The spring-summer transition is a busy time, rivaling only September in the calendar challenges in this job. Besides the work, which also ramps up at this time, there are a lot of community events to take part in. It is really hard to report out on it all.
The (almost) regular schedule of Newsletters has been keeping me on track, and i usually talk about events over there, but this week I decided to switch things up a bit. I send my Newsletter subscribers (you can join here – its cost-free and spam-free! and shows up in your inbox about every two weeks) an update on a couple of slightly controversial issues in the City and how they relate to our public engagement efforts, and I’m coming over to this website to do a bit of a picture essay of some of the community events I’ve taken part in since Hyack Weekend that I haven’t had a chance to talk about much out on social media. So without too much writing:
I was honoured to attend the Change of Command ceremony at the Royal Westminster Regiment. I have really enjoyed working with outgoing commander LCol Greg Chan over the last couple of years, and the relationship between the City and the Regiment has been really positive. Incoming commander LCol Clint Uttley is well known in the New West community, and takes over at a time when the Regiment building is refreshed, but the work of the regiment is feeling new pressures and urgency. It was nice to be able to reiterate the utmost support this City has for the regiment and the soldiers and officers who work so hard to be prepared for whatever call comes.I’m a proud Brow of the Hill resident, and was able to spend a bit of time at the Brow Garden Party put on by the Brow of the Hill Residents Association in the little park known as Cornwall. I even got to meet a few new neighbours, and catch up with a few I hadn’t seen in while.I’m also an irrationally big fan of Mariachi, In this case, at the New to New West Intercultural Festival and Information Fair at NWSS, hosted by WINS Local Immigration Partnership, with support form the City. At this event hundreds of people met to learn about resources available for newcomers and share supports that can make New West and Burnaby easier places to land, prosper, and raise your family.The first week of June was Seniors Week in New West, which means i attended several events, from the Sapperton Pensioners 90th Birthday party to the Resource Fair and Social Dinner at Century House (where you can join if you are 50+!). I also joined the Police and Fire Chiefs for panel discussion on Seniors Safety in the City.June 8th is Philippine Independence Day, and in New West that means the annual raising of the Philippine Flag at Friendship Gardens. This is always a fun event with the singing of national anthems (Canada and Philippines) and traditional Philippine songs, dancing, and a lot of photos!There were a few other events during the first week of June to celebrate the Pinoy community, including lunches with several groups, all cumulating with the annual Pinoy Festival at Swangard Stadium. This is the biggest Filipino festival in BC, with music, booths, food, cultural displays and celebrations of the diverse indigenous communities of the Philippine islands.June is Field Trip season as well, which means a few different school groups came to visit City Hall. This is always a fun chance to talk to elementary school kids about what City Hall is and what the job of Mayor is like. They always have interesting questions about me and about the City, and almost universally love seeing the guest book in City Hall signed by people from the Queen of England to the King of Pop. They are inexplicably less impressed by Raymond Burr.I also took my State of the City address to an audience of slightly older Youth at Century House. The questions here were equally fun, if a bit more challenging as topics from homelessness, climate action, the poisoned drug crisis, and scooters and bike lanes were top of mind for the mostly high school aged audience.The Queensborough Kids Festival at QCC was a massive success, with hundreds of kids and their families listening to music and seeing performances, doing crafts and activities, and enjoying perfect picnic weather.The Sapperton Pensioners Hall hosted an incredible spectacle last weekend, with the Vancouver Battlezone 2025 – Hip Hop Dance competition for all ages, with competitors from around North America and even Europe, DJ Oscar from New West and Shash’u from Montreal put the beats down and the crowd was into it. The street dance culture is such a breath of fresh air – youth of all sizes and shapes competing and supporting each other. So much fun to watch.Finally, the 36th New West Pecha Kucha Night was a rousing success, with 9 people presenting short talks and fast slides on the things they are passionate – from garbage to Metis history to citrus fruits. Even Tasha had fun!
By now, most of you have probably seen something about a new logo at the City, or have seen it pop up in Social Media. If you want to get a sense of the thinking behind the logo, there is a great video produced by the City to put it in context:
There is also a bunch more background info here that includes discussions of new wordmarks and colour palates that will be used as design guides in new City digital and printed communications.
