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Party affiliations on Vancouver City Council have changed again, as Independent Councilor Colleen Hardwick announced today that she has joined the new TEAM for a Livable Vancouver Party.
It is a reboot of The Electors’ Action Movement (TEAM) party, which was formed in the late 1960s and remained an active participant in the city’s political landscape until the mid-1980s. Hardwick’s father, Walter Hardwik, was among the founders of the original team.
“I am looking at City Hall today and what I see is a municipal government that treats Vancouverites like ATMs while ignoring the issues most important to Vancouver families,†Hardwick said in a statement.
“Too often, residents are simply seen as an increasingly important source of revenue for a bloated municipal government that takes too long to get things done and sidelines the valuable opinions of citizens. Meanwhile, small businesses are buried in paperwork, tenants are stressed, neighborhoods and parks are neglected. “
Hardwick asserts that city government advisory committees to city council are “deliberately stacked and filled with the ‘right’ people” and questions the validity of the public consultation process, such as the city’s recent process to assess building permits. mandatory overnight parking on residential streets.
“In fact, just recently the city surveyed Vancouverites about its new ‘climate emergency’ parking plan that imposed additional charges. When 19,000 people who responded to the survey overwhelmingly answered no, the city hired a market research firm to get the answer it wanted, â€she said.
Hardwick is also challenging the growth in the city’s budget and the corresponding increases in taxes and necessary fees, which hamper accessibility efforts. All the while, she says, the municipal government has ignored rising levels of crime and growing concerns about public safety and other basic services and responsibilities under its purview.
“There is an incredible disconnect between City Hall and working Vancouver families, and the gap is only widening as the city ignores the fundamentals of running a city for the people who live. and work here. This is what happens when politicians don’t listen and get drawn into their conceited plans, while ignoring the very people who live and operate businesses here.
Throughout his tenure on city council, Hardwick has openly opposed the type of intensification Vancouver is currently experiencing and questioned the need for additional housing to help meet the goals of improving affordability.
The founding council of the new TEAM includes filmmaker David Fine, computer consultant and SFU student Sean Nardi, retired educator Sal Robinson and architect David Wong.
The party plans to hold a political conference and an inaugural annual general meeting, which will lead to an “open and transparent” nomination process to select the party’s candidates for mayor, city council, park council and school board. for the municipal elections of October 2020.
The roots of the original TEAM are rooted in its opposition to the plan that first emerged in the 1960s to build a freeway reaching downtown Vancouver through the neighborhoods of East Vancouver and Chinatown. He also led the planning effort for the False Creek South neighborhood, the revitalization of Gastown, the creation of the Granville Mall, and the acquisition and renovation of the Orpheum Theater, preventing its demolition.
Hardwick won 47,747 votes, the fifth highest number of votes among all candidates vying for a councilor seat in the 2018 municipal elections as part of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA). There has been speculation that she is considering a run for mayor in 2021.
In May 2021, amid internal strife, Hardwick joined advisers Sarah Kirby-Yung and Lisa Dominato in leaving the NPA to become independent.
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