Haida Lane Candidate Interview
byI ventured outside of the downtown core to meet up with Haida Lane, the BC Liberal candidate for Vancouver-Hastings.
“I’ve always had a passion for politics,” said Haida who start campaigning later in the game since the untimely passing of candidate Andrew Mak. “Given the opportunity and the need, I knew that this community could use better representation so I jumped on board and have been at a running pace since.”
Being a stay-at-home mom when her daughter was young, Haida began visiting the Hastings Community Centre Family Drop-In, what she calls a “phenomenal resource for communities”. The adult interaction allowed her to meet other parents, build networks, and led to her getting on the board of the Hastings Community Association. She also Chairs the Hastings Sunrise City Planning Committee, which deals with implementing community visions in the area.
“It’s a pretty diverse riding,” said Haida whose electoral district spans from Commercial Drive, to Boundary, then from the Burrard Inlet down to 12th Avenue. “There are a couple neighbourhood centres within that as well as highway orientated retail… …and we have some small commercial districts, low use industrial districts as well so there’s a lot of variety there.” Resources close to home for Haida though will always be the community centres – promoting small business and living in a “walkable” neighbourhood is key.
Haida is committed to informing her constituents, whether it be when they stop by her office, message her on Twitter or leave a message for a call back (which she’ll do personally). “I believe that this is a very precarious time given where we are on the global economic scale and what we [the BC Liberals] have done for BC in the last eight years. I mean we are one of the leaders of the economy in Canada right now… …I know that just speaks volumes so I really hope that people look at that, and realize the full impact of how important it is to have strong leadership.”
Her main platform issues are on the economy, public safety, and the environment. “I would love to see what could be done working with a majority government (if that ends up being the case) to really move the issues of this riding forward in Victoria.”
I asked her what her favourite part of the Vancouver-Hastings area and she had no shortage of highlights to share. “A lot of people, when you say ‘East Van’ they usually go ‘oh, East Van…?’ but this area is amazing!” She continued, “it’s not only just the sense of community that exists but it’s things like your neighbourhood centre where you can do your shopping, there’s neighbouhood community centres,” and also the abundance of parks. Haida recommended the Hastings Park Conservancy and New Brighton Park, which she described as “a bit of the gem on the East Side that not a lot of people know about.”
The BC General Election & Referendum on Electoral Reform takes place May 12, 2009. Other candidate interviews include Spencer Herbert (NDP, Vancouver-West End) and Drina Read (Green Party, Vancouver West-End).
8 Comments — Comments Are Closed
Great interview Haida ~ excellent!
I have lived at Vancouver Hasting for 12 years. NDP has got a significant control in our neighborhood in terms of political but I do not notice their contribution towards our environment or business growth.
I deeply hope that Liberal party would win in this election and never forgets our community. Vancouver Hastings need a CHANGE for our future.
Haida might think walkable neighbourhoods are a good thing, but her party, the BC Liberals, have been doing their best to create auto-dependent sprawl throughout BC.
They haven’t created auto-dependent sprawl and that’s a ridiculous assertion. You could say that they have underfunded transit or anything like that, but to suggest that they “created” auto-dependent sprawl, ie, CITIES, is ridiculous.
I stand by my assertion. I didn’t speak in the past tense – please re-read the sentence. Undercutting Translink and pushing forward with the Gateway Project is probably the best a government could do to increase auto-dependent sprawl.
The BC Liberals are cutting TransLink?
Who do you think committed to building the Canada Line, the Evergreen Line and an extension of the Millennium Line to UBC?
Who has committed to providing all post-secondary students with a Upass rate?
Most importantly, the BC Liberals have given us an economy that has actually grown, and have brought BC back to position where we are once again a ‘have’ province, and one of the strongest economies (if not the strongest) in North America.
Carole James tries to be an environmentalist, but when it all said and done, she still takes her cue from Big Labour.
The BC Liberals may not be perfect (no government can be), but they’re only the choice we have. We can’t afford to give the NDP control over teh economy. Especially right now.
The BC Liberals are underfunding Translink. That is the reason why there is a current shortfall to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and why municipalities are being forced to raise property taxes to cover it.
The Gateway Project is a white elephant. It is yesterday’s solution to tomorrow’s problems. It is an 11 billion dollar project which seriously undermines our ability to properly fund our public transit system.
Chris is absolutely right it will create auto dependent sprawl. Communities develop around the transportation available and creating a super highway and massive bridge when we have a million people expected to move into the region over the next 30 years. If we do not stop this now it will negatively impact us for many years to come. We should be spending money on light rail transit in the valley to get cars off the road, not increasing the flow of traffic into our gridlocked roads. Many people bring up increased fuel economy as a justification for the increase in automobile traffic, but this does nothing for issues of gridlock. Our other roads are already at capacity where will this traffic go?
We should be making small scale changes to reduce bottlenecks such as free flow lanes, electronic merging assistance such as in Washington, and repairing the crumbling infrastructure we already have.
Neither the NDP or the Liberals are willing to take the steps necessary to prevent a climate change catastrophe within the next century. I encourage you to consider this when you vote, and vote Green.
As far as the economy it is liberal (not Liberal party) economic policies that got us into this mess, only responsible management of resources and a well planned steady state economy can provide true stability. Neither party has a strong record on managing the economy (NDP 1990’s and fudge-it budgets, Liberals current mess).
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