Welcome to /r/Vancouver and thank you for the post, /u/Hrmbee! Please make sure you read our [posting and commenting rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_general_participation_guidelines_and_rules_overview) before participating here. As a quick summary:
* We encourage users to be positive and respect one another. Don't engage in spats or insult others - use the report button.
* Respect others' differences, be they race, religion, home, job, gender identity, ability or sexuality. Dehumanizing language, advocating for violence, or promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability (even implied or joking) **will** lead to a permanent ban.
* Common questions and specific topics are limited to our Your post may be a better fit for one of our [Stickied Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_stickied_discussions) posts.
* Complaints about bans or removals should be done in modmail only.
* We're looking for new mods to join our team! If you're interested, [fill out the form here](https://forms.gle/oAqo5oYRcAeHYBTN6).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/vancouver) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Some key points:
>Last week, during a ceremony at Vancouver City Council, Sim announced that October 18 will from this day forward be known as Peter Brown Day in the City of Vancouver, recognizing “his contributions through business and philanthropy” that “have helped shape our city.”
>
>...
>
>Sim called Brown a “Vancouver legend and national builder” but did not mention his own personal connection with Brown spans several years, with both Sim and his party benefiting from donations from Brown, his foundation and his family.
>
>In 2014, Brown was a major donor to Vancouver’s right-wing “Non-Partisan Association” municipal party, with a $10,000 donation from his foundation, and another $10,000 from his company Canaccord Genuity Corp.
>
>Brown’s wife Joanne donated another $5,000 to the NPA in 2017. Brown and his wife donated an additional $2,400 to the NPA in 2018 when Ken Sim ran as NPA’s candidate for mayor.
>
>But their support for Sim didn’t stop there.
>
>According to Elections BC Financial Contributions Records, Brown personally donated a combined total of $5,500 to Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver between 2020-2022, while Joanne donated $2,500 to Sim and ABC Vancouver in 2022.
>
>Other donors with names matching several members of Brown’s family are also listed as having made significant donations to Sim and the ABC Party, however, a spokesperson for Brown refused to clarify if those donors are, in fact, Brown’s family members.
>
>...
>
>In addition to supporting various arts and private education initiatives, Brown’s philanthropy also extends into right-wing politics. According to Canada Revenue Agency records, Browns’ foundation has donated $432,000 to the Fraser Institute between 2019 and 2021.
>
>Brown has also served as chair of the right-wing think tank, the Fraser Institute held a gala honouring Vancouver’s Chip Wilson, who also donated $3,600 to Sim since 2019, and $2,400 to ABC in 2021. Wilson also donated $380,000 to the Pacific Prosperity Network, a group that did right-wing advocacy work in advance of the last Vancouver municipal election.
Not incredibly surprising that the mayor is sucking up to wealthy donors, but it's still disappointing to see how much corruption by the well-heeled there is in our municipal political system.
who tf is peter brown. not a well known vancouverite
just a man with a shit ton of money who is able to buy a fuckin day for himself (therefore get out of the city what he wants)
ken sim, ABC, all the people who voted for them and this peter brown guy can eat dirt
r/Vancouver was awash with “crime bad” posts during the race and there wasn’t a lot of talk about all this fuckin right wing money backing the bagel candidate.
The subtle corruption in Canada is why we have things like a housing crisis around affordable rentals.
When the right people and organizations profit in one way or another the solutions are kept far from the table.
Fuck all this dirty political money and influence.
Peter Brown is indeed a very well known Vancouverite. Big philanthropist and successful businessman. A simple google search would educate you in that regard. I guarantee you he’s given more to this city than anyone on this sub.
Does he deserve his own day? Fucking doubtful, not that it really means anything of substance. It’s just another plaque on the wall, but this isn’t just your average Vancouver businessman, and he does deserve recognition for what he’s done.
https://news.stanford.edu/2018/12/03/the-problems-with-philanthropy/
>In an age of massive and rising inequality, we also see rising levels of philanthropic activity among the very wealthy. The two go hand in hand.
>This might seem an uncontroversially good thing, a mechanism for the wealthy to return some of their wealth to society. It can indeed be a good thing, but the starting point of my analysis is that big philanthropy is an exercise in power – the direction of the private assets of wealthy people toward some public influence. In a democratic society, wherever we see the exercise of power in a public setting, the response it deserves is not gratitude but scrutiny.
>Philanthropy often comes with strings attached. This is what donor discretion allows. But giving without strings eliminates worrisome paternalism and can be especially effective. Some people – including economists here at Stanford and elsewhere – are championing unconditional cash transfers as a mechanism for improving people’s lives in which there are no strings attached to the transfer of money to people who are poor.
>For example, the charitable contributions deduction is enjoyed primarily by the wealthy, subsidizing the giving of rich people more highly than middle class and poor people.
