"Building that capacity, building of that community infrastructure is an essential piece. It doesn't happen overnight. Its something that happens over an extended period of time. Its something that happens through working together, building trust together, building confidence together, learning how to share resources in the community to maximize the impact in a positive way on the community."

Vancouver-Hastings MLA Shane Simpson on building capacity of a community (Hansard vol 7, no 4)

Just thinking out loud...

How did Vancouver-Hastings earn the title of second poorest constituency in BC? Geographically speaking its not a whole lot different from many other communities. I've taken enough sociology courses to recognize that there are a multitude of answers to this question, but still I wonder...

Vancouver-Hastings has an interesting history, full of impressive accomplishments. According to the Hastings-Sunrise Community web pages, New Brighton was born (with money) as a holiday retreat for residents of the capital of New Westminster in 1868. The name changed to Hastings in 1869 and as the community grew it also laid claim to many Vancouver "firsts" like first road, hotel, post office, telephone, subdivision, and so on. At the request of local residents for more "wholesome" activities, the first exhibition was held in 1910, with Exhibition Park being named in 1946. Hastings Park race track had already been established in the late 1800's and has since been able to boast a number of its own "firsts".

All in all a very impressive start for a community that would later become the neighbour to the poorest postal code in Canada. So what happened?

Not discounting the many other factors that have undoubtedly contributed to our current situation, I can't help but wonder how much the ideology of our community representatives (provincial and federal), have contributed to what appears to me to be the inability for our community to move beyond the "ordinary" or the "average".

Provincially, Vancouver-Hastings (Vancouver East prior to the 1991 election) has been represented by a NDP (CCF) MLA since 1933. Federally, Vancouver-East has sent NDP MP's to Ottawa consistently since 1935, with exception to 1974 and 1993. So what you say! Well that is almost 75 years of "glass half empty" (un)leadership for our community. Nearly three quarters of a century of direct exposure to an ideology that historically stifles personal choice and is restrictive towards the rights of the individual. Is it any wonder that our community is poor when we are consistently represented by people that encourage mediocracy and refer to their own loyal supporters as "average" and "ordinary".

You may argue that we have got what we deserve since it has been us that have consistently chosen to elect NDP representatives however, I suggest the possibility that perhaps the voting patterns of Vancouver-Hasting are the result of a particular party interjecting and encouraging the possibility of a community nirvana, mainly through negative campaigning "over an extended period of time". I also believe that this is changing.

The political history of our community obviously doesn't provide all of the answers to its current plight, but what I do suggest is that it is possible that Vancouver-Hastings and Vancouver-East have in some ways suffered because of the guiding principles of our elected representatives. In my opinion, our situation cannot and will not change as long as we continue to elect the NDP. The primary reason being that our current representatives are bound by their own party's democratic socialist constitution that doesn't allow the progress needed to create a completely healthy and robust community that encourages growth. While we have recognized the problems in our community, we haven't done anything to fix them beyond blaming current governments (we haven't even made useful suggestions to fix the problem) , forgetting that in BC, the NDP had ten years to cure the plight of the homeless. What happened?

Shane Simpson accuses the BC Liberals of creating poverty in British Columbia, "...Now that we've created the poor and homeless, we're going to punish you for your circumstances." (Hansard) I suggest that the NDP has done nothing in their own right to prevent this from happening in fact, the NDP need poverty, homelessness and suffering in order to remain relevant. Another reason that they are not doing so well in today's booming economy.

But then I'm just thinking out loud...