And over in NPA land...

From the fine folks at the Non-Partisan Association:

NPA Board Elects New Officers

Dear Members,

Last night, your new NPA Board of Directors elected its officers: Michael Davis, President; Chilwin Cheng and Brian DeMuy, both Vice Presidents; Jeevan Khunkhun, Treasurer; and Manjot Hallen, Secretary.

The entire board has expressed its sincere gratitude to the previous officers. In particular, we thank outgoing President Ned Pottinger for his guidance, time and efforts. He will continue to be involved in the new role of Honorary Past President.

After the defeat of the NPA administration, we believe it is essential to listen to what voters have told us: they expect substantial change. Business as usual is not good enough.

We need to find ways to better engage the public on the issues that are important to them.

We need to engage potential candidates on the issues to discover whether they share the values that define us.

And we need to articulate those values to the public and candidates so they know what the NPA is about:
• Keeping provincial and federal politics out of city hall
• Putting Vancouver first
• Favouring individual initiative over government intervention
• And, most importantly, ensuring that Councillors, Parks Commissioners and School Trustees are not so bound by party dogma that they are unable to make the best decisions for Vancouver.

Since being elected in December, we have been quiet – but we have not been idle. We took some time to explore the various viewpoints on how to move forward, then elected leadership that best reflected our collective views. We think this was an important and worthwhile exercise.

We will now begin some very challenging work: reinforcing our connections to our core supporters; creating new connections that reach through all the diverse communities that make up our great city, and identifying candidates that can represent those communities and win their confidence in our next municipal election. As we move forward, we will need your help.

While we engage in this work, our NPA elected officials—Councillor Suzanne Anton, Park Board Commissioner Ian Robertson and School Board Trustees Carol Gibson and Ken Denike—are contributing to their respective elected boards in ways that we can all be proud of: sometimes critical but always constructive.

In short, your NPA board is active, engaged, and working hard to lay the ground work for the next election. Stay tuned as we start to roll out our new direction—we think it will be worth the wait.

Regards,

Michael Davis

President, Non Partisan Association