Vancouver By-Election Voting Chaos

Where I started lining up at 12.20pm today to vote

Today Vancouver held a by-election for two seats on City Council. One was vacated by Christine Boyle, who successfully jumped into provincial politics, and the other by Adriane Carr, who retired after many years in political office.

There were already signs that voter turnout would be big just from advance voting and the number of mail-in ballots requested.

I went during lunchtime (wolfed down a sandwich beforehand) and was shocked -- shocked -- to see a massive line outside the Dunbar Community centre. A woman who was helping to run the election explained that yes this was the line to vote and that the wait would be 50 minutes -- 5-0 she reiterated. 

However, if you were elderly and could not stand long, or you had a ferry to catch, then by all means come to the priority line. Some followed her in, the rest of us waited, luckily in the sunshine.

An hour later, I exercised my right

The line kept moving, but snaked around the atrium before moving towards a very long corridor. Eventually I got to the front of the line, got registered, was given a ballot, and after choosing the two candidates, had to line up again to submit my ballot.

It took just over an hour to complete from start to finish.

Apparently at other polling stations the wait was over an hour, up to three hours.

Part of the reason can be faulted on city staff for anticipating (wrongly) that hardly anyone votes in by-elections. But surely from reading the news and the advance voting turnout they should know that only opening 25 polling stations compared the 50 in the 2017 by-election is going to result in long lines.

The other issue was that many elderly people did not know they could bypass the long line and walk right in. I advised my parents to do this and they were done in less than 15 minutes, while other seniors bravely stood in line not knowing about this priority line. Again this is city staff's fault for not making people aware of this option. 

Why did so many people turn out for this by-election?

It was a chance for them to take part in a referendum on Mayor Ken Sim and his administration's performance so far.

And the results show it is a complete repudiation of Sim and his ABC party.

Of the 13 candidates running, two won by a wide margin: Sean Orr of COPE (over 34,000 votes), and OneCity's Lucy Maloney (over 33,000).

Although this does not change ABC's majority on council, Orr and Maloney will put more pressure on Sim and ABC to be more accountable for their actions.

"While the results tonight didn't go the way that we hoped for... we look forward to working with the two elected officials," Sim told ABC supporters this evening.

City council meetings are going to be more interesting from now on...

Early BC Voters Came Out in Droves

Over 600,000 people have already cast their ballots

The BC provincial election is this Saturday, but a lot of people have taken advantage of advance voting from October 10-13, and then October 15-16. Apparently over 600,000 people have already voted today, which is considered a very good turnout.

Today was the last day of advance voting and so we went to cast our ballots at the Dunbar Community Centre after lunch.

A long line ahead of us this afternoon

We were shocked to see a long line that had formed in the long corridor, but the line was moving, ever so slowly.

A few minutes later we got to the point in the line where the poster read that we were 20 minutes away from voting, and then another one saying 10 minutes to go. Luckily for the elderly there were folded chairs available to sit on if they couldn't stand too long. We even bumped into some friends in the line ahead of us.

Finally we made it to the front, where we could see the hold up -- only three volunteers were registering voters, while a few others were milling around. 

Our photo identification was matched with the voter card and then we were formally told a ballot was being prepared for us. We were instructed to take a Sharpie pen and either fill the circle or draw an "X" and not to vote for more than one candidate. Then we were told to put the ballot in a black folder and take it to the person who would insert it into the ballot counting machine.

Personally I was surprised to see two pairs of voting booths were next to each other and not separated! In any event I brought my ballot to the guy who slipped my piece of paper into the machine that looked like a printer and a few seconds later my vote was counted, #5842. So up until the point when I voted there were 5,842 of us who had voted in the advance polls in this polling station since October 10.

Cute signs hinting the length of time

Coming out of the voting area there was still a very long line of people waiting to vote, and the queue snaked all the way down the corridor to the entrance of the community centre!

I heard yesterday there was no line at all! Perhaps voters woke up today, worried about long lines on Saturday and wanted to cast their ballots earlier; it's going to be a nail-biter of an election which is heartening to see so many people coming out already!

The Day After the Fire

The blackened skeletal frame of the building was left

This morning the area where the massive fire erupted last night was still cordoned off, with firefighters still on the scene, putting out any smouldering fires, while BC Hydro crews worked overnight and into the morning to restore electricity to a few hundred people.

Bits of burnt embers spread far

The crane that had collapsed in the fire was still lying on the street this morning so traffic was diverted for most of the day, while 81 people who were evacuated had to spend the night at the nearby Crofton House School. Even though some people's homes were not damaged by the fire, firefighters deemed them unsafe to return just yet, though they were able to go in and retrieve some essentials and stay in a hotel.

