Former candidate Brent Granby leaves COPE for Vision Vancouver

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      A well-regarded community activist has quit the Coalition of Progressive Electors in yet another indication of trouble besetting Vancouver’s left-wing civic party.

      Brent Granby, who is known for his volunteer work in the West End neighbourhood, has joined the ruling Vision Vancouver.

      “I want to support a party that’s working on progressive change that I want to participate in,” Granby told the Straight in a phone interview on December 10.

      A COPE member since 2002, Granby ran unsuccessfully for park board in the last election. Before his resignation, he was chair of the party’s park board caucus. He is a former president of the West End Residents Association, a neighbourhood group that he continues to serve as a board member.

      On December 8, COPE’s only elected civic official, Allan Wong, a school trustee, announced that he had joined Vision. This follows the departure from the COPE executive of some key members.

      Granby left COPE without public rancour, choosing instead to speak about his reasons for taking a membership card with Vision.

      One of these is the party’s determination to improve biking infrastructure.

      Granby, an avid cyclist who used to ride with his two young daughters to their elementary school, wants to see more bike lanes.

      “My girls, they’re young women now. In terms of them feeling safe and wanting to ride their bikes and negotiate the city,” Granby said, “I think it’s really important that we have a good network of bike lanes throughout the city.”

      Comments

      9 Comments

      Burger King

      Dec 11, 2013 at 1:19pm

      What a weird strategy to convince people that Vision is any good.

      Raymond Tomlin

      Dec 11, 2013 at 2:06pm

      No question. COPE is in trouble - what with Donalda Greenwell-Baker, Kate Van Meer-Mass, David Chudnovsky, RJ Aquino and Stuart Parker resigning from the party's Board of Directors in recent weeks. Word is, too, that COPE Corresponding Secretary / BoD member, Kim Hearty, is about to tender her resignation.

      One can easily understand why Alan Wong joined Vision Vancouver - Board of Education Chair Patti Bacchus, and her (now Alan's) fellow Vision Vancouver Board of Education trustees have done a superb job of holding the provincial government's feet to the fire respecting the underfunding of education, while collectively doing their very best to maintain a quality education experience for children enrolled in the Vancouver school system.

      Vision Vancouver's Board of Education trustees have proved time and again, too, that their commitment to community consultation, and public education advocacy, is without political peer.

      Were that true of Vision Vancouver's City Council and Park Board electeds, Vancouverites would be well-served - instead, on Council and at Park Board, Vision Vancouver could give a damn about neighbourhoods, or anything approaching true community consultation, proving at both levels of municipal governance to be amongst the most arrogant and 'corrupt' (in the moral sense) civic officials to ever hold office in Vancouver. As we approach next year's pivotal civic election, in this last term in particular, Vision Vancouver has proved to be utterly undeserving of our support at the polls in 2014.

      And yet Brent Granby joins the Vision Vancouver ne'er-do-wells. Talk about politically tone deaf.

      James G

      Dec 11, 2013 at 3:43pm

      Next up we can we expect a former candidate for Council? It's like one of those multiple choice tests with a predetermined simple pattern .. A,B,C. School Board was A, so Park Board must be B and Council C.

      Countdown to election has begun.

      David

      Dec 11, 2013 at 4:23pm

      Oh the irony: a community activist joins the political party that's renowned for not listening to community activists.

      Jim B

      Dec 11, 2013 at 4:48pm

      Brent Granby is a smart, principled community organizer, with solid knowledge of civic affairs and good personal skills -- another catch for Vision.

      Kirk

      Dec 11, 2013 at 11:33pm

      Brent has been carrying water for Vision for some time, a sycophant voicing support when needed. His ambitions for elected office obvious, as is this opportunistic move to the party he think gives him the best shot.

      He's just what this city doesn't need right now, another Vision hack, hell bent on office and disdainful of the public.

      Community Activist?

      Dec 12, 2013 at 7:57am

      In the past Granby has done some good work in the West End, but I heard him about 2 weeks ago passionately endorsing Vision's revamp (re: 50 stories of cement and glass) for the West End! Granby like all the others in the list of 'crossovers' to Vision was of the Chudnovsky camp within COPE, all of whom fought to keep COPE within the Vision camp. Put two and two together...

      Rob Joyce

      Dec 12, 2013 at 10:22am

      The rats are leaving the ship. I will never vote for Brent Granby or any VISION candidate again.
      We deserve better representation in the West End.

      dave

      Dec 12, 2013 at 10:36am

      All I can say is what took so long? Brent has long been a "Vision lite" type that has consistently supported Vision policies for a long time. The last election, he had great difficulty distinguishing himself from his now Vision colleagues, often leaving more principled running mates like Greenwell Baker in the dust with his inane comments.

      This is not a a gain for Vision, it's a loss. Lets hope they add more Granby's to their stable so we can further see what a morally bankrupt party Vision actually is. Granby, Wong and his ilk are far form "pure lain" reformers but parasites that live off those who they perceive will be in their best interests to get elected.

      I have no issue with COPE lets hope they run real reformers not sheep in wolfs clothing that have no honour such as the likes of Wong and Granby. These people don't serve the City, they serve themselves.