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Mark (he/him)

@markedwardson.com
814 followers 1.7K following 1.5K posts

"More Open Space for what? For muggings?" Vancouver/Victoria

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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 23h
without commenting on the merits of the case, Ken Sim has landed on "build a prison in the west end" as his preferred policy solution which is pretty easy to dunk on (e.g. see Kareem Allam's recent posts on the subject) I don't think more sophisticated parties will make the same mistake
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 29/09/2026
I presume someone at BC Ferries follows you on bluesky and wasn't in the mood to get lambasted by a blogger
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 29/09/2026
there are CRD communities that have *more* utility capacity now than they did in the 80s because the population shrank as young people were pushed out by the housing crisis
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Infrastructure Weak @infrastructureweak.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This looks like an early example of the international best practice, circulation planning-based bus priority measures that @chittimarco.bsky.social details in the Transit Priority Atlas. tpa.transitcosts.com
"Busway Turn Map" of Tremont Ave in the Bronx. The busway extent is a one-mile stretch of Tremont, across ~11 one-way cross streets. Cars are permitted to enter Tremont by turning right or left from the one-way cross streets approaching it, or to cross Tremont on the same streets. However, they must turn right to exit Tremont at the first opportunity along it. 

Source:
https://newyorkyimby.com/2026/08/construction-begins-on-tremont-avenue-busway-in-tremont-the-bronx.html
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 23/09/2026
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Leo Spalteholz @leospalteholz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Huge loss. Big respect for all of @ravikahlon.bsky.social work on housing and other files theprogress.com/2026/09/22/h...
theprogress.com
Health Minister Ravi Kahlon say he does not plan to run in upcoming election - Chilliwack Progress
Kahlon is the third cabinet minister to step aside
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 21/09/2026
Palmer - Fort Victoria
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 21/09/2026
Probably Antwerp?
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 19/09/2026
Sure though in a sense this is a fairly understandable reaction to having your mandate severely weakened by the voters; it's just much less tenable to make ambitious reforms when you barely hung on in an election
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 19/09/2026
I think it's psychological? By all accounts the near-death experience really did a number on Eby and you get the sense that it shot their confidence
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 19/09/2026
like I think it's somewhat absurd that a cabinet containing Eby, Kahlon, and Boyle has simply given up on the housing file and yet here we are
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 19/09/2026
I think there's something to the idea that a new mandate and some fresh blood would do much to inject some energy into a government that has been scared and low-energy since the bludgeoning they got in the last election
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 18/09/2026
The upshot is that timed elections would increase turnout, which is why I support holding municipal elections each time parliament is dissolved
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Sarah Starkweather for Oak Bay @starkweatherforob.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I’m running for Council for lots of reasons. Here’s are my top three.
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 14/09/2026
Extremely funny that this is essentially identical to UVic's engineering attrium, right down to the skywalks and paper airplanes
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 13/09/2026
Canada adopting EU technical codes and standards would be good, recognition of foreign credentials, and (mentioned in the piece) joining Erasmus could all be potential outcomes
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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
FWIW, I've often half-joked that the fastest way for Canada to remove inter-provincial trade barriers would be to join the EU, as it would force us to adopt EU regs.
ctvnews.ca
Carney pushes idea of making Canada ‘associate member’ of EU, WSJ reports
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney wants closer links with the European Union and is exploring whether his country could become an “associate member” of the bloc, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 12/09/2026
Huh okay this is pretty interesting I retract my criticism of CoV
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/09/2026
The three north shore municipalities, alongside Squamish Nation, have a single bike share provider, because they joined forces and administered it centrally, precisely the opposite of what happened here
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/09/2026
I'm a bit skeptical that this couldn't have been done as an expansion of Saanich's contract Victoria could have also reached out to coordinate when Saanich started looking into bikeshare, which was pretty recent! Lots of options
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/09/2026
like I said, I don't think this makes amalgamation necessary, and it doesn't necessarily even mean that Lime is a failure per se I am merely observing that we would be better off had Saanich and Victoria coordinated better, expanding the number of trips accessible by bikeshare
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/09/2026
Fair to say that Saanich is less likely to be successful (though it has a pretty decent network?) I don't think this changes the fact that it's a bit of a coordination F
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/09/2026
Ya I don't think it's a reason to blow up the regional governance system but at the same time it's not good that users are precluded from biking between Saanich and Victoria because we couldn't talk to each other
