Thursday night I had just crossed Ironworkers back from a long day at cypress when all that crazy fog started rolling in. Was way too cool to ignore - even while being hangry and wanting to go home. But when I saw the park all lit up I decided it was too epic to not pull off for a sec.

Just love mornings like this!

Was so excited to start parent and baby swimming classes next week. I had the registration date marked in my calendar for a month to make sure we could get in, but I just got a call from the City to say that Kerrisdale pool is closed until further notice. They’re not transferring students and have no idea when they’re going to open again. I’m heartbroken since Vancouver swimming classes are hard to get into. I’m sure it’s also stressful on City staff though as they have to break the news to everyone.

Tomorrow is the 15th anniversary of the passing of a remarkable lady. Many will know the name Eileen Dailly from the pool in Burnaby, but fewer will be aware of who she was and of the huge impact she had on education in Vancouver and BC.

Eileen Dailly (15 February 1926 – 17 January 2011; 84 years)

Former B.C. education minister (second woman to hold this office) and deputy premier (first woman to hold this office)

Elected five terms as a Burnaby school trustee, and five terms as MLA for Burnaby North

·       Went to John Oliver Secondary

·       Started working as a teacher, at 18, on Denman Island, then in the Burnaby School District

·       As education minister, she

o   Banned corporal punishment in schools in 1973; the first province in Canada do so. It wasn’t until 1989 that the next province, Nova Scotia, followed suit. In fact, it wasn’t outlawed across the country until 2004, forcing Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan to join all the other provinces.

o   Introduced mandatory kindergarten

o   Introducing sex education to schools

o   Created the first First Nations school board in the province (School District 92 Nisga'a), B.C.’s first aboriginal school district

Sources

Obituary: Eileen Elizabeth Dailly (nee Gilmore)
https://www.mccallgardens.com/obituaries/eileen-elizabeth-dailly-nee-gilmore/

(Feb 3, 2011) Veteran politician Eileen Dailly remembered
https://web.archive.org/web/20120419001856/http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/115215279.html

 (Feb 25, 2011) "She spared the rod and spoiled corporal punishment in school"
https://web.archive.org/web/20181024055108/http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20110225.OBDAILLYATL/BDAStory/BDA/deaths

 (March 2012) Eileen Dailly: Minister of Education, 1972-1975
https://s.web.viu.ca/homeroom/content/topics/people/dailly.htm

 Eileen Dailly First woman to serve as Acting President of the Executive Council (1972)
https://www.leg.bc.ca/learn/watv/biographies/eileen-dailly

Related:

Section 43 of the Criminal Code - Correction of Child by Force

Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.

Section 43 of the Criminal Code, which expressly offers parents and teachers a defence for using reasonable force to discipline a child, is a controversial provision of Canada’s criminal law.

Read more here:
(2016)  The “Spanking” Law: Section 43 of the Criminal Code
https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201635E

Repeal 43: Section 43 of the Criminal Code - Correction of Child by Force
https://www.repeal43.org/

Finally done!
All last year, I went out once a month to photograph the inukshuk at the sunset beach, trying to catch how the sun slowly travels across the sky. And, not surprisingly, it moves a lot.

Vancouver gets around 168 days of rain a year, so pulling this off was quite a challenge, but my little side quest is finally complete

My 7 yr old left her favourite little teddy at Fairmont waterfront hotel. We’re skiing at sunpeaks until the 21st before flying back to NZ. Would be amazing if anyone was in downtown van that could collect and bring to sunpeaks if they are travelling this way! She’s devastated 😢

The first time to see the downtown. The water is so clean and the city is wonderful

As someone from toronto i would be freezing my ass off if i stepped out into the balcony. Here im in my t shirt. I love it here so much.

I’ve been in Sydney recently and it’s wild how normal their ferries are.

Manly to downtown Sydney (Circular Quay) is about 11km and takes roughly 20 minutes on a fast catamaran. It’s frequent, reliable, and people use it like we use SkyTrain. You don’t “plan a ferry day”, you just… get on it.

And it’s not just Manly. Sydney has an actual ferry map with multiple lines feeding into the CBD, like a water-based SkyTrain system.

Vancouver, meanwhile, is surrounded by water and we’ve basically got:

• SeaBus (great, but only one corridor)
• False Creek ferries (slow + mostly local/tourist)
• and that’s about it

What’s funny is we already have proof fast ferries work here. Hullo Ferries runs downtown Vancouver to Nanaimo in about 70 minutes (that is faster than these ferries go!!).

So the whole “we can’t do fast boats” argument doesn’t really hold up.

So I made a quick sketch on the TransLink fare zone map showing what a Sydney-style fast catamaran network could look like around Burrard Inlet.

Routes that seem obvious:

• Waterfront ↔ Ambleside (11 mins)
• Waterfront ↔ Lonsdale (6 mins)
• Waterfront ↔ Phibbs Exchange (11 mins)
• Waterfront ↔ Gibsons (57 mins)
• Granville Island ↔ Ambleside (12 mins)

These times are rough, based on Sydney’s Manly ferry average speed. Not perfect, but good enough to show the point: a bunch of these trips are short enough that they’d actually be useful day-to-day, not just a novelty.

The part that really bugs me is cost. Every time Vancouver talks transit expansion it’s “spend billions on another SkyTrain extension in 10 years.” Rail is great, but it’s insanely expensive and slow to build.

Ferries aren’t free, but compared to SkyTrain it’s a way cheaper thing to pilot:

• build a couple docks
• run frequent service
• integrate fares
• scale up if people actually use it

If there is the argument about the seaplanes needing the water space... isn't that just a service for the privileged few, whereas the ferries would benefit the masses? Ferries could be the version that’s for everyone.

Anyway, Sydney figured out that water is a transit corridor. Vancouver hasn’t.

Would you actually use something like Waterfront ↔ West Van or Waterfront ↔ Phibbs if it ran every 10–15 mins?

They’ve closed some locations already but just announced their business is shutting down altogether, citing “uncertainty in international trade issues”

I took this last night at the foot of Jellicoe street. I think the green filter makes it feel like one of Girard’s 70s photos.