October/November
1997 - Vancouver Civic Election
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For the last sixty-plus years, Vancouver politics has been dominated by the Non-Partisan Alliance (NPA). This right-wing party's lock on local government can be primarily linked to the city's anti-democratic, at-large voting system. When the results of the 1996 election were tallied, the NPA only needed support from 16 percent of the electorate to sweep all council, parks board and school board seats. A great victory for democracy. Historically, the NPA has always been on the side of monied interests, leaving the city in bad need of affordable housing, good public transit and improved community facilities.
THE ACTION: GM carried out a series of inexpensive projects in the weeks leading up to the November 16 election. GM posted Vancouver tree-cutting bylaw notices in West Side neighbourhoods, altered NPA billboards to point up the party's developer connections and launched the "official" NPA web site (the "NPA" site is now attached to our web address). GM even ironically congratulated the NPA on its election victory by altering its billboards a second time to thank the few voters – the majority of whom were well-off West Side residents – who helped the city's right-wing rout its progressive opposition.
STRATEGY: Civic elections are largely ignored by the media and residents. GM hoped to raise the profile of the election, but as it turned out, the 1996 election had one of the lowest voter turnouts ever. Oops.
MEDIA: GM's first two actions received a reasonable amount of print and electronic media coverage. The web site, which GM launched in the dying days of the campaign was, unfortunately, too late in the campaign to make the media news cut.
WRAP-UP: The Vancouver media's poor understanding of civic issues leaves very few opportunities for even local politicians to air or be challenged on their platforms. However, given that GM's efforts were relatively inexpensive, these actions seemed worthwhile. Plus, they appeal to our petty, vindictive side. We gotta get some kicks.