This evening we hosted a provincial candidates panel on affordable housing. We were hoping for a lively and creative discussion. We were not disappointed.
A big thanks to our guests for joining us this evening:
- David Wong from the Green Party. He’s a candidate in Vancouver-Hastings, an architect with a focus on sustainable design, an urban ecologist and long-time advocate on affordable housing issues.
- Andrew Wilkinson from the BC Liberals. He’s running for re-election in Vancouver-Quilchena. Andrew has served as Minister of Advanced Education, Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizen’s Services and has a background in law and medicine.
- David Eby from the NDP. He’s running for re-election in Vancouver – Point Grey. David has been advocating for affordable housing regularly over the past four years both inside and outside the legislature. His background is in law and advocacy.
Our candidates were asked questions from a diverse selection of community members that included:
- Thom Armstrong the Executive Director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia and a regular contributor to Each For All.
- Lisa Rupert the Vice President of Housing Services and Violence Prevention for the YWCA of Metro Vancouver. She works tirelessly to create housing options for single moms that are safe, affordable and part of the community.
- Rachel Wong, a communications student at SFU and producer with Y57 – Coop Radio’s news and music show aimed specifically at youth age 18-35.
The panelists were not given the questions beforehand, but knew our topic was affordable housing. Hope you enjoy this spirited and informative discussion.
