Profiling the Vancouver political parties: VOTE Socialist
CBC
It's a straightforward name, and its council candidate says it's a straightforward message.
"VOTE Socialist," said Sean Orr.
"It's in the name, you know what you're getting. It's not some vague kind of acronym. It's quite clear, and it's quite bold."
VOTE Socialist is one of a record 10 political parties with candidates in this year's municipal elections scheduled for Oct. 15.
With only one candidate for council, school board and park board each, they have the fewest candidates of the 10 — but the smallest party is arguing for the biggest changes to society.
"We are offering some bold and radical solutions to some very big structural, systemic problems," said Orr, adding, "I do sincerely now believe that capitalism really is at the root of all of our social problems."
VOTE Socialist is running school board candidate Dr. Karina Zeidler, park board candidate Andrea Pinochet-Escudero, and council candidate Sean Orr in this year's election.
But what does that actually look like in terms of political promises?
The party has put forward a giant platform with 218 separate promises, put together after what Orr described as grassroot conversations with community members on issues ranging from land back to accessibility justice, to electoral reform and governance.
Some of them are pretty straightforward — using the city's building code to establish maximum temperatures, similar to minimum temperature regulations that already exist, which Orr said would force property owners to install air conditioners or heat pumps in buildings.
Other promises include a free city-operated bus route around Stanley Park, reinstating the mask mandate in schools, widening all sidewalks to four metres minimum to increase accessibility, and creating a voluntary addition to property tax forms, where landowners could donate an additional amount to local First Nations, similar to what Victoria has done.
But a lot of the promises are either areas outside the city's historic control, such as changing how property taxes can be assessed, or where the province or courts have vetoed changes in the past.
The party promises vacancy control on rental units, but that was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this month.
They pledge to reduce the Vancouver Police Board budget by 50 per cent, but the province rejected an attempt by council to override the police board and freeze the VPD budget in 2020.
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