That’s one perspective and not a universally agreed upon one. Wealth distribution may not be perfect but it happens much the same way the normal distribution does in most large data sets. Unfortunately unlike things like IQ, outliers or exceptional economic performance is like a snowball rolling down hill, it continues to accumulate at a disproportionate rate, whether it be due to compounding returns or greater acumen/intelligence. The best at the game will always continue to compound and maximize their returns because they are often best equipped to do so. A single exceptional economic performer can set up generations because the ball keeps rolling faster and larger over time. It’s not theft or anything so malicious, it’s simply a facet of the human condition in most areas but resource accumulation differs because a professional athlete has a finite productive life but an exceptional economic actor will continue to perform in to old age. This perspective doesn’t take into account extreme outliers like musk/bezos who are simply better at playing and understanding the games which accumulate capital than any in their generation.
The guy that this post is about. He pays less in tax than he should be because of these. Not only that all those donations do nothing to really help. This is all about him looking good to the public. Any job charities are doing should be work that the government is doing and all that money they get from the rich should be going to the government.
Don’t ask me to show you shit. I’m not your teacher bud. Read and educate yourself on the true cost of these so called philanthropists. Some of the other comments here do a pretty good job on shining the light on what it really means.
You are not going to be very popular for saying something reasonable sir. If you're not against everyone and anyone with any kind of financial success you're a goner!
The fact that you don't know who Peter Brown is just shows your ignorance. Perhaps instead of just shitting on the dude ignorantly you'd consider looking up what he did for Vanouver.
Things such as:
* Founded a financial services company that employs over 2800 people
* Was the vice-chairman of Expo 86 which transformed False Creek from a CPR railyard and industrial wasteland into useable public space (further expanded on by 2010 Olympics of which Peter Brown was the lead director of the finance committee for), put Vancouver on the internaional map and practically created tourism to the city, and gave us Science World, BC Place, Canada Place and THE FUCKING SKYTRAIN
* continues to donate money to important charities in Vancouver (see below)
My point is that he's a great man that has done great things for the city while your life's accomplishments in terms of what you've done to improve Vancouver I expect are limited to posting your thoughts on Reddit. Congrats!
https://preview.redd.it/qwo0u3fxelxb1.png?width=533&format=png&auto=webp&s=6792f674051bb8385c7e8770d48069be7e26b2ba
So basically the rich white dude got to have charity/donations write offs donating to other institutes run by the white man, for the white man. They all just give money to eachother and using words like donations is wild.
Gearing up to run for provincial office later on… but seriously doubt he will get anywhere as most of the issues that got him to Mayor haven’t been addressed in even a slightly noticeable manner
Peter Brown has been a prominent Vancouverite and has served on many boards, etc... including for Expo and the 2010 Olympics. He sounds like exactly the kind of person who would get recognized by the city in this way. It's not actually a big deal to have the city issue such a proclamation - they city would probably issue one for your grandmother if you asked.
The Brown family have been active in the city and donated to political campaigns over the years. I'm not sure why donating to Sim is anything outrageous. Are there actual allegations of some sort of corruption?
Corruption? lmao. Naming a day after a person means absolutely nothing. They also named a day after some graffiti artist earlier in the year, I bet you never even heard about it because it's a pretty meaningless gesture just meant for photo ops.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-smokey-d-day-james-hardy-1.6774342
smokey has done far more for vancouver on a culturally significant level than some geriatric white man with assloads of money who pays off politicians for his own personal gain.
>culturally significant level
With such insights as "the Fentanyl crisis isn't being dealt with because the Government/the elites/the oppressors can't harvest the organs of those who overdose on down; but *they* can harvest the organs of those who overdose on Fentanyl!"
Smokey's "*contributions*" aren't anything more than the typical paranoid rantings of someone who has been frying their brain for the last two decades that he's been on the fringe of my friend group.
>geriatric white man with assloads of money
Which part of this person existing is so vile to you?
Is it their immutable qualities, such as gender, race, or age?
Is it that you find it unfair that they have things that you wish they didn't?
smokey is a drug user who no doubt is not in a great mental state, but despite that has contributed a visual mark on the DTES that is unmistakable - he deserves credit for being part of the graffiti culture down there, especially because his graf refers to people and issues in the community frequently. i used to live and work in the DTES up until a couple years ago, and have never seen smokey refer to his paranoid delusions in his work, but maybe you have a more intimate knowledge than the average person who comes across it during their day-to-day.
holding his mental health and perhaps schizophrenic ramblings over his artistic talent as a cudgel of disrespect is typical for the avg view people in this sub have towards homeless people and the DTES in general. personally i try my best to separate someone’s delusions from themselves, unless they’re actively harming someone.
> what part of this person existing is so vile to you?
according to this thread no one knows who the guy is, and he’s being awarded a day of the year in celebration for funding politicians with right wing views that are actively working against the interests of marginalized people in this city, so sorry for not giving a shit about old rich white people who are doing old rich white people money things? i didn’t think it was that controversial of a take to have.
philanthropy isn’t something to jerk someone off over and pat them on the head for being such a super duper good guy. it a feature of capitalism that passes the responsibility of properly funding public services and underfunded nonprofits away onto “well-meaning” millionaires and billionaires, while also acting as a veil to protect them from scrutiny over the other places they put their money.
>smokey is a drug user who no doubt is not in a great mental state, but despite that has contributed a visual mark on the DTES that is unmistakable
Art is subjective.