I have of course received some feedback on the new logo, and so far it’s about 50/50, which is about as positive as one can expect with something as subjective as this, especially when you recognize people are much more likely to write if angry than they are if happy. Examples from the two more recent emails I received on this:
“My husband and I are appalled at the change in the Logo. We were born and raised in this city, our children and grandchildren were all born and raised in this city. All very proud of the history of our city. Why do you have the right to try and change history by changing the Logo? It distinguishes us from all the other surrounding municipalities and cities.”
”Both my wife and I like the new logo. I represents both the history of New Westminster and today’s reality”.
(I am going to go ahead and assume these two emails were not from the same husband-wife couple).
I wrote a blog post about the process to create a new logo last year as we were launching the public engagement process, and it has a few answers to questions that came up at the time, and are coming up again.
The discussion about updating the logo began almost three years ago. The current yellow-crown-on blue-serif-wordmark logo, adopted in 2008, is pretty dated, and through extensive public consultation (more than 650 people) and guided by a committee of volunteer citizens of the City, the new logo was selected a few months ago (with some presentation development and refinements between then and now). I think it honours the past of the City – subtle but obvious-when-you-see-it nods to the Indigenous history of this place on the Fraser River, and a more obvious link to the industrial “working river” history and the present relationship to the river. Far from erasing history, the new logo it meant to honour the diverse and unique history of the City and this land. I think the process the City chose to let the community lead the rebranding process also honours the people who live, work, learn, and play in this community, and the builders of this community in the past and present.
I also like the modern symbolism of the logo, and this was the part that the brand creators talked about that really pulled me into seeing it. We often talk about New West as a small city with big ambitions, we make big moves and are bold in taking on large challenges. We think of ourselves as hardworking, powerful beyond our size. These characteristics of the humble tugboat – a small but incredibly powerful vehicle moving big loads against the current – evoke that same spirit. This sprit, and the clear centering of the Fraser River as the symbol of our City are the foundations of the new logo. And I can’t disagree with that.
As was the case last time, the new logo will be phased in as we work through old materials. You will be seeing both the old and new logos next to each other for some time. We will use the existing letterhead (for example) until the supply is exhausted, and the new supply when ordered will have the new logo. Things like vehicles that take a while to age out of use will have the old logo on them until the vehicle is replaced or refurbished (indeed, we still have older vehicles in the City with the old “Crest” logo on them because they are older than 2008!). That means the cost to shift to the new logo is minimized, and is part of regular operational budgets in the City.
The things I wrote on this website used to be more political than they are now, and a lot more partisan. No shame, those things are still there in the archives, but since I am in this new role, I am trying to keep this page about what’s happening, about policy and outcomes, as there is lots of room elsewhere for the bickering part of the job (I engage in bit more of that at times over in my Newsletter, subscribe here). This post however, will be partisan and political, and maybe a bit personal. You are warned.
Peter Julian is an inspiring leader, was an incredible Member of Parliament, and I thank him for his service to the community and for his friendship.
I have said many times before, I expect a lot of a Member of Parliament. They need to be a bold voice for their community in caucus and Parliament, they need to push progressive policy in Ottawa that reflects the needs of our community but also builds our strength as a Country, and they need to be present here in community helping people connect with a distant and vague federal bureaucracy. Peter excelled at all three, which is amazing when you consider he never served in government caucus in his two decades of work.
Peter has been incredibly helpful in taking the concerns of our community to Ottawa, and in assuring our community was supported by the federal government. There are many examples, but even in the last year: his role in helping get my face in front of the Federal Minister of Housing so I could repeatedly make the case for New Westminster as an excellent Housing Accelerator Fund opportunity means more than $11 Million came here to better support housing affordability, housing diversity, and accelerated permitting and approval processes at the City. Peter’s support was instrumental in us getting $1.4 Million from the Emergency Treatment Fund to help pay for the Three Crises Response Pilot: the second largest ETF grant for any municipality in Canada, and the only grant given in BC. This is helping us move more firmly and faster addressing the combined crises of homelessness and untreated mental health and addictions. These are real, tangible wins for our community on the key issues affecting our community.
Peter was also instrumental in the federal NDP’s forcing of the minority Liberal government to bring in the biggest new social programs since before the lost decade of Mulroney: dental care, Pharmacare, and childcare programs are on the Federal agenda in part because of Peter’s work as House Leader. His work to make workplaces safer, to end corporal punishment of children, to assure COVID relief went to working people and those in need not just banks; to bring in new Anti-Scab legislation, there is a long list of substantive work Peter accomplished from the opposition and third party benches in Ottawa. He made a difference at the national level.
