Thursday, March 27, 2014

VanCity Board of Director Elections March 31 to April 25 - I will be voting for Lily Grewal and Ellen Woodsworth

As a former Director of VanCity, I take a special interest in seeing good people elected to the Board of Canada's largest credit union - and the one I do business with.
Lily Grewal and son

There are several excellent candidates running for elections that start March 31 to April 25 but I want to highlight two that I will be voting for: Lily Grewal and Ellen Woodsworth.

Lily Grewal would be an impressive new voice on the Board, a Delta resident who brings a strong background of working with immigrant communities, unions, non-profits, social justice, cooperatives and much more.

Lily would also provide the VanCity Board with the needed perspective of those members who live south of the Fraser River.

Ellen Woodsworth
Ellen Woodsworth would bring a wealth of experience to VanCity - from sitting on Vancouver City Council for six years to working with seniors, fighting poverty and homelessness and standing up for a variety of progressive causes.

You can find out more about Lily and Ellen at their websites linked above and about the elections at VanCity's website.

In branch voting takes place from April 11 to 17 in select branches; other voting takes place by mail.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Same Pro NDP crowd. Why is voting on the aspect of one's union background that important?

Anonymous said...

A person's background, whatever it is, helps determine where he/she will stand on issues. The more you know about a person, the better you are able to know where they stand and if you should vote for her/him.

Anonymous said...

Quite correct, but said background is applied to the position at hand.

The only issues that really matter is good governance of VanCity to its members. I would much rather want someone who has a solid financial background as a Director rather than if a person is union or not.

VanCity is a Financial institution governed by its members, not a left wing based social movement nor should it be a covered bus stop for NDP travellers.

Ellen Woodsworth said...

Thanks Bill,
You could let your friends know that a Vancouver City Councillor has to manage a $2 Billion budget, consult the public, be transparent and accountable and never run a deficit. I have also been the President of Britannia Community Centre and chair of an organization that raised $7 million to build a housing project in the Downtown Eastside.
Sincerely,
Ellen Woodsworth

Anonymous said...

She's forgetting she alone does not manage the $2 billion budget, it's largely done by the civic servants, the Councillors make the overall decisions.

The Chair alone does not run a community centre, it's done by a Board of Directors. The Chair has only one vote. If the Board is a good one, it does not need constant intervention personally by the Chair. A good Board can run itself, the Chair oversees the meetings.

The Vancouver Charter and the Local Government (Muncipal Act) prevents cities from ending up in a deficit. The budgets must be balanced each year.

So if Woodsworth was for the needless spending on bike lanes, what needless spending would she approve of with VanCity.

There's also her affliation witb the NDP and Vision which brings VanCity into a political sphere which it does not need to be in.

So how does either apply to running a large community membership based financial institution which has branches outside of the City of Vancouver?

It doesn't.

Jim Edmondson said...

Dear Anonymous,
Rather typically you hide behind your anonymity. Come out, come whever you are. Let people decide on the value of your comments based not only on the value of the comments themselves but on who is making them and why.
Jim Edmondson
Vancity Member
School Counsellor
Dickens/Kensington Community

Bill Tieleman said...

Well said, Jim! I am being very tolerant here as I usually do at this blog in allowing anonymous negative comments but I think they are mostly discounted by my readers because they are afraid to identify themselves.

As for the content of those comments, I note they are simply attacking Lily and Ellen rather than arguing for other candidates positive attributes, which also tells a clear story!

Anonymous said...

Was far as Ellen goes candidates are out there. They can be praised and they can also be critiqued. If there's something questionable, then the candidate needs to defend it. For example why did Ellen support an anacharist group?

That's what a smart voter does. Endorsements don't mean anything tangible. They are just done to build ego.

As far as negative comments go, there's that by the ton against anything that isn't part of the what the Left likes by The Left. Seems the Left wants to be negative on anything except when it has to do with themselves or political people within.

Sorry Ellen, no votes from my family even though we've voted Vision and NDP for decades.

VanCity is a financial institution, not a social movement.