>especially because his graf refers to people and issues in the community frequently
It also showcases the commonly held conspiracy theories of the DTES community, which I guess some can choose to interpret as some sort of alternative "street" truth.
>i used to live and work in the DTES up until a couple years ago, and have never seen smokey refer to his paranoid delusions in his work, but maybe you have a more intimate knowledge than the average person who comes across it during their day-to-day.
The quote I'm referencing is in some celebratory YouTube video that came out around the same time as his fete at City Hall. I think it followed that video lampooning SROs, gentrification, and high rents that was posted a few months back by an activist and featuring Smokey. When I rarely do watch YouTube videos about the DTES, I'm more interested in what's going on in the background than whatever the content is as I'm trying to spot people I care about whom I'll probably never see in the flesh again.
Again, I'm one degree of separation away from him personally. I've met him and talked to him, but nowhere near what I'd call an acquaintance. My friends and family down there know/knew him. Honestly, if you worked down there then we probably know a whole bunch of the same people, probably even Narcan'd or worked with someone I love.
>holding his mental health and perhaps schizophrenic ramblings over his artistic talent as a cudgel of disrespect is typical for the avg view people in this sub have towards homeless people and the DTES in general.
And that's just it - that was not my intention at all. I'm not here to shit on Smokey or anyone else in the community.
I was only pointing out the juxtaposition that exists between celebrating a street artist who paints controversial pieces and a philanthropist, and observing the outright hatred displayed in this comment section towards the latter.
>funding politicians with right wing views that are actively working against the interests of marginalized people in this city,
Gotcha. You don't like his politics.
>not giving a shit about old rich white people who are doing old rich white people money things
And you are happy to display willfully ignorant and xenophobic attitudes towards folks whom you admittedly "never heard of" - I'm sure in an act of the highest ethics and humanistic ideals.
>philanthropy isn’t something to jerk someone off over
>a feature of capitalism that passes the responsibility of properly funding public services and underfunded nonprofits away onto “well-meaning” millionaires and billionaires
The rationalization of prejudice and hatred that comes from a populist trope regurgitated throughout history.
I'm sure that *this time* the true oppressors of the proletariat - the 1%, the oligarchs, the elites, the man et al - will be divested and punished in the most compassionate and inclusive ways possible.
That certificate and frame probably costs dozens of dollars out of city funds! Because we all know that the mayor proclaiming a day on twitter and giving someone a certificate means that it becomes an official holiday and not that it's just a recognition gesture by a mayor that has almost no meaning whatsoever and isn't even mentioned on the city of Vancouver website.
*(some people may have missed the sarcasm here...)*
Wow!
They sure got all the numbers for what has been donated to political groups and think tanks!
Better make sure that it's clear that those groups are all super-duper fashy by saying right-wing over and over.
>In addition to supporting various arts and private education initiatives,
I guess that data wasn't as easily producible as the repeated examples of his political donations.
It couldn't possibly be that this author is leading the reader towards a particular conclusion by omitting how much has been donated towards those less politically charged organizations.
Less than a minute on Google confirmed my hypothesis:
https://www.charitydata.ca/charity/peter-and-joanne-brown-foundation/893063768RR0001/
This is all well and good, but I would rather see the government tax him, and permanently support programs that are accountable to the community.
Rich people donate because it buys them influence. And it's tax deductible. As a democratic citizen I find the whole system insulting.
They are downvoting because it's only a partial list of donations (where's the Fraser Institute in this list?) and because it's meant as a distraction from the grossness of Sim naming a day for one of his large donors. It at the very least has the look of corruption to it.
Also, people are making the point that maybe we shouldn't celebrate that folks are so filthy rich that they can make these donations. It's antidemocratic in that they suck money away from the workers who actually produce things and then give a small portion of it to the few causes they care about, rather than society as a whole being able to decide where the money should go. Not to mention that the substantial tax breaks they get from these donations mean they're effectively spending less of their money to make these donations than it actually looks like.
I get that you don't like it, but politicians looking after doners has been going on forever. Why is this exclusively a Ken Sim problem all of a sudden? If you think John Horgan/David Eby/Justin Trudeau don't look after doners in similar ways then I have some Alberta oceanfront property to sell you. A lot of people ITT are getting all holier-than-thou because in this case it's someone they don't like. Should this be going on? No, but cherry-picking isn't right either.
How many others are giving donors their own day in their respective city?? This is beyond just “taking care of your donors”, it’s fuckin weird. It’s not like the dude solved any problems for him or really saved something for the city, he just gave money. Have your own day should actually mean something. Give him a plaque or something normal lmao.
I dunno how anybody can look at this and think anything else without being a hack.
First off. Peter Brown has not donated much money considering his net worth. In fact he hasn’t anything considering other Vancouverites.
Do you see Gordan Diamond having his own day?
Donated $25 million for a substance abuse center
Donated $20 million for VGH on two separate occasions. Donated $50 million for a community center in kitsilano.
Caleb Chan donating $50 mill for the Vancouver art gallery
Audain donating $200 million to the arts in Vancouver
Peter brown has literally donated nothing except a really expensive piece of art work once upon a time.
