Earlier today, Premier-elect Christy Clark set the date of the by-election for the Vancouver-Point Grey electoral district. Taking place on May 11, the ballot will seek to fill the riding recently vacated by Gordon Campbell. Clark herself is running and is looking to score a seat so she can actually sit in the legislature.

This will be an interesting contest. While the NDP candidate hasn’t been officially selected, there’s a very good chance it will be David Eby. Earlier today Eby announced that he is taking a leave from his role as Executive Director at the BC Civil Liberties Association to seek the nomination. By chance I had a chance to chat with Eby briefly about the move earlier tonight. He was energized: “this is an important opportunity – and an important time in the province… it’s a chance for me to make a difference on the issues I care about.”

David Eby

Look for Eby to advance a platform calling for stronger investments in (and action on) homelessness and poverty — issues that he has cut his teeth on over the past few years. Add to that an interest in environment and urban issues and you have the making of a good campaign. I’ll be interested to see how it develops over the next 28 days.

Christy Clark

Clark for her part, is riding on the momentum she established during the Liberal leadership race. She’s already framed up her own campaign around a ‘focus on family’ and has attempted to make her mark by reversing some of the policies of her predecessor – including lifting the freeze on the provinces minimum wage. But she’ll have to do more than that to shake the legacy that Gordon Campbell left behind – including sagging party support, internal dissension within Liberal ranks, and a hugely unpopular and unresolved HST issue.

Watch this one closely folks. Last time ’round community activist Mel Lehan came within a hairs breadth of upsetting Gordon Campbell. Being premier (or premier-elect) is no slam dunk here. And BC politics is fickle and has a history of quick turns.

There’s no such thing as a sure thing in our province contests.

For more information on the by-election see the Elections BC website.

The event has also been recorded by VPSN member Lenore and will be on our website over the next couple of days.

In the course of the evening, a set of 15 brainstorming scrums took place, and we invited community members to give their thoughts on how to deal with the sticking points. Materials from these sessions is being used to develop a brief report and presentation – a portion of which will be presented to City Council on December 12. This is the date of Council’s “Special” session dealing with the recent announcement around Supported Housing. This meeting seeks to gather public input on the Memorandum of Understanding between the City and Province about the creation of new social and supported housing….

More information on the Report and how you can be involved:

Check out our Civil City webpage: www.civilcity.ca.

Not only is this an opportunity for the public to provide much needed support for the initiative, but it is also an opportunity to provide encouragement for a more proactive approach to housing issues.

Anyone can make a presentation at this event. For those of you who also wish to make a deputation please contact the City Clerk’s Office at 604-873-7276. Tell them that you want to be added to the speakers list for the session in question. It’s best to do this sooner rather than later.

When making a presentation of this sort, it helps to ground your comments in the immediate issue at hand, namely the MOU. You can view this document, and other relevant reports and background materials at the BC Housing website.

They’re also available on our www.civilcity.ca webpage, in the “Housing Backgrounder.”