The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) announced Sunday that Stephanie Allen is seeking the mayoral nomination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a moment that calls for political courage,\u201d said Allen. \u201cI\u2019m inspired by COPE\u2019s unapologetic fight for our city. I\u2019m joining this fight because people in Vancouver need leadership with the experience and heart to fight for the public good, not just predatory wealth and the super-rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen has a history of being involved with the Vancouver community.<\/p>\n
She co-founded the Hogan\u2019s Alley society with the creation of a community land trust.<\/p>\n
Allen is also the former vice-president of BC Housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I worked at BC Housing as vice-president, I saw firsthand how governments are starving non-profits of the funding they need to produce and maintain affordable housing for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
One focus of Allen\u2019s campaign is fighting against political interference from billionaires.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about a movement of people fighting back against a rigged systemthat works for private equity, predatory wealth, and the ultra-rich, and leaves the rest of us struggling to get by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another focal point of Allen\u2019s campaign is tenants\u2019 rights and needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite [tenants] being over half of Vancouver\u2019s population, City Hall has time after time left renters behind. We need to strengthen Vancouver\u2019s tenant protections, including against displacement, and make sure that every renter is secure, city-wide. We have to close the loopholes that put profits over people, private equity over community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Current Vancouver city councillor, representing COPE, is getting behind Allen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is rigged against regular people. Stephanie gets that,\u201d said Sean Orr, COPE Vancouver city councillor. \u201cShe\u2019s someone who will fight to make Vancouver affordable, accountable, and accessible for everyone. I\u2019m excited to work with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen uses the slogan, \u201cAll power to the people\u201d, which is a mainstay of COPE.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround the world, and here in Vancouver, billionaires like Chip Wilson are buying politicians and elections to make the system work for them instead of us. We\u2019re seeing democratic backsliding, and too many people\u2019s voices are being ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also is trying to prop up what she considers is a dying cultural landscape in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to support our arts, culture, and nightlife community, not starve them for funding and crack down on the creators who make it happen. We need to fund our libraries, community centres, and pools, not make them lay off staff or fall apart from neglect.\u201d<\/p>\n
COPE votes on May 11 for their mayoral candidate but Allen is the only one to announce her bid so far.<\/p>\n
The Vancouver election takes place on Oct. 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) announced Sunday that Stephanie Allen is seeking the mayoral nomination. \u201cThis is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-645775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}