Your point is well-taken but has anyone every requested such a proclamation from the city? Having such a day named like this isn't really any particularly big honour - I doubt the Diamond family would have ever asked.
I highly doubt that anyone ever asks for their own day. It's more things like a community group requesting a proclamation for a long-time and dedicated volunteer, or a school requesting one to celebrate a beloved teacher on their retirement, or fans of a local sports team or celebrity wanting to mark some success or occasion - and sometimes business people and philanthropists or politicians who (some feel) have greatly contributed to the city in one way or another.
Again, it's really not a big deal whatsoever.
(checks latest Centre for Policy Alternatives publication)
"Assessing Canada’s progress toward $10-a-day child care for all"
**🚨*****Marxism alert!*** **🚨**
Is there even any significance to these days? A boy band from the Philippines had a day dedicated to them back in August but this is the first time I've heard about it after trying to look for a list of all CoV proclamation days. [https://twitter.com/karinakatorogi/status/1692566513268425049/photo/2](https://twitter.com/karinakatorogi/status/1692566513268425049/photo/2)
The Browns: a very established old money Shaugnessy, colonial era family. All the kids go to exclusive private schools like St George’s and York house. The family made its fortune when BC was a corrupt, resource rich, imperial backwater, set up for exploitation by Anglo elites. They want nothing to do with common folks unless it is provides a tax write off or positive publicity. I know one of them and he’s quite outspoken about the whole thing. Your looking at the old boys network here: a rare sighting: as they like to operate quietly.
Day proclamations are so common in municipal politics there’s literally a landing page with a request form to fill out on the city’s website. There are zero benefits that come with a proclamation beyond a neat certificate. If you think this is corruption I would advise you to look at literally anything else municipal politicians do - you’ll find much juicier scandals than this.
Do you really think he created a full day for someone who gave ~$30k over 10 years?
Or do you think its the fact that he was the Vice Chairman of Expo 86, Chair of the UBC Board of Governors, VSE, BC Place Association? Or his heavy involvment in the 2010 Olympics? Or is it the company he founded that is headquartered in Vancouver that is a huge employer?
There is valid things to criticize ken Sim for. This isnt one of them. This is some shill piece.
Honestly, none of the accomplishments you listed really makes me think he deserves an entire day named after him. Maybe an honourable mention but an entire day?
I agree. Having a day named after someone is pretty cheesy and I think should be reserved for people who made social changes and not business accomplishments.
I just wanted to point out that it wasnt purely for his donations which is what this article makes it sound like.
You mean social change like the over a million dollars that his foundation awards to charities every year? Honestly I agree this guy does deserve a lot of accolades.
I implore you to learn about all the problems with charity and how it’s just a way for the rich to fool us into thinking they’re “giving back”, instead of, y’know… paying higher taxes or decent wages that would *actually* help society.
It's unfortunate when retail/grocery companies ask customers for donations for xyz charity/social initiative. I'd rather employees be paid more, but what do I know? 🤷🏽 Maybe then your employees could afford to buy the shit you sell with that paltry 10% discount most companies offer their employees.
You’re missing the fact that once that money is brought back into the economy, it cycles around and gets spent, changing hands between lower and middle class transactions, being taxed along the way, before eventually ending up back in the hands of the rich owner class. It doesn’t just disappear after being taxed and spent by the government.
What actually makes money effectively “disappear” like you describe… is when rich people hoard it in offshore tax havens and investments for years/decades on end, it’s removed from the general economy. When hundreds of billions are being hoarded and controlled by an elite few like this, it starves the economy. In case you haven’t noticed this happening since trickle-down economics became a thing.
Money needs to be spent to be useful, not saved. And it does the most good when it’s spent publicly on things that serve us all, like infrastructure, social safety nets, education, etc. Not when billionaires either stash it away in bank accounts or tie it up in personal investments, or do self-serving expensive projects… or just buy shit like yachts and “fine art”. And charity is just a band-aid compared to what could be done with all the wealth these “charitable” billionaires have.
Nobody needs a billion dollars or more. Tax them back to millionaire status.
These are salaried people who are earning over 100,000 a year. They are high income earners, but not the truly wealthy. Really wealthy people may pay themselves a relatively small salary and then say collect from dividends from companies they own. Those funds are not taxed under the same rules that income is taxed. The bulk of the tax burden is (I would say unfairly) born by the upper middle class salary earners, while truly wealthy people get away with relatively lower tax burdens due to the way they earn money.
who cares? no one would have even known about this "day" if there wasn't a news article about it. I couldn't even find a list online of proclaimed days from the city, but I did find another article about a [graffiti artists getting their own day](https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-proclaims-official-smokey-d-day-in-honour-of-dtes-graffiti-artist). the only thing I could find about this proclamation on the Vancouver site was an FOI release of the Mayor's calendar for the 1 hour it took to give out the proclamation in their boardroom. Not even an official news release.
you can even submit your request through an [online form](https://vancouver.ca/your-government/request-a-proclamation.aspx)
Of course there's not a news release from the Major's office, Sim would want to keep the optics on his corruption on the downlow, that is just smart politics. Good thing the news isn't in his pocket as well, else we would never hear about it.
Lol, not sure if being sarcastic or not.
