Bill Tieleman: Tieleman’s picks for Vision Vancouver council, school and park board candidates
School Board – 4
Sharon Gregson – More than any other candidate, Vancouver School Board trustee Gregson stands out as someone Vision needs to nominate. A tireless advocate for children and parents, a recognized national expert on child care, Gregson is Vision’s only VSB incumbent.
Regrettably, some have criticized her competitive firearm target shooting hobby – which has nothing to do with her impressive record at the VSB, like winning the support of former NPA trustee Eleanor Gregory.
Patti Bacchus – A longtime advocate for students with disabilities who has served on the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, Bacchus.
Mike Lombardi – A former teacher who also worked for the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, Lombardi’s background will make a difference.
Narinder Chhina – A business owner, Chhina is also active in multicultural organizations.
You can read my coments on what the candidates said here and here.
Blogger: Bill Tieleman – Post a Comment
Thanks for the many comments and no doubt more to come.
I am surprised that some posters have suggested that Sharon Gregson – the most articulate and passionate opposition trustee on the Vancouver School Board – should be dismissed because she has exercised her right to free speech on issues that have no connection to her work on behalf of children.
Charles Menzies, if you check his blog, suggests he would vote for Non-Partisan Association trustee Carol Gibson, part of the NPA majority that has cut programs and rolled over to the BC Liberals on education issues.
That’s Charles’ right but I find his advice on who to vote for at the Vision nomination rather suspect as a result.
Bill, I also endorsed Jane Bouey, Bill Bargemen, and Alan Wong of COPE and Ken Clement of Vision. You are right that it is my ‘choice’ to give Carol Gibson a nod -of all the trustees she has in fact been one of the strongest trustees for working on and for the local issues that parents and grassroots people with a real stake in education have been concerned about.
Part of the problem with political punditry is that it is often based from the heights without direct involvement in the ongoing and often boring issues of the everyday. Having known you since the student activist days of the early 1980s I know that you and I have shared a strong commitment to organized political left parties. Nonetheless, the difference in the education realm is that I am directly involved in the everyday grassroots working of our K-12 education system -from the daily volunteering in schools through to the details of discussions around what may seem as arcane policy debates to others. From this vantage I have seen how trustees have worked for over twelve years up front and personal. I’ve had a chance to see who they respond to community members in private and in public. And, it is from that basis that I also “make my judgment and explain my reason.”
So, if Carol Gibson makes my evaluations ‘suspect’ then I guess it makes my support of Bouey, Bargemen, Wong and Clement also suspect as well as calling into question two of the people that you endorsed for school board 😉