All along, Peter ran one of the more proactive constituency offices in the country, helping people manage immigration hiccups, get access to support programs to which they are entitled, and helping folks navigate the sometimes-challenging income tax and federal support programs designed to help those most in need on our community. When you attend a Peter Julian Christmas or Lunar New Year event, it is always remarkable to see the number of people who come up to thank Peter for the help he and his constituency staff had provided them personally. It would be hard to imagine a more effective liaison between Ottawa and his constituents than Peter. He’s also a renowned hard worker in the House, a brilliant spokesperson for working and vulnerable people, and a hell of a nice guy.
I have been lucky to call Peter a friend for most of my time in New West. I remember the first time I really met him, I bought one of those “Dinner with the Member of Parliament” silent auction prizes, and my partner and I met Peter in a local pub. We had a few beers. Immediately it was clear he was an engaged listener, though I’m not sure he exactly knew how to take this loud opinionated guy who kept going on about bike lanes. He took it all in stride and with his characteristic class, and it ended up being the first of many, many conversations about community, about public policy, about working for change, and about leadership – conversations that continue to this day. In my elected life, Peter always answered the phone, always had time to hear about a problem or an idea, and was always quick to think about how he, the Federal Government, or someone else in his broad local network, could help. In that sense, he is a mentor and a support system as well as a friend.
Thank you Peter for everything you have done for the community that you love. I know you aren’t going away, the fight in you is too strong, and that love too strong.
Nothing here should be read as a slight to Jake Sawatzky. He won fair and square, and he seems like a really dedicated and engaged guy. I have heard him speak and think his heart is in the right place. I don’t envy the learning curve he is facing, but wish him nothing but the best in getting up to speed on this really important task, because his success in his role is our success as a community.
However, looking at this from the political side, I honestly don’t know what his win means. The election was for most of the night a statistical three-way tie between people who, by conventional campaign wisdom, should not have been in a tie. One is a long-established and highly respected candidate who might have the most famous name in the city and who ran a well designed and executed voter identification and GOTV campaign. The second was a young and inexperienced person whose name was completely unknown in the community two weeks after the writs dropped who had little visible campaign machinery. The third was a familiar if not well known local business man who was dropped in at the last minute to replace a turfed candidate that still ran against him. No disrespect at all to Indy Panchi or Jake Sawatzky, but on pure old-fashioned local campaign paper, it should not have been close. But it was.
At the surface level, it’s clear what happened: people voted nationally for the Prime Minister they wanted. They paid more attention to the Poll Aggregators and Vote Strategically campaigns than before. (IMHO) Poilievre ran on not-being-Trudeau and people’s fears of their neighbours while Carney ran on not-being-Poilievre and people’s fears of our neighbour to the south. Singh tried (unsuccessfully) to earn the credit he deserved for major new social programs while trying to take up space vacated by the Liberals by running messages about middle-class affordability until the campaign saw the writing on the wall and fell back on also-not-being-Poilievre. But re-imagining last month’s messaging isn’t what I want to talk about, I’m sure they all made sense in their respective campaign bubbles at the time.
Instead, I wonder what it means when community no longer sends a representative to Ottawa, but instead Ottawa sends representatives for us to choose between. I know there has always been an aspect of the latter in our system, but I wonder what it means to the kind of politics I’m interested in – local organizing, talking directly to people, building community and taking local action and being present. I add this to the ongoing questions about how we even tell our local stories when there is no local journalism, our local conversation is increasingly moderated by social media algorithms, and bad actors seem interested in driving wedges between us for shit and giggles. Can we support our community and scale it outward? Will anyone care? I don’t want to go down the “Western Alienation” route, but how will Ottawa know about New West, and how will our values keep us together as democracy re-structures itself around the rest of the world going to hell?
So last Friday I got together with a couple of dozen people doing good things in this community, or interested in doing those good things, and I hope they will help me in a conversation about what’s next. Because community has to come first.
Like many of you, I am saddened by John Horgan only getting 65 years. He filled them with meaning and influence, but it doesn’t seem enough for anyone, never mind someone who put so much into the people around him. He was a man of principle and natural leadership. He brought meaningful change to the province, including the adoption of DRIPA and CleanBC, and it was his steady leadership though COVID-19 and his efforts to address affordability that most impacted our community. He supported healthcare workers, brought in tougher renter protections, and kept our regional transit system fully funded through a pandemic. Those were big moves that helped the most vulnerable in New West and province-wide.