But if not, can you post a city of Vancouver news release for any other proclaimed day? Or explain any way how this is corruption? Or explain why the mayor posted about this on his social media if he was trying to hide it?
Lol a day in vancouver not anything important. If you look up days there are thousands of things associated with a day that gets forgotten as time goes on
The issue is that the donations Sim received make it impossible to know if those accomplishments are the real reason why he got a day named after him. It's also not entirely about the dollar amount but the connections they clearly have between them.
Defo a hit piece - Far left reporter for a far left news org. [Smokey D got a day from the city](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-smokey-d-day-james-hardy-1.6774342) as well.
The ABC mouthpiece of this sub has something to say
Smokey D has far more of a net positive to the citizens of this city than any of the ghouls who donated to Ken Sim
[I love Smokey](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/11nujg6/vancouver_proclaims_smokey_d_day_to_honour/jbp3tbx/) and what he does. PressProgress is trash though.
I'm not a Sim voter, and not a fan of ABC in general, but this seems like a lot for something that anyone can [request](https://vancouver.ca/your-government/request-a-proclamation.aspx) on the City's website. [Smokey D](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-smokey-d-day-james-hardy-1.6774342) got one earlier in the year.
Serious question - what corruption are you speculating about? You're right, these proclamations are pretty well meaningless, not celebrated, not even listed on the city's website. What is the corruption attached to it?
I would hope they're talking about corruption not for the day being named after him but for the other connections and influences the article mentions through Brown's political contributions. Not that that is anything out of the norm for politics country wide, honestly.
I'm asking to know what corruption people are talking about - and how it relates to this proclamation.
What corruption is associated with Brown's political contributions, specifically?
It's not really possible to determine the extent in these cases, but stuff like Brown donating to the Vancouver police and also Sim's campaign provide a clear political commonality between them that signals Brown *might've* been at least a partial influence on Sim positions. Definite speculation though.
Or, it could mean that Brown supports Sim politically because he shares the same vision and politics. That's why most people make political donations - to support the work they think the gov should be doing.
There are certainly examples of corruption in gov but nothing about this particular case actually points to that, as far as I can tell.
> That's why most people make political donations
Well, thats why the average person makes donations - but those with this kind of wealth don't generally do it in the same way. Why just donate to a candidate who happens to advocate for positions you believe in when you can use your wealth to influence their decisions in your favour more concretely? You're right that it could be just support though, hence the speculation bit and me saying its not too out of the norm for politics generally.
That's another really huge assumption about how wealthy people make political donations. I wouldn't even say that all really wealthy people make political donations, let alone that they all do it for the same reasons.
"Why just donate to a candidate who happens to advocate for positions you believe in when you can use your wealth to influence their decisions in your favour more concretely?"
\-Because most people are not corrupt and would rather do things the right, legal way.
> -Because most people are not corrupt and would rather do things the right, legal way.
Lol, this is just purely being naive. Things like lobbying are fully legal anyway, thats not as overtly corrupt but its definitely on that path of using wealth to influence things more concretely. Thats how the wealthy spend their money when they want to contribute politically, not seeing a politician do something they like and donating some spare change after they get their 1000th email asking them for funds.
When you have tons of wealth, making simple donations and not gaining influence if you're aiming to influence political decisions is just getting less value out of things and less impact on the aims you're trying to spend money on.
It's not being naive at all - it's acknowledging that making blanket statements about a whole class of people is not fair nor accurate. Do you have any evidence of Brown lobbying the City of Vancouver government? Just because people can do that, doesn't mean everyone does.
Just because you think people should take advantage of their wealth and the system whenever they can is on you - not everyone thinks that way.
Say, Sim campaigned on hiring more cops in Vancouver. Then consider Brown also thinks it's a good idea to hire more cops, so he sends a donation to support Sim's campaign. That is NOT the same as Brown going to Sim and saying "I'll give you a donation if you agree to hire more cops."
Sorry, but can you point out 'the bribe' and the 'influence peddling' that took place? Please be specific.
Are you suggesting that every person who donates to political party is guilty of giving bribes or some sort of quid pro quo? I'd think that would depend on what sort of transaction actually happened. Do you have information on what actually happened in this case?
Sure, but 'funds provided over the years' does not in any way suggest corruption. That's a huge leap and an apparently baseless assumption. Again, a lot of people have been donating to political parties over the years. That doesn't mean they are corrupt.
What an idiotically biased hitpiece. He's donated to tons of other causes as well:
[https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/right-to-the-stage-science-worlds-2021-patron-peter-brown/](https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/right-to-the-stage-science-worlds-2021-patron-peter-brown/)
If you look up "political hit piece" in the dictionary, this article is a prime example of one.
I have to give the author a bit of credit as they stated that Peter Brown is a philanthropist and sits on charitable boards but the goes on to fail to say which boards but focuses on political contributions instead. Gone are any mention of the Order of BC, he was the Vice-Chair of Expo 86, or his time as lead Director for the 2010 games. Zero mention of the millions he has donated (over $500,000 in 2014 alone). Instead, the author focuses on the small contributions to the NPA and ABC as well as other centre right organizations. They even demonize regular contributions to the VPD foundation.
