Sean Bickerton

(c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Mike Howell, writing in today’s Vancouver Courier, quotes a few haiku I penned in 2000 for family in friends in a small book called Millennial Haiku. As Howell writes:

This page before me
Is white like a snowy field.
A shame to spoil it…

Nice, eh? That’s haiku, ladies and gentleman. The title: “Blank Slate.” But I can’t take credit for the verse. That goes to Sean Bickerton, a council candidate for the NPA.

In another one of those amazing look-what-the-Internet-turned-up moments, a paid member of the 12th and Cambie nation alerted your correspondent to a book of poems titled Millennial Haiku.

Bickerton, who lived in Manhattan for many years before returning to Vancouver, began writing the poems Jan. 1, 2000.

It was the first thing I did every morning–a kind of daily meditation–one poem every day for a year,” he wrote in the introduction to his book. “Thankfully, for your sake, I’ve only included this group of 54…”

Blue-Footed Booby photographed by Philly Girl

Here’s one titled ”The Genetic Spice of Life”:

Blue-footed Boobies
Mate for life, but Mom seeks flings
While Dad’s out fishing.

Another one is titled “Beauty Rest”:

Amaryliss blooms
Brilliant red, the eye’s delight;
Soon to sleep again.

Bickerton never mentioned his haiku talent when he introduced himself to NPA members at last month’s nomination meeting. He focused more on his desire to revitalize neighbourhoods with help from the performing arts.

Maybe Bickerton is the NPA’s answer for bringing back entertainment to kick off council meetings. One of the first orders of business when the NPA won a majority in 2005 was to scrap the entertainment before council meetings.

If elected, could Bickerton become the city’s political poet?

Maybe he can combine talents with George McWhirter, the city’s poet laureate? Or maybe not.

From Mike Howell, Staff Writer with the Vancouver Courier:  

w/ Toms parents and sister Diane, who competed in Vancouver Triathalon

“NPA council candidate Sean Bickerton is new to politics and just beginning to learn more about the NPA’s history and civic scene.

Raised in Surrey, the former Victoria Symphony violinist moved to Manhattan 20 years ago where he eventually became vice-president of Columbia Artists.

He now lives with his husband, Tom Hudock, in a condominium on the edge of Chinatown. The couple operates Kulture Shock Media, a software development company with offices in Vancouver and New York.

Bickerton said he didn’t follow the mayoral nomination battle between Ladner and Sullivan. Nor does he know what led to it, although he’s finding out details now, he added.

“My involvement began three months ago [with the NPA] when I moved into a building in Tinseltown,” he said.

Bickerton joined the party shortly after councillors B.C. Lee and Ladner responded to his complaint regarding a food business in his building.
The complaint was related to a sanitation and odour problem. Bickerton didn’t want to give details because the problems were resolved and he is on good terms with the business owner.

But it was through his dealings with Lee, and Ladner’s “work behind the scenes” that led him to seek out the NPA, a party he describes as pragmatic and fiscally responsible.

“I went to them after that and banged on the door and said,  ‘I want to do more, do you think I can help?’” he said, noting he knew the party was searching for candidates after reading a story in the Courier.
Bickerton had a strong interest in community before he left for New York. He was a founding member and phone counsellor for what is now the South Fraser Regional Crisis Line. 

At UBC, he was the vice-president of Gays and Lesbians of UBC and helped implement some of the city’s first safe-sex campaigns.

He now volunteers with Union Gospel Mission.

If elected, he wants to focus on cleaning up and revitalizing neighbourhoods and look to the performing arts to help do that. He also wants to work closely with the *** and gay communities, including undertaking new safe-sex campaigns.

Bickerton met Ladner two days before he announced his candidacy. He was won over by him after the two chatted at Bickerton’s home.
“I didn’t know him before, but I do now and I’m totally committed. I think he’s the hope for the city.”

Writer Rob Salerno was visiting Vancouver from Toronto last week and sat down to interview me at the NPA nominating convention. Here are short excertps from that longer interview, available on XtraWest online:

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Sean with the outstanding Laura McDiarmid

“Openly gay candidate for a slot on the NPA’s city council election slate Sean Bickerton sailed to easy victory Sep 14 at an endorsement meeting at the Croatian Cultural Centre. Bickerton was one of five candidates vying for the NPA’s remaining council endorsements.

Before Saturday’s vote, Bickerton told Xtra West he wasn’t ready to rest on his laurels.

“I don’t consider it in the bag until the people have spoken,” he said.

Bickerton says he wants to use his seat on city council to preserve the unique heritage of Vancouver’s diverse neighbourhoods, including the Davie Village, which he considers under threat by developers who may seek to transform the low-rise residential and commercial strip into more profitable high-rise buildings. 

“We’re losing our heritage,” he says. “In 10 years, it’ll all be gone. The character will be lost forever. We have to have a community plan.”

Communities like the Davie Village are important assets to the city, Bickerton says.

“If you lose your cultural history, you’re rootless — lost. It’s impossible to create a vital future without a strong ground.

“What we can’t do is wait for the Olympics [to be] like some sort of magic wand that’ll clean everything up. We have to start now, at the block level, including all those who live there, whether they have homes or not,” he says

“We need a comprehensive plan for the area started by residents and anchored by cultural and performance places.”

Bickerton also says he will work to advance a safe streets agenda at council to address the ongoing problem of gay bashing in the city.

“I was bashed in the streets of Vancouver 25 years ago and almost didn’t live,” he says, pointing to small scars on his nose, which he says are remnants of the beating he took. “We need safe streets in which to exercise our freedoms.”

But Bickerton says any new initiatives against violence must come from the ground up and include all stakeholders.

