CONGRATULATIONS DR. FRY!

Not that there was much doubt on anyone’s part, Dr. Hedy Fry will continue as Vancouver Centre’s member of parliament for the another four years, which if our calulations are correct will bring her to a career finale of 30 years a parliamentarian, breaking a number of records in the process.

Congratulations Dr. Fry, and all the candidates who spent the past few months doing their best to make democracy work. Whether you agree or disagree (or adore or detest) their promises and policies, you’ve got to thank them for putting their time, energy, and resources in participating in a process many of us take for granted.

Thank you Conservative candidate Dave Cavey, the NDP’s Breen Ouelette, Green Party’s Jesse Brown, the People’s Party of Canada’s Louise Kierans, and independents Lily Bowman and Imtiaz Popat. Well done!

The final numbers are in, and we’ve compiled the following chart to show those standings. It is also interesting to review the results of past federal elections in Vancouver Centre, thanks to Wikipedia, here.

(Click graph to enlarge)

PARK PLANS
Keeping It Green

Following a multi-year effort, last month the Vancouver Park Board approved its citywide parks and recreation master plan. Dubbed VanPlay, it will guide investment in parks and recreation for the next 25 years. Vancouver is the only Canadian city—and one of the only in North America — with an elected Park Board that governs the city’s green spaces.

For example, despite the fact that Vancouver has more parks now than it did 25 years ago, the amount of park space per person has declined by one third due to population growth. In short, people have outpaced parks.

According to a report by the non-profit organization Park People, “VanPlay was necessitated by a much-changed, much-grown city bumping up against a number of challenges such as equity, population growth, and changing demographics and needs.”

You can learn more about VanPlay from Park People here.

The West End Journal will be reporting in coming months on the interface between this new “master plan” for our parks and the previously announced West End Waterfront Plan, which will remake English Bay.

West End author and guitarist Angel Edwards.

WEST END AUTHOR FEATURED IN “OUR CANADA”

Singer songwriter guitarist, poet author, and long-time West End resident Angel Edwards has a featured piece in the current Canadian issue of Reader’s Digest’s “Our Canada” magazine, now available on a newsstand near you.

Titled “A Haunting Wartime Romance” the story is just that … the tale of a recently discharged figure pilot’s romance being nearly derailed by an appearance by the Hotel Vancouver’s celebrated Lady In Red ghost.

Angel now has three books of poetry issued by Vancouver’s Silver Bow Publishing: “Tales in the Dreams Garden” and “Lust Unfiltered by Love”, both issue in 2018; and “Spirits Dressed Up as Poems”, which was released this August. She will be launching this latest book at a special event Saturday, November 2 at 1:30 p.m. in The Anvil Centre in New Westminster.