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 11/09/2026
A single contract would have resulted in a single vendor [n.b. amalgamation isn't required for this; the three vancouver north shore munis have a single bike share provider run through one contract]
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 10/09/2026
All data centres must be located on false creek and use tidal power
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
I don't entirely disagree with you but can't help but think that a bit more willingness to engage in conflict would do some good to raise everyone's profile
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
can't find the thread but this is a challenge @susankimyyj.bsky.social has discussed at lengths before, though she may not agree with everything I said above
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
This is why my ideal political reforms in mid to large BC cities would be: a) political parties everywhere b) big pay raises c) councillors and mayors get paid staff ime elected officials do not have the capacity or resources to understand issues and develop agendas as deeply as many would like to
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
I gather (Peter or @ruofan.ca could give a more detailed answer) that vancouver is unique in that the charter gives the mayor additional power, and the larger size of the mayor's office compared to a Kamloops or Burnaby gives it outsized influence
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
Well, also, the mayor is more than just a single vote? They have a fair bit of executive power that shapes how the city bureaucracy functions
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
If the field does indeed split and allow ABC to win with 20%, my actual advice for the left would be (much like it would be for the fed. Liberals when they lose) run a better person and run a better campaign
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
ngl this is just the game, it's a fractured field with competing parties who have *very significant* ideological differences. You're not really going to get a big tent party, the only move is to run the best campaign and beat everyone else. This is, generally, how most previous winners did it.
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
Born at 317 ppm | say NO to bike lanes on Richardson St
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
As for winning - as noted above, I think Pete has a hard cap just because he has no money or staff, and joining up with him would be like boarding a punctured lifeboat Between that and Pete Fry sucking on the actual issues (like housing and bike lanes) I can't blame OneCity for running w.a.
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
My point holds The idea that Azaroff is a spoiler is premised on the idea that a large number of people will vote for him
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
Like on some level the argument that Azaroff is a spoiler is premised on the fact that he's electrically viable, which, according to the greens, he isn't
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
I *think* where I stand is that competitive elections are good, OneCity is right to put up the strongest fight they can, and if it's true that Pete is really a winner and Azaroff is hopeless it won't matter
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
this should have said (somewhat) well-*organized*
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
I think the by-election was an extremely ominous sign that the greens do not have much of an electoral machine to speak of Maybe Pete can pull it off but I am skeptical
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
Name recognition? But this doesn't mean the greens have the resources they need to defeat two other well-funded, (somewhat) well-resourced centre-right parties
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 07/09/2026
I think the subtext here is that the greens have no money which puts them in a poor position to win
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 06/09/2026
congratulations!
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 06/09/2026
It's really bizarre because driving downtown from oak bay is really trivial, it takes me 10 minutes at most.
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 06/09/2026
Correct, he lost his mind over the Richardson st bikeway, which features traffic diversion adding, at most, 2-3 minutes to certain vehicle trips downrown
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Jens von Bergmann @jensvb.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Also not sure why this is in the news now, these estimates came out in January. I guess BC Stats re-published them as an Excel sheet, which makes the data more accessible to non-data folks. But that's why I built CanViz: to make it easier for non-data folks to pinpoint and visualize StatCan data.
canviz.mountainmath.ca
CanViz - Canadian Data Visualization Tool
Interactive data visualization tool for exploring and analyzing Statistics Canada data tables. Browse thousands of Canadian statistics, create custom plots, and download data in multiple formats.
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 05/09/2026
<Sir Humphrey voice> Progress updates? Performance metrics? It's the thin end of the edge! The point of government is *activity*, not outcomes!
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 05/09/2026
I like how it suggests taking the Pat Bay to the ferry, but helpfully directs you along Elk Lake Dr to avoid spending _too_ much time on the highway
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 04/09/2026
Quite possible I'm missing something (I haven't looked into this closely) but I kinda wonder why they went with this design - you'd think that the simpler circulation (no mezz, fewer escalators [and maybe even fewer elevators]) of stationsoj the side of the road would be cheaper?
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 04/09/2026
Haven't read it myself but there's Life After Cars
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Mark (he/him) @markedwardson.com · 04/09/2026
My condolences for having had to read #2
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