On November 16, CUPE members and British Columbians won a decisive victory against Gordon Campbells agenda in the BC municipal elections.
In elections widely seen as a referendum on the policies of the Campbell government, progressive labour-backed candidates were elected as mayors, city councilors, school and park board members. In Vancouver, we swept council, school board and parks board. In Burnaby we won 7 out of 8 seats on Council, and 6 out of 7 seats on the school board. In Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam and Port Moody, labour-endorsed candidates took a majority on the councils. All told, 31 CUPE members (4 HEU members) and one CUPE staffer won positions on November 16.
The win in BC comes as a result of a well-planned, year-long campaign by CUPE BC. Some of the keys to success in BC included membership workshops around the province, a leaders tour to mobilize members, effective use of union media, including the CUPE BC web site, and targeted allocation of union resources to achieve our goals.
CUPE members throughout BC put a lot of hard work into this election, driven by their desire to protect their communities from cutbacks, downloading and privatization. Congratulations to Sister Colleen Jordan, who was elected to Burnaby City Council, and to all the candidates who ran win or lose to stand up for their communities.