However, watching the media (social and anti-social) over the last few days, you can’t help but be uplifted by the many stories of people whose lives were touched by him in more personal ways. I wrote a bit about how he made a personal connection with me in my Newsletter this week (Subscribe here!) but in this space I just want to share a few of my own photos that popped out of my archive.
So young, so impressionable. This was at a Labour Day event in Burnaby, and judging by my lapel I was running for Council for the first time, and he had just become leader of the BC NDP.A couple of years later at the UBCM conference in Whistler. The UBCM crowd can be tough on Premiers – local governments are always disappointed by perceived or real lack of Provincial supports. John showed up with smiles, straight talk, and a keen ear to our concerns.There are a few photos circulating of John in a ‘Bellies Jersey. He wore it to be sporting after a bet with Judy Darcy, but John was the consummate Shamrocks fan. Here he is at a ‘Bellies Game, wearing his home colours, and showing off his Honourary Shamrock Mann Cup Ring.A quip so good, I got the Pin. When John stunned Andrew Wilkinson during a televised debate with the line “If you were woke, you’d know Pro Rep is Lit!”. Both stunningly out of character yet right on the money. And for the record, Pro Rep is lit, we just aren’t woke enough yet.I love this photo. The Day Premier Horgan was sworn into office, the Legislature was opened to the public, they were handing out icecream bars, it felt like the most gentle and hopeful day of revolution. And John was out front on the lawn, meeting people , getting selfies, having conversations and just enjoying the hell out of a day of seeing people smile. This is the gregarious, generous, and open guy I will always remember – doing one more little thing (taking the selfie) to make others happy. Rest in peace, my friend.
I haven’t done one of these in a while, doing more of these types of community-happenings updates on my newsletter (subscribe here). But I am iterating how I use my communications channels with the community, and as will sound familiar to regular readers (Hi Mom!) I am working on how to keep loving, hopeful and optimistic in the face of a pretty negative political atmosphere online at every level of government. And being in the community in New West is what actually builds that hope and optimism in me. So here are some of the things I did last month that are only peripheral to my actual work:
I was honoured to give opening remarks at the annual Terry Fox Run. We had a solid turnout in New West yet again, thanks to the efforts of a strong volunteer force. In my remarks, I spoke about Terry’s perseverance and how only a hopeful vision of a better world could have motivated him though that first lonely 900 km through central Newfoundland. We feel the inspiration that is Terry’ gift, but rarely think of how hard it must have been for him to believe at times. https://run.terryfox.ca/55710
A crowd sits in the Sapperton Pensioners Hall with a screen on the stage that reads “PechaKucha Night”
PechaKucha New West was back with its 33rd edition, and it had a bit of a “getting the gang back together” feel. For those who missed this event, where people talk for a tight 400 seconds (“20 slides, 20 seconds each”) about something that inspires them or challenges them, from Philippine food culture to Boy Bands to public toilets, there is another event November 16th. https://www.pechakucha.com/communities/new-westminster
The Wosk Centre in Vancouver was the host of a public forum on Citizens Assemblies, entitled Public Dialogue: How a Canadian Innovation Sparked Global Democratic Change. We learned about the history of Community Assemblies, from the initial BC Assembly on Electoral Reform to the current models with examples from Burnaby, Gibsons, and New Westminster. You can watch it here and be inspired! https://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/news/2024/bc-citizens-assembly.html
In September, I was also witness to the opening of Móytel Lalém, the affordable housing development on Eighth Street belonging to the Lu’ma Native Housing Society and Swahili Vision. The building and landscape are beautiful, and features 96 truly affordable homes in the heart of the community. The opening was spiritual and inspiring, and helped reinforce the many partners that are required to make a project like this succeed. It was an honour to represent the City and thank everyone for making this happen in our community. More info here: https://www.lumadevelopment.ca/projects
September also brought the Climate Strikes to Vancouver, and it was apropos to walk over from the wrap-up of the UBCM meeting on the Friday and join many New Westies at the Vancouver Art Gallery to talk about Climate Action. What I totally didn’t expect was an impromptu performance by Billy Bragg, and a chance to meet and chat with him. So here is a link of him playing my favorite song of his (and Woody’s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMAq49dqNlY
Every September, local Tabla virtuoso and cultural ambassador Cassius Khan brings the Mushtari Begum Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance to Massey Theatre, and every year it is a remarkable showcase of music and dance. You don’t need to know your Satvik from your Mohan to be dazzled by the skill of the players, and the meditative quality of the music. You should see this next year! https://www.masseytheatre.com/event/13th-annual-mushtari-begum-festival/