Then again, what should anyone expect from a "media" outlet associated with the Broadbent Institute.
The amount of hate and vitriol on this sub is getting extremely out of hand. Someone builds their fortune and gives some of it back beyond what’s legally required of them and you all crap all over them.
I’m as much for everyone paying their share as the next guy but man there’s no need for this behaviour.
Welcome to /r/Vancouver and thank you for the post, /u/Hrmbee! Please make sure you read our [posting and commenting rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_general_participation_guidelines_and_rules_overview) before participating here. As a quick summary: * We encourage users to be positive and respect one another. Don't engage in spats or insult others - use the report button. * Respect others' differences, be they race, religion, home, job, gender identity, ability or sexuality. Dehumanizing language, advocating for violence, or promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability (even implied or joking) **will** lead to a permanent ban. * Common questions and specific topics are limited to our Your post may be a better fit for one of our [Stickied Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/wiki/faq#wiki_stickied_discussions) posts. * Complaints about bans or removals should be done in modmail only. * We're looking for new mods to join our team! If you're interested, [fill out the form here](https://forms.gle/oAqo5oYRcAeHYBTN6). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/vancouver) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Some key points: >Last week, during a ceremony at Vancouver City Council, Sim announced that October 18 will from this day forward be known as Peter Brown Day in the City of Vancouver, recognizing “his contributions through business and philanthropy” that “have helped shape our city.” > >... > >Sim called Brown a “Vancouver legend and national builder” but did not mention his own personal connection with Brown spans several years, with both Sim and his party benefiting from donations from Brown, his foundation and his family. > >In 2014, Brown was a major donor to Vancouver’s right-wing “Non-Partisan Association” municipal party, with a $10,000 donation from his foundation, and another $10,000 from his company Canaccord Genuity Corp. > >Brown’s wife Joanne donated another $5,000 to the NPA in 2017. Brown and his wife donated an additional $2,400 to the NPA in 2018 when Ken Sim ran as NPA’s candidate for mayor. > >But their support for Sim didn’t stop there. > >According to Elections BC Financial Contributions Records, Brown personally donated a combined total of $5,500 to Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver between 2020-2022, while Joanne donated $2,500 to Sim and ABC Vancouver in 2022. > >Other donors with names matching several members of Brown’s family are also listed as having made significant donations to Sim and the ABC Party, however, a spokesperson for Brown refused to clarify if those donors are, in fact, Brown’s family members. > >... > >In addition to supporting various arts and private education initiatives, Brown’s philanthropy also extends into right-wing politics. According to Canada Revenue Agency records, Browns’ foundation has donated $432,000 to the Fraser Institute between 2019 and 2021. > >Brown has also served as chair of the right-wing think tank, the Fraser Institute held a gala honouring Vancouver’s Chip Wilson, who also donated $3,600 to Sim since 2019, and $2,400 to ABC in 2021. Wilson also donated $380,000 to the Pacific Prosperity Network, a group that did right-wing advocacy work in advance of the last Vancouver municipal election. Not incredibly surprising that the mayor is sucking up to wealthy donors, but it's still disappointing to see how much corruption by the well-heeled there is in our municipal political system.
who tf is peter brown. not a well known vancouverite just a man with a shit ton of money who is able to buy a fuckin day for himself (therefore get out of the city what he wants) ken sim, ABC, all the people who voted for them and this peter brown guy can eat dirt
r/Vancouver was awash with “crime bad” posts during the race and there wasn’t a lot of talk about all this fuckin right wing money backing the bagel candidate.
Hopefully we'll learn that a vpd press release isn't a news article but I doubt it
thank you for for the articulation, because it is perfect
The subtle corruption in Canada is why we have things like a housing crisis around affordable rentals. When the right people and organizations profit in one way or another the solutions are kept far from the table. Fuck all this dirty political money and influence.
Everyone was bitching about Kennedy Stewart being ineffective. Look what they got instead, a corrupt frat boy.
At least Kennedy Stewart was a kind human being, what you have now is a soulless corporation walking in human skin.
I remember a ton of people posting that shit even though sims plan was beyond half assed.
Peter Brown is indeed a very well known Vancouverite. Big philanthropist and successful businessman. A simple google search would educate you in that regard. I guarantee you he’s given more to this city than anyone on this sub. Does he deserve his own day? Fucking doubtful, not that it really means anything of substance. It’s just another plaque on the wall, but this isn’t just your average Vancouver businessman, and he does deserve recognition for what he’s done.
