2 THE DAILY VOICE, FRIDAY, NOV 30, 2012 EDITOR CARA McKENNA ews & features No Ford leaves city bored Do east coast politics make our city look lame? By GILLIAN HAMES Many cities in Canada have gone through significant political upheaval in the recent past, but Vancouver shouldn’t count itself among them, ac- cording to some city councillors. In Montreal, the mayor has resigned. In Toronto, the mayor has been told to resign. Calgary city council recently passed a 5.5% property tax increase, following a heated budget debate. Comparatively, Vancouver remains relatively stable. Some might even say we seem positively tame. NPA city councillor George Affleck says Vancouver is unique because city council is structured around party poli- tics and most are closely to the centre of the political spectrum. “Not the most exciting stuff,” he said. “There’s a lot of interesting dialogue that happens [at city council meet- ings],” said Affleck, but not everyone is aware or excited by it. His main focus right now is one the economy, transpor- tation and affordability — perhaps not the sexiest of topics. Vancouver also lacks the controver- sial celebrity figure like Rob Ford in Toronto. “The mayor gets most of the exposure,” said Affleck. “And Gregor’s a nice guy ... that’s not very exciting.” Green Party councillor Adriane Carr said Vancouver has not always been as stable as if seems now. She credits the different parties on council’s ability to agree on several key issues. “Sharing some of the same goals makes a difference,” she said. “There is some common ground.” She listed in- creased density, housing and bike routes as issues council agrees need to be addressed. Inevitably, disagreements do arise. Carr said two issues that she is focus- ing on are “development and democra- cy,” which she believes aren’t getting enough attention from council. Neither Carr nor Affleck envy the chaos surrounding Toronto or Montre- al. Though it might seem more exciting, ultimately citizens do not benefit. Affleck believes that all members of city council share a common goal for Vancouver. “We just want to make it a better city,” he said. “We just may dis- agree sometimes on how to get there.” The mayor gets most of the exposure. Gregor’s a nice guy... that’s not very excit- ing. NPA COUNCILLOR GEORGE AFFLECK Design Formation class unveils new exhibit titled “Quote, Un FLFE \ uote” STACY THOMAS photo “Quote, Unquote,” an exhibit exploring putting quotes into a visual form, opened to the public last night. It will be open to the public from Nov. 30th until Dec. 8th. Swedish toy co. banishes gender roles TOP-TOY from Sweden is causing controversy with a gender neutral toy cata- logue that they released this week. BY JUDY CHERN It’s OK for boys to play with Barbie dolls — at least that’s the message one Swedish toy company is trying to send with a new catalogue released this week. The TOP-TOY catalogue shows girls playing with toy guns alongside boys, and boys playing with toy vacuum cleaners and ironing sets alongside girls. That’s right, boys should do house- work too. So are our Swedish counterparts ahead of us? According to one woman who has worked in the toy retail industry for several years, they are. She says that toys sold here in Cana- da are often categorized by gender based on their packaging. “A lot of the stereotyping does origi- nate at the toy and toy developer lev- els,” said Maga Kramer. “lve seen parents and grandparents were reluctant to buy something for a boy because it had pink packaging.” She said that she tries to dispel any stereotypes parents have by focusing on the child rather than their gender. Unfortunately, it’s tough to do. “One of the first questions you ask is ‘Is it a for a boy or a girl,’ and it bugs me that you have to show a customer a cer- tain item according to gender,” said Kramer, adding that people will often refuse to buy toys for children if they deem them gender inappropriate. “It’s fascinating that someone would pull their child away from the toys they’re interested in. It’s some weird fear that parents have, that they’re go- ing to accidentally encourage their child to do something not socially ac- ceptable.” A staff member at the Creative Minds Childcare Society on Camosun Street said they encourage children to play with toys that are open-ended, such as ones that involve a building ac- tivity. “We discourage children from bring- ing their Barbie dolls from home,” she said. BCFed re-elects Jim Sinclair as head B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair wants to continue to reach out to youth, he said after being re-elected By KEVIN HAMPSON Jim Sinclair was re-elected yester- day as president of the B.C. Federation of Labour. While overall union membership in B.C. has decreased, the percentage of young members has been growing over the past 10 years, Sinclair told The Voice after his election. “The challenge is to reach out to young people,” he said. One of the ways the federation does this is by having young labour mem- bers speak in high schools. “We have a whole group of young ac- tivists in the labour movement to teach what a union is and about workers rights and health and safety,” he said, adding that another challenge is that many young people work in service sector jobs that are not traditionally unionized. According to Sinclair, one of the ways the BCFed has reached people in those industries is through the Em- ployee Action Rights Network (EARN), which informs non-unionized workers of their rights and gets them involved with the labour movement. Young union members at the con- vention said that while the BCFed was good at con- necting with young people, individual unions are failing on that front. Bethany Kanhof- fen, a young mem- ber of the BC Gov- JIM SINCLAIR ernment and President of B.C. | Service Employees Federation of Union (BCGEU) Labour said of her union, “lve heard many people refer to it as an old white man’s club. Young people are very socially aware, but unions don’t do a lot to encourage [them] to join.” “They need to be more open-minded to social media. The aging leadership doesn’t know how to do that,” Kanhof- fen added. In contrast, the BCFed has been good at attracting young people through Twitter, said Jackie Lemaist- re, another young member of BCGEU. “This time last year I was an Occu- pier,” said Eric Hamilton-Smith, who now works for BCGEU as a policy ana- lyst. Hamilton-Smith first became aware of unions while he was an activist in the Occupy Movement. BCFed_ en- dorsed the movement early on and reached out to Occupiers, Hamilton- Smith said. “They could see this was a moral movement of young people taking a stand for social justice.” 66 They need to be more open-mind- ed to social media. The aging leadership doesn’t know how to do that. BETHANY KANHOFFEN BCGEU MEMBER Rent instead of buy continued from page one homeowner’s pocket, says Vancou- ver realtor Gary Dhillon. Condominium fees can increase when 75 per cent of the strata votes in favor of the motion. An increase in fees means that homeowners need to re-qualify for a mortgage if they need to refinance in a few years, says Lutz. Another cost that new homeowners should watch for is the property trans- fer tax applied when a sale closes. The tax does not apply to properties below $425,000, but it costs buyers above the threshold thousands of extra dollars. A press release accompanying the study also mentions that sometimes it is financially advantageous for people to rent instead of buy. Lutz says this decision is based on individual circumstances and there are too many variables to generalize. “We can’t tell where the housing market is going to be or where the rental market is going to be, and it’s such an individualistic thing.”