World Rivers Day is also in September, and the Fraser River Discovery Centre celebrate with RiverFest, which includes one of those unique New West traditions- The Lucille Johnstone (no relation!) Tugboat Parade, which is a little bit parade, a little bit rodeo, a little bit dance performance. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sZZfpzxLGJw
This was the first year of a new event – Ukrainian New West Fest! A celebration of Ukrainian culture and traditions, and a coming together of the region’s growing Ukrainian community, hosted by the Holy Eucharist Cathedral on Fourth Ave. and the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of New Westminster. It was a great opportunity to tour the Cathedral with its remarkable art program, and to build solidarity with a community persevering through the horrors of a homeland wracked by invasion and war. https://www.heucc.co/
And finally, New Westminster really showed up for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Day events at Queens Park. I appreciate this event because I get to attend, listen, and witness without having to give a speech or speak for the City. This is a day where Indigenous people are centred and speak about their experience of colonization and residential schools, and those of us without those experiences are asked to listen, learn, and reflect on what it means to the work we need to do here on these unceded lands. Spirit of the Children society put together the program, which both inspires and challenges the community. It is a really powerful day. https://www.newwestcity.ca/calendar-of-events/events/7875/2024-09.php
The days are getting shorter, the evenings are starting to cool off, the PNE rains have come and gone. Though the Equinox is three weeks away yet, most of us are looking back at the summer that was, while everything we put off until “after the break” is starting to loom large in our calendars for September. Labour Day always arrives with a mix of feelings: summer’s last hurrah, excitement of a new school year and a new recreation schedule, imminent pumpkin spice.
Labour Day is not just another day off, it is a day off won by working people organizing and asserting their rights. It is a celebration of battles won, a reminder of the quality of life granted to all working people because of 100+ years of work and sacrifice and solidarity though organized labour. It is also a call to assure that the rights won and economic prosperity driven by fair wages are not lost to the imaginary economies of neoliberal austerity.
Workers continue to build this City, this Province, and this Country. At the same time, right-wing politicians at every level are working to protect the record profits of multinationals at the expense of working people. They may talk a long yarn about “affordability”, but they are conspicuously silent when we discuss the erosion of real wages, or how austerity hurts the very social fabric that makes a society livable. They speak about supporting workers, but their votes tell a different story.
In New Westminster, our community is served every day by the professionalism and dedication of members of CUPE, the IBEW, the NWPOA and the IAFF. In the broader sense, our community is also served every day by the Teamsters who are right now fighting the rail multinationals to protect their hard-earned workplace rights and the safety of not only their workers, but all in their community. Our community is also served every day by the ATU members fighting right now to assure reliable and publicly-operated para-transit service remains available to the most vulnerable people in our community.
I was proud to spend some time up at Edmonds Park today showing solidarity with my friends in the Labour Movement: the leaders at every level, and the folks who show up every day and quietly build community while they provide for their family. The fight goes on. Not just on Labour Day, but every day.
I might have mentioned that I have a Newsletter. Over there, I talk a bit more about day-to-day events in the City, a bit of politics, a bit of opinion. You need to sign up to get it, which you can do by hitting this link. They come out (almost) every Wednesday night. Here is a preview of a few things that I wrote about this week, sign up if you want to know more!
It’s Pride Week, so we raised a few flags, including this one at Douglas College.New Westminster has a vibrant Recovery community, and their family event in Tipperary Park last week is a manifestation of that community focus.What is Brewhalla? A lot of sun, a bit of beer, a bit of music, a lot of fun.The ‘Bellies are still in it, against all odds!Sometimes that exotic looking thing is just a Lancia past its prime. Peripherally related, I wrote a bit about the history of the Show & Shine, and where it went.
Every week or so I put out a newsletter to subscribers. Usually Wednesday afternoon/evening. It’s generally shorter-form than my posts here, provides updates on what I’ve been up to, with occasional opinion and politics that can get spicy. It’s free, no hassle to subscribe, just hit that “newsletter” link up at the top of the page.
