Hadani.

By the way, did you mention you wrote a book on Iraq? One would never know.

Just a short note regarding your sore loser comment and then I really have to get back to my rent paying writing.

I hope we can find away to raise some important issues about democratic process, voting regulations etc. without being silenced by the”sour grapes” label.

As we know history is written by the winning side but the most interesting stories usually lie within that narrative.

And just for the record, I ran for Park Board after receiving a phone call from Raymond Louie while I was in London this summer, writing about Vancouver and Vancouverism for the Guardian and the Globe, encouraging me to run.

During the last election, I was asked to stand with Duncan Low as Vision’s Park Board candidates, but in the end they decided not to run any PB candidates.

(ok -so this isn’t a short note after all)

Needless to say, since, unbeknownst to me, the backroom boys had already cooked up a slate well in advance of my phone call from Raymond, I never heard from him again.

I like many other candidates, was just part of a political strategy to boost Vision’s power in their negotiations with COPE, among other things.

Still I decided to press on as much for the educational experience as anything – and boy has it been educational!

Also, as someone who wrote an op-ed column in the Province about urban, greenspace, social and cultural issues, who was a regular social and political commentator on Omni’s the Standard – a local show, who has written and broadcast about DES issues, urban planning, architecture, public transit and other local issues for the Globe and Mail, CBC and BBC radio and as a 5th generation Vancouverite who cares about her hometown, I went into the process with sincerity and good faith and the hope that I would be able to contribute to the process or at least to the discourse about civic issues.

There are many examples of writers and journalists who have gone into politics – although arguably there’s more of a tradition of that in Europe and South America.

But I am reminded of the Canadian poet Mary di Michele who wrote “Listen, whatever I say here is safe, it’s between us….in Canada, writers are not tortured or imprisoned…they’re ignored.”

Somehow, the whole process also reminds me of another great Canadian poet Pier Giorgio di Cicco who wrote in a poem called Latin Ontario

I have been a Protestant too long/I have had to confess instead of sing/and when you confess to other Protestants/you get suggestions for editing

Here’s hoping we can elevate the discourse and get past the name calling, while still thinking critically and raising substantive issues about our town.

Perhaps this is not the forum – Frances has already been more than generous with her blog space – but I hope we can find one.

HD

Thanks for your post.

I’m not really interested in a protracted internet slinging match with someone who posts anonymously. But if you’d care to identify yourself and give me a call, I’d welcome a real dialogue about substantive issues. Meeting in person would be even better. God forbid we might even shake hands!

Whatever you think of me or my qualifications, based on reading a small brochure, I invite you to ponder the many voting irregularities that voters of all stripes and colours have been complaining to me about. I’m sure you would agree there are issues that need to be addressed for future campaigns and nomination votes. In this context I am frankly relieved to be “a failed park board candidate” for Vision Vancouver.

And I certainly agree with you that there were other kinds of voting blocks besides the more obvious ones.

I’m heartened by your passion and your prose style – although you do seem rather angry (I do hope writing to me has helped relieve some pent up steam – rather than say, taking it out on the poor fellow next to you on the bus).

I must say that when I was being pilloried by the right wing neo-cons when my book on Iraq came out, I was happy to note that the most virulent responses were the ones with the worst spelling, grammar and lack of imagination.

You, dear ptak, sound like you might even be a fellow scribe! Are you? If so, what do you think about the current federal arts cuts?

My point about the left fiddling while the world burns is that with all the infighting we lose precious energy to fight for the really important
issues.

I’m sorry if you think Iraq and Afghanistan are irrelevant. Of course they’re not exactly park board issues are they? But I have to say, my experience planning a community garden project for women and their children in post invasion Baghdad, where rival militias duked it out daily, was great preparation for the world of Vancouver civic politics!

So dear ptak604, whoever you are, and whomever you voted for (I know it wasn’t me!) I implore you please don’t tempt me with another deliciously scathing post – at least not until I’ve finished my next writing deadline (you know how we writers love to procrastinate)

But if you’d care to meet for coffee on the weekend – bienvenue!

All the best to you ptak604

Hadani

ditto.

I love Vancouver
politics- its fiery
and inspiring.

that was a haiku, by the way.

umm, but really. I love how the tensions in Vancouver poilitics mirror those of Federal.

and in Vancouver, you’d never even know that a US election is going on because we love our local debates and discussions =)

Needless to say, these two species of candidate are to be found in any political party.

I’m certain if these candidates were to have won a nomination, they would be singing the praises of the democratic process and downplaying the impact of worn-out tactics of yesteryear on the result.

And so, from where I sit, Ray Lam, David Eby and many other unsuccessful candidates this time around are class acts. It takes almost nothing to be gracious in victory – it takes guts and character to be gracious in defeat.

And as for Mr. Manifesto, who actually thinks Facebook is anything OTHER than a marketing tool, I hope you’re on your second cup of coffee this morning….

xox