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New West all-candidates meeting

» Cast your ballot on October 20

Katie Czenczek
News Editor

 

n October 2, committees from the

Moody Park Residents Association
and Glenbrooke Residents Association
hosted an all-candidates meeting for the
upcoming municipal election's city council
hopefuls.

The event was hosted at the New
Westminster Evangelical Free Church—
which is in Burnaby rather than New West
as the moderator, Meg Holden, pointed
out—and was completely volunteer-run.
Interestingly enough, the majority of
attendees at the meeting looked to be from
Caucasian backgrounds and over 30 years
old. The New West Record and the Other
Press volunteered as the press panel for
the event and were responsible for asking
candidates questions.

The event kicked off at 7 pm, where
Holden opened up the ceremony and
asked the candidates to deliver 30-second
speeches about themselves. There was
one official party present at the election,
called the New West Progressive Electors
Coalition. The candidates representing the
New West Progressives are Bryn Ward, Paul
McNamara, Ellen Vaillancourt, and Daniel
Fontaine.

The independent candidates
represent no specific party themselves.
The people running in New Westminster
as independents are Angela Sealy, Benny
Ogden, Mike Ireland, and Troy Hunter.

Finally, and most confusingly, the
candidates Chinu Das, Nadine Nakagawa,

 

Mary Trentadue, Chuck Puchmayr,
Patrick Johnstone, and Jaimie McEvoy

are unofficially running together as Team
Cote—or for re-election as the current
mayor's council. This choice to not run
unified has been critiqued by residents

of New Westminster, who feel that the
current council universally agrees on most
matters.

The four people running for mayor in
New Westminster are Nikki Binns, who is
an independent, Harm Woldring with the
New West Progressives, Jonathan Cote for
Team Cote, and finally Jimmie (James) Bell
as another independent.

The all-candidates meeting started
off with candidates from opposing parties
being given either a warm-up question
about the history of New Westminster or
a fun question about themselves. Which
candidate answered the best according to
the crowd determined who would answer
the press panel question first.

Topics that were discussed during the
candidates questioning period included
affordability and housing, road conditions,
development, and density. Once all of the
candidates had a turn to face off, then the
mayoral candidates were brought to the
stage.

Harm Woldring spoke first and said
that his first priority if elected into council
would be to change the tax structure
enacted by the previous government.

“The single overriding issue that
affects everything—housing, affordability,
et cetera—is our tax structure,” he said.
“We have a tax system that rewards a
very small number of people with a lot

of money that costs the rest of us a lot of
money. To me, the single overriding issue is
fairness, and fairness with taxing is where
we need to start.”

Nikki Binns was next and stated that
her main concerns were issues around
housing and liveability.

“The reason why I’m running is to
address traffic, amenities, and housing
and affordability,’ she said. “We need to be
listening to our community”

Jimmie Bell took a different approach
during the meeting and talked about his
past experience in the workforce.

“T’ve had to do everything and
anything to keep those bills coming. I think

 

a lot of you understand what that’s like,”
said Bell.

Finally, to end the meeting, current
mayor Jonathan Cote said that he is proud
of the work his council has done in office
and wants to continue making progress
with it.

“Moving forward, we do face our
challenges,” he said. “I have three top
priorities: Number one is housing
affordability [...] number two is to support
a strong local economy [...] and the third
priority is investing in community facilities
we love.”

To watch the entire meeting, check out
newwest.tv for full coverage of the event.

World Teachers’ Day

Tania Arora

>» October 5 marks a celebration for teachers

Staff Reporter

 

ctober 5 was the day to

celebrate teachers and their
conttributions to educating young
minds.

As one of the jobs where a
common saying amongst educators
is to ask why future teachers would
ever want to become one, October
5 is when they are given recognition
for everything they do. After all,
professors and instructors spend
almost the same crucial amount of
time with their students as friends or
family do.

The auspicious day was
inaugurated by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) in the
year 1994. To celebrate the event in
honour of all the teachers on this
planet, this year UNESCO organized
an international conference on the
same day in Paris. According to

the pre-event announcement by
UNESCO, the theme for the year was
“The right to education means the
right to a qualified teacher”

The theme was chosen by
UNESCO to “remind the global
community that the right to
education cannot be achieved
without the right to trained and
qualified teachers,” according to
their website. The event page states
that one of the most pressing issues
with regards to education is a lack of
educators worldwide.

“There are an estimated 264
million children and youth still
out of school globally,” states
UNESCO's website. “To reach the
2030 Education Goals of universal
primary and secondary education,
the world needs to recruit almost 69
million new teachers.” The site goes
on to point out that this problem is
prevalent in communities housing
“vulnerable populations, such as
girls, children with disabilities,
refugee and migrant children, or

poor children living in rural or
remote areas.”

The teaching profession
is unlike many others: It often
requires teachers to get into the role
of caregivers. Their role isn’t just
limited to teaching what is a part
of the textbook, but rather they
act as a link between society as a
whole and youngsters, thereby also
helping students develop social and
emotional skills.

Canada has a dearth of certified
teachers. In order to get into the
profession, BC schools usually
require teaching certificates. They
are issued by the Canadian Ministry
of Education, with the rules differing
in each province for how to be
certified.

World Teachers’ Day is a chance
to acknowledge a profession where
the rewards can be less direct.
Teaching a student is like planting
a plant, nurturing it, and watering
it, knowing that you won't be able to
take the fruits back home.