“We need to bring in residents, businesses, owners, governments, local police, people who work in the areas, into a room and try to reach consensus,” he says

From Frances Bula’s column this morning: “As all you political junkies know, the NPA acclaimed most of the final set of their candidates on Saturday and had a vote-off among the four park-board candidates.

But there were also speeches by the nouveau candidates, along with mayoral candidate Peter Ladner.  Sean Bickerton, the new candidate from Tinseltown, wants to make city neighbourhooods stronger and one way of doing that is by having more neighbourhood centres and attractions. So he’d like to see a gay cultural centre in the West End.”

The Tyee’s The Hook reports: ”The Non Partisan Association has nominated a full slate of candidates for Vancouver council, school and park boards.

“Today we introduce a new NPA for a new era in Vancouver,” mayoral nominee Peter Ladner told a crowd of about 125 at today’s nomination meeting.

“We have, without doubt, the most diverse team ever assembled by the NPA,” Ladner said. “We have single people, people married to same-sex partners, people with children, grandparents, and parents-to-be.”

Writing for The Hook, Monte Paulsen goes on to note that: “Sean Bickerton’s thoughtful speech further established the openly gay council candidate as one of the party’s rising stars.

There is no personal freedom without freedom from fear,” Bickerton told the chattering crowd. The former VP of Columbia Artists said he married his longtime partner two years ago because, “for the first time in our lives, we were free to marry the person we loved.”

Bickerton also called for creation of a “new gay cultural centre on Davie Street” that he said would “rejuvenate the area for decades into the future.”

Anticipating the obvious question, Bickerton explained that his decision to run within the NPA was inspired by the party’s response to his requests for assistance related to a building problem in his Tinseltown neighbourhood.

“When I reached out,” Bickerton said, “I wrote letters to the mayor and to council. I heard back from no one except for members of the NPA. B.C. Lee came to our meetings, Peter Ladner worked behind the scenes.”

Jackie Wong, writing in the West Ender notes that: “Interest in revitalizing the Downtown Eastside is shared by Sean Bickerton, whose new home in the neighbourhood sparked his interest in city processes. (Back in the city just two years) after a 20-year absence from his Vancouver hometown, Bickerton moved with his partner into a condo near the International Village mall in the spring. The building had problems with sanitation and odour, so Bickerton e-mailed the mayor and city council for help. “The only people that responded were members of the NPA,” recalls Bickerton. “I started keeping Peter Ladner and B.C. Lee informed, because they responded.”

A positive relationship developed from there, and Bickerton, who has worked as a violinist and as vice president of Columbia Artists in New York City before moving back to Vancouver, decided to throw his hat in the ring for city council.

“I want to do anything I can to help Peter Ladner get elected. Regardless of whether I get the nomination or not, that’s what I’m going to be doing,” says Bickerton. “I think [Ladner’s] a real person of dignity, and it’s cost him a lot to take the stance that he has taken, to understand the need to stand up and assert leadership at a time when it was lacking… He helped when he could, when we had a serious problem, and he’s embraced us completely.”

Sean, Peter Ladner, Sean's Mom and spouse Tom.

Geoff Dembicki, writing for The Tyee’s Hook column, reported yesterday on our bid to win NPA backing to run as a candidate for City Council. “Sean Bickerton announced his (NPA) nomination bid on the deck of his Tinseltown condo last Friday afternoon. His husband of 22 years and family were among the assembled crowd.

“Though he’s never held elected office, Bickerton is no stranger to civic involvement. When he noticed sanitation and odour problems in his building, he enlisted local businesses and residents to address the issue. And a desire to create safer streets and deal with Vancouver’s homelessness problem brought him to the Union Gospel Mission, where he currently volunteers.”

Peter Ladner (R) along w/ NPA candidates Daljit and Sean standing with Trans Alliance volunteers after signing their rights petition

In an article headlined: “New Queer Candidate Seeks NPA Nomination“, Xtra West reporter Shauna Lewis writes about my run to win the NPA nod as a candidate for City Council.

According to Xtra: “Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Vancouver mayoral hopeful Peter Ladner is singing the praises of Sean Bickerton — the latest queer candidate hoping for a spot on the NPA’s municipal election slate.

Ladner stated: “The NPA is there to support Sean. We are going to be welcoming him with open arms to our team and looking forward to his support November 15.”

As Lewis reports, I first became involved in civic politics when I discovered intolerable living conditions after moving into our Tinseltown apartment three months ago. After ten years of neglect, mutual recrimination and uncivilized living conditions, I found a way to bring everyone together  - residents, the strata council, local businesses, the developer, city and provincial agencies and local police to cut through obstacles and implement an action plan that started with our building and is now helping to clean up our Tinseltown neighbourhood.

As part of that action plan, I wrote to the Mayor and all members of the Vancouver City Council on June 6 about our horrible situation. Of all the councillors I contacted, only members of the NPA responded. Ever since, I have kept BC Lee and Peter Ladner informed of developments.

Councillor Lee then came to our second Cleanup meeting on August 6 at our invitation. After an exchange of emails, I then met with BC Lee and Councillor Suzanne Anton at City Hall on August 26 to discuss the advisability of mounting a bid for Council.

The NPA interview process involves early screening, a thirty-page questionnaire, a challenging interview process by a purposely agnostic nominating committee charged with putting each candidate through their paces. I also met with several councillors, and spoke to local, provincial and federal politicians I know before deciding.

I may be new to civic politics, but I have been actively involved in the fabric of life in this area since I was a child. And if I receive the nomination of the NPA membership on September 13, I  will do everything I can to help Peter Ladner improve this city. 

Please join us.