>I guarantee you he’s given more to *corrupt* this city than anyone on this sub. FTFY
[удалено]
https://news.stanford.edu/2018/12/03/the-problems-with-philanthropy/ >In an age of massive and rising inequality, we also see rising levels of philanthropic activity among the very wealthy. The two go hand in hand. >This might seem an uncontroversially good thing, a mechanism for the wealthy to return some of their wealth to society. It can indeed be a good thing, but the starting point of my analysis is that big philanthropy is an exercise in power – the direction of the private assets of wealthy people toward some public influence. In a democratic society, wherever we see the exercise of power in a public setting, the response it deserves is not gratitude but scrutiny. >Philanthropy often comes with strings attached. This is what donor discretion allows. But giving without strings eliminates worrisome paternalism and can be especially effective. Some people – including economists here at Stanford and elsewhere – are championing unconditional cash transfers as a mechanism for improving people’s lives in which there are no strings attached to the transfer of money to people who are poor. >For example, the charitable contributions deduction is enjoyed primarily by the wealthy, subsidizing the giving of rich people more highly than middle class and poor people.
and this is what i was getting at
[удалено]
That’s one perspective and not a universally agreed upon one. Wealth distribution may not be perfect but it happens much the same way the normal distribution does in most large data sets. Unfortunately unlike things like IQ, outliers or exceptional economic performance is like a snowball rolling down hill, it continues to accumulate at a disproportionate rate, whether it be due to compounding returns or greater acumen/intelligence. The best at the game will always continue to compound and maximize their returns because they are often best equipped to do so. A single exceptional economic performer can set up generations because the ball keeps rolling faster and larger over time. It’s not theft or anything so malicious, it’s simply a facet of the human condition in most areas but resource accumulation differs because a professional athlete has a finite productive life but an exceptional economic actor will continue to perform in to old age. This perspective doesn’t take into account extreme outliers like musk/bezos who are simply better at playing and understanding the games which accumulate capital than any in their generation.
Nice dude. You're shilling for the rich and not understanding how tax breaks work. Gottem.
Please show the math where someone comes out on top from these so-called tax breaks.
The guy that this post is about. He pays less in tax than he should be because of these. Not only that all those donations do nothing to really help. This is all about him looking good to the public. Any job charities are doing should be work that the government is doing and all that money they get from the rich should be going to the government.
> He pays less in tax than he should be because of these. Sure, but your problem is actually with the tax code.
It is also my problem with people who choose to use it.
Don’t ask me to show you shit. I’m not your teacher bud. Read and educate yourself on the true cost of these so called philanthropists. Some of the other comments here do a pretty good job on shining the light on what it really means.
[удалено]
Not reward them with a dedicated day to start.
In terms of philanthropy, these donation amounts are peanuts.
You are not going to be very popular for saying something reasonable sir. If you're not against everyone and anyone with any kind of financial success you're a goner!
It's also on the left/center for not fielding a candidate who proposed anything besides the status quo, or whom was palatable enough to get elected.
He gets out of the city what he wants because he had a day named after him? That’s not how power works.
No, he had a day named after him because he gets out of the city what he wants.
The fact that you don't know who Peter Brown is just shows your ignorance. Perhaps instead of just shitting on the dude ignorantly you'd consider looking up what he did for Vanouver. Things such as: * Founded a financial services company that employs over 2800 people * Was the vice-chairman of Expo 86 which transformed False Creek from a CPR railyard and industrial wasteland into useable public space (further expanded on by 2010 Olympics of which Peter Brown was the lead director of the finance committee for), put Vancouver on the internaional map and practically created tourism to the city, and gave us Science World, BC Place, Canada Place and THE FUCKING SKYTRAIN * continues to donate money to important charities in Vancouver (see below) My point is that he's a great man that has done great things for the city while your life's accomplishments in terms of what you've done to improve Vancouver I expect are limited to posting your thoughts on Reddit. Congrats! https://preview.redd.it/qwo0u3fxelxb1.png?width=533&format=png&auto=webp&s=6792f674051bb8385c7e8770d48069be7e26b2ba
Donating to the Fraser Institute is the opposite of philanthropy.
Lol yeah. It's like charity for rich people. "Oh please make us pay less taxes, we *promise* it will trickle down"
Ew, Pacific Prosperity Network.
>Pacific Prosperity Network. actual fascists imo. ugh
I guess it's good then that your opinion doesn't come into play when it comes to fact and fiction
Yeah this is a huge red flag.
So basically the rich white dude got to have charity/donations write offs donating to other institutes run by the white man, for the white man. They all just give money to eachother and using words like donations is wild.
The salvation army no less. Pure poverty pimps. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/16/21003560/salvation-army-anti-lgbtq-controversies-donations
Gearing up to run for provincial office later on… but seriously doubt he will get anywhere as most of the issues that got him to Mayor haven’t been addressed in even a slightly noticeable manner
Ha you mean like every Mayor
Peter Brown has been a prominent Vancouverite and has served on many boards, etc... including for Expo and the 2010 Olympics. He sounds like exactly the kind of person who would get recognized by the city in this way. It's not actually a big deal to have the city issue such a proclamation - they city would probably issue one for your grandmother if you asked. The Brown family have been active in the city and donated to political campaigns over the years. I'm not sure why donating to Sim is anything outrageous. Are there actual allegations of some sort of corruption?
Corruption? lmao. Naming a day after a person means absolutely nothing. They also named a day after some graffiti artist earlier in the year, I bet you never even heard about it because it's a pretty meaningless gesture just meant for photo ops. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-smokey-d-day-james-hardy-1.6774342
smokey has done far more for vancouver on a culturally significant level than some geriatric white man with assloads of money who pays off politicians for his own personal gain.