And every once in a while I provide a reminder here, with a hint of what is in last week’s newsletter, where I wrote a bit more about these things:
ReDress day at Hyack Square to mark the annual National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People.Attending the New Westminster Hospice Society annual River Walk for Hospice.Standing at the Dias speaking during the Mayor’s State of the City address.New Westminster won the Walk30 Challenge, and a class from QayQayt Elementary went the extra mile.Taking part in the S&O Beer Run with a couple of council colleagues.
Wow. It’s really happening. After more than a decade of planning, we are finally opening the doors on təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre.
I don’t want to write too much here, I want the images to tell the story. Even more, I want you to go down to təməsew̓txʷ and see for yourself what an incredible facility the community has built.
The Grand Opening is June 1st, but as we slowly open the doors and bring programming to the new facility we have had a couple of opening events.
The first was a thank you to the teams that made this happen. This included Mayor Cote, who lead the Council through some of the most challenging consultation, design, and decision-making that led us to this day. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with Councillors Puchmayr, Harper, Das and Trentadue, who each had a role in the development of this project. From the first decision that a new facility was needed, through public consultation, initial design, more public consultation, procurement, and the final go-ahead in 2020, these leaders were there to help guide us to today, and deserve a victory lap of the pool, and the gratitude of the community.
We also got to thank the team that made the vision a reality. The architects at HCMA, the project managers at Turnbull Construction, and the builders at Heatherbrae. They worked with our stellar project delivery team at the City to deliver this project within weeks of the planned opening and within 5% of the original budget.
If that sounds like I’m hedging “On Time and On Budget”, I want to walk you through the headwinds this project faced. Council had to make a procurement decision at the peak of the 2020 COVID pandemic – a time of unprecedented global economic uncertainty. We were guided with expert advice and (it turns out) incredible foresight to procure then the market conditions could not have been better. Since then, the news tells us of a protected regional labour action affecting the concrete industry, a global supply chain crisis, unprecedented regional construction labor shortages, and the highest construction inflation rates of a generation. Through all that, this incredible team brought this project home – an absolute gold medal performance.
And it is a beautiful building. An integrated and connected aquatic, fitness and community complex, physically and demographically accessible to all, and a new social hub and community destination. Two pools, one ready to support inter-regional competition, one more fun and accessible for a broader community of users. Two hot tubs sauna space, all accessible change rooms. Two gymnasia, dance rooms, meetings rooms, fitness area twice the size of the previous buildings, and a community living room connecting them all.
The first aquatic centre in Canada to achieve the Canada Green Building Council Zero Carbon Building-Design Standard, and designed to follow the Rick Hansen Foundation Gold Accessibility certification which considers people of differing levels of physical mobility, as well as addresses gender and cultural sensitivities.
The City’s largest ever capital investment, now having the keys turned over to an operation team who have already spent months staffing up, training up, and learning how to work in this new space. All of this required coordinated efforts across city departments, from Finance, to engineering to Parks and Recreation. There are a lot of kudos to hand out here.
The community has a new heart. I hope you head over there and check it out, because it belongs to you. The “dry side” is open now, the aquatic centre side will soft open on May 14, and there will be a Grand Opening celebration on June 1. All the info you need is available here.
I recently took part in an event put together by the Fraser Valley Current – a sister publication to the New West Anchor. It was a zoom interview, but the FVC opened up the zoom room to their readers. The theme was an interview with two Mayors who started a municipal bloggers. You can see the entire hour-long conversation here, including some surprising nods to Jordan Bateman.
It was a fun, off-the-cuff conversation, and at no time was it Official City Communications or the opinions of the City, Council, or anyone else. I emphasize that, yet again, because this interview came at the same time I am thinking about the role of Social Media in this the role of Mayor. After a year, I am ready to make some changes. Here’s some background.
Back in 2010 when I started, blogging was a thing people did. It seems to be a bit archaic now, with Podcasts and Newsletters and TikToks filling the void. The #NewWest of the late ‘naughts was a pretty active community on-line, and for the most part in a really positive community-building way, the blog I started fit right in, it was about the local community, about environmental issues, and about politics. Through it, and Tenth to the Fraser and a few other media, I was able to connect with a great community of folks just trying to make their corner of the community more fun and interesting.