Meanwhile British Columbia work regulator Work Safe BC was at the site of the fire to investigate how the blaze happened and their work is ongoing.

After I returned from a lunch appointment downtown, I walked around the neighbourhood to see how far the embers had spread. I could still see bits of black burnt out embers on the ground as far as 27th Avenue and Camosun, near St George's School. 

One person near the school reported 10 holes in their deck from the fiery embers!

Another neighbour wondered if these black embers were safe to just dispose of because to him (a retired engineer), they looked like burnt out chunks of foam insulation...

Embers across the street on 34th Ave

Health concerns were the last things on people's minds... people were more concerned what had happened and what was going to happen to the construction site. It was confirmed the gas lines had been installed, which explains the large explosions, but other than that it may take days or weeks to find out how it all started...

Review: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Swift at the opening of her film on October 11

My dad is a football fan, and when he started seeing singer Taylor Swift cheering Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce, he had to find out more about the performer who is selling out concerts everywhere she goes.

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So when the movie, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour came out, he had to go see what the fuss was about.

Then I found out it was two hours and 45 minutes long. 

Owning the stage in a Roberto Cavalli bodysuit

At first my dad was turned off by the length -- almost as long as Oppenheimer! But he just as swiftly changed his mind again to go.

We headed to our neighbourhood theatre and for a Thursday night there were less than 10 people in there, none of us Swifties.

The film is a strictly about the concert and viewers are privileged audience members who get to be up close with her, but also see the massive crowd in Inglewood, California. It was filmed over three shows in August 2023 and then quickly edited and released in theatres for October 11.

It's quite amazing that Swift was able to bypass the typical studio as distributor and do it all in-house, and directly negotiating with AMC Theatres for showings.

Nevertheless, the actual concert is impressive, which makes it a slam dunk to film. Swift is a consummate performer, with her total confidence in owning the stage particularly by herself in the opening song Lover. She struts around in a Versace bodysuit with zero stage fright in front of tens of thousands.

Another sexy Cavalli number with dancers

That's when you know you're in for a fantastic show.

The Eras Tour goes through her 17 years as a professional artist and performs songs from five of her albums including Fearless, Speak Now, 1989 and Evermore.

She sings, dances, and changes costumes at such a breathless pace that we were tired watching her non-stop. 

How does she even preserve her voice? Canadian songstress Celine Dion would not speak at all during the day until her performances, while Swift seems to have no problems doing back-to-back shows filling stadiums.

Swift wears high-end designer outfits from Versace to Roberto Cavalli (several), Alberta Ferretti, Etro, Jessica Jones, and Zuhair Murad. She's tall and slim which makes her and even more perfect person to model these outfits that mostly dazzle for the stage, while others are romantic and make her look like a princess.

Also on display is her massive talent, not only singing and dancing, but also playing the guitar and the piano for a few of the songs, and her fans singing along the whole time. She doesn't seem to mind and waves to them or points at them to give the impression she is looking at you. Yes you!

She wears Oscar de la Renta towards the end

The movie felt like it could have ended with the high energy Shake It Off, but it keeps going for another half an hour... but perhaps the memo was to cover as much of the concert as possible...

Nevertheless, we were left in awe of the power of Swift and why she is such an inspiration to her Swifties. Her fans in Vancouver are in for a treat when she comes for three dates in December 2024.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Directed by Sam Wrench

Produced by Taylor Swift

2 hours, 45 minutes

Picture of the Day: Vancouver Painted

The Park Theatre on Cambie Street

On the weekend I visited a neighbourhood art gallery exhibiting the paintings of Vancouver artist David Wilson. The show is called "The Ground Beneath My Feet" and features street scenes around the city.

One looks down on the downtown core, views looking up to the Burrard Street Bridge at sunset, or the intersection of downtown streets in the early morning.

Dunbar Theatre in my neighbourhood

However, Wilson's best paintings are the ones of rainy night street scenes. These ones each have an old school theatre in them -- Stanley, Park and Dunbar. They are all scenes shot in the rain, with the colours of the lights reflected in the wet slick roads.

The images are so evocative, inspiring a feeling of nostalgia, and Wilson's work is a cross between Edward Hopper and Jackson Pollack in acrylic. 

So nice to know there is an artist here who loves to paint Vancouver.

David Wilson

The Ground Beneath My Feet

Until October 28

Visual Space Gallery

3352 Dunbar Street, Vancouver

604 559 0576