George Pearson Centre is in a new riding for the 2015 Federal Election.
Growth in the City of Vancouver has meant that the City of Vancouver has a new electoral district, increasing its total from five to six. Pearson is within the new riding called Vancouver Granville. It is made of up of parts of the previously existing ridings, which are currently held by different parties.
Monday October 19th is Voting Day. Here at Pearson, there will be a mobile Polling Station. If a resident is in bed that day, Elections Canada personnel will carry the ballot box from room to room for voting.
For the newly created Vancouver Granville riding, there are four candidates for MP. We invited all four to attend our monthly Resident Council meeting to talk to residents about their position on certain issues. Three candidates responded that they would attend. The conservative candidate Erinn Broshko did not reply to our repeated invitations. The following candidates did attend:
Mira Oreck (NDP) was a Broadbent Institute director who also worked on Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s campaigns.
Jody Wilson-Raybould (Liberal) a former regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations and former crown prosecutor.
Michael Barkusky (Green) is a CGA and is on the board of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics and other organizations, and is passionate about wilderness conservation.
It meant a lot to Pearson residents to have these three candidates take the time to come and speak to them. Residents face various challenges in attending, speaking, seeing and hearing at public community gatherings, so it really made a difference to have the candidates come to Resident Council.