In 2014 when I was elected, I was told by some more senior political gatekeepers in the community that I was going to have to stop all that. That it was inappropriate and politically dangerous. What if everything I write comes back to haunt me? But this was my on-line community, I had made many meaningful connections with people, some who volunteered and helped get me elected – how could I abandon them? So I kept blogging, though less frequently now as I am too busy. There is also the more difficult balance now about how I present myself personally, and as a representative of the City.
Problem is, when you are a city councillor, you can say “this is not the opinion of Council, and I don’t represent the City.” You obviously don’t want to say untrue things, and the council Code of Conduct requires you not actually undermine or mischaracterize a decision of Council. But when you are Mayor, you Have to layer on the role as spokesperson for the City and for the Council – it is much harder to make clear for the public when you are speaking on behalf of the City, on behalf of Council, on behalf of the Police Board, or just expressing a personal opinion.
Then there is legacy. I’ve been blogging for 14 years, thousands of posts. Deleting everything I wrote in the past might be the political expedient thing to do, like a notable local former political blogger has done more than once (and wow the Wayback Machine offers some nuggets there!). There are probably old posts I regret, or have changed my position on, but in my mind it is better to keep those there and show where I have changed or evolved than it is to hide from it. I just have to hope that people respect leaders willing to be an open book and talk about their evolution. The world has changed a lot in the last 14 years; if none of your opinions have changed in that time, you would have to be terrifyingly resistant to new information.
So the Blog will stay, and it will stay as it has kind of evolved: relatively straight-forward reporting on what happened at council, with occasional forays into longer-term strategic thinking and major policy stuff. For all the reason listed above, I am going to try to keep it less political, or at least less partisan, than in the past, though it will always be from my personal viewpoint, so “objectivity” is not guaranteed. I have no staff to write this for me, so it will be inconsistently copy edited and my own voice. You are probably used to it by now.
I am also making some changes in my Social Media. They have been brewing for a while, so I may as well pull the trigger. After something like 12 years and 30,000 posts, I am finally giving up on the Site Formerly Loved as Twitter. I’m a bit disappointed, because there are still many good people I connect with through there, but they are being increasingly drowned out of my feed by the porny spambots and alphanumerically named fascists (with significant overlap between), and even my gratuitous use of the “mute” button and blocking all bluechecks has not improved the experience. Instead, I am over where the Sky is Blue (search for PJNewWest). That is mostly social fun and local stuff for me, though I will occasionally use it to post updates on my life and blogging.
I am not (yet) leaving Facebook, but will continue not engaging much over there. I may post there once in a while, and it still has a value to connect with family and friends not living around here. The ad and spam saturation is brutal, and with legitimate news stripped from the site, the utility for information sharing has really declined. I have also started to curate my feed as I have recently found a few sites re-posting my posts and permitting a type of commenting that is not just offensive (I’m a big boy, I can take it), but in violation of the City’s social media policy ad all good taste. I don’t have time to sift through and find where these are, so best to avoid the trouble at the start my limiting access to some administrators who are lax in their administration, recognizing it looks to some like I am “censoring” them. Ultimately, it is a personal Facebook page, not a City asset, so I’ll deal with it the way my time, energy, and sense of propriety permit.
I also post occasionally on Instagram, and it is a pretty positive space, but I don’t particularly like the interface, and find it not a great space for conversations. So mostly post-and-ignore. I am also of the age where TikTok is not recommendedm and I am comfortable with that.
Finally, I am starting a new practice to compliment the Blog: a newsletter. If you sign up these will arrive in your inbox every week or two. First will be out in the next week or so.
My goal here is to talk about things that are happening in the City and my job as Mayor, as far from “Official City Communications” as I can get. These will be written by me, so they only represent me and not the opinions of anyone at the City (or anywhere else) except myself. My reasoning is that this is a medium where people “invite themselves in” more than the Blog or social media which are out there for innocents to drive-by. This frees me up to be a little more frank with my opinions and ideas, and even get a bit salty at times. We will see how it evolves, but I might dive deeper into politics from a more partisan lens.
If this sounds interesting to you, go here and sign up. If you are not comfortable with sauce I spill in the newsletter, I invite you to unfollow, and I won’t bother you with this stuff so you can still get the more straight goods here at the Blog.
As always, your access to me as the Mayor is not limited to this on-line world. You can email me at pjohnstone@NewWestCity.ca. You can come by Council and delegate. You can stop me on the street and say Hi, or drop by my booth when I set it up at community events. And I never stop doorknocking, so maybe I’ll see you on your porch. The real world is out there folks, not here on line.