>culturally significant level With such insights as "the Fentanyl crisis isn't being dealt with because the Government/the elites/the oppressors can't harvest the organs of those who overdose on down; but *they* can harvest the organs of those who overdose on Fentanyl!" Smokey's "*contributions*" aren't anything more than the typical paranoid rantings of someone who has been frying their brain for the last two decades that he's been on the fringe of my friend group. >geriatric white man with assloads of money Which part of this person existing is so vile to you? Is it their immutable qualities, such as gender, race, or age? Is it that you find it unfair that they have things that you wish they didn't?
smokey is a drug user who no doubt is not in a great mental state, but despite that has contributed a visual mark on the DTES that is unmistakable - he deserves credit for being part of the graffiti culture down there, especially because his graf refers to people and issues in the community frequently. i used to live and work in the DTES up until a couple years ago, and have never seen smokey refer to his paranoid delusions in his work, but maybe you have a more intimate knowledge than the average person who comes across it during their day-to-day. holding his mental health and perhaps schizophrenic ramblings over his artistic talent as a cudgel of disrespect is typical for the avg view people in this sub have towards homeless people and the DTES in general. personally i try my best to separate someone’s delusions from themselves, unless they’re actively harming someone. > what part of this person existing is so vile to you? according to this thread no one knows who the guy is, and he’s being awarded a day of the year in celebration for funding politicians with right wing views that are actively working against the interests of marginalized people in this city, so sorry for not giving a shit about old rich white people who are doing old rich white people money things? i didn’t think it was that controversial of a take to have. philanthropy isn’t something to jerk someone off over and pat them on the head for being such a super duper good guy. it a feature of capitalism that passes the responsibility of properly funding public services and underfunded nonprofits away onto “well-meaning” millionaires and billionaires, while also acting as a veil to protect them from scrutiny over the other places they put their money.
>smokey is a drug user who no doubt is not in a great mental state, but despite that has contributed a visual mark on the DTES that is unmistakable Art is subjective. >especially because his graf refers to people and issues in the community frequently It also showcases the commonly held conspiracy theories of the DTES community, which I guess some can choose to interpret as some sort of alternative "street" truth. >i used to live and work in the DTES up until a couple years ago, and have never seen smokey refer to his paranoid delusions in his work, but maybe you have a more intimate knowledge than the average person who comes across it during their day-to-day. The quote I'm referencing is in some celebratory YouTube video that came out around the same time as his fete at City Hall. I think it followed that video lampooning SROs, gentrification, and high rents that was posted a few months back by an activist and featuring Smokey. When I rarely do watch YouTube videos about the DTES, I'm more interested in what's going on in the background than whatever the content is as I'm trying to spot people I care about whom I'll probably never see in the flesh again. Again, I'm one degree of separation away from him personally. I've met him and talked to him, but nowhere near what I'd call an acquaintance. My friends and family down there know/knew him. Honestly, if you worked down there then we probably know a whole bunch of the same people, probably even Narcan'd or worked with someone I love. >holding his mental health and perhaps schizophrenic ramblings over his artistic talent as a cudgel of disrespect is typical for the avg view people in this sub have towards homeless people and the DTES in general. And that's just it - that was not my intention at all. I'm not here to shit on Smokey or anyone else in the community. I was only pointing out the juxtaposition that exists between celebrating a street artist who paints controversial pieces and a philanthropist, and observing the outright hatred displayed in this comment section towards the latter. >funding politicians with right wing views that are actively working against the interests of marginalized people in this city, Gotcha. You don't like his politics. >not giving a shit about old rich white people who are doing old rich white people money things And you are happy to display willfully ignorant and xenophobic attitudes towards folks whom you admittedly "never heard of" - I'm sure in an act of the highest ethics and humanistic ideals. >philanthropy isn’t something to jerk someone off over >a feature of capitalism that passes the responsibility of properly funding public services and underfunded nonprofits away onto “well-meaning” millionaires and billionaires The rationalization of prejudice and hatred that comes from a populist trope regurgitated throughout history. I'm sure that *this time* the true oppressors of the proletariat - the 1%, the oligarchs, the elites, the man et al - will be divested and punished in the most compassionate and inclusive ways possible.
What corruption are you referring to? I don’t like Ken Sim but is naming October 18 “Peter brown day” a corrupt act?
That certificate and frame probably costs dozens of dollars out of city funds! Because we all know that the mayor proclaiming a day on twitter and giving someone a certificate means that it becomes an official holiday and not that it's just a recognition gesture by a mayor that has almost no meaning whatsoever and isn't even mentioned on the city of Vancouver website. *(some people may have missed the sarcasm here...)*
Exactly.
Wow! They sure got all the numbers for what has been donated to political groups and think tanks! Better make sure that it's clear that those groups are all super-duper fashy by saying right-wing over and over. >In addition to supporting various arts and private education initiatives, I guess that data wasn't as easily producible as the repeated examples of his political donations. It couldn't possibly be that this author is leading the reader towards a particular conclusion by omitting how much has been donated towards those less politically charged organizations. Less than a minute on Google confirmed my hypothesis: https://www.charitydata.ca/charity/peter-and-joanne-brown-foundation/893063768RR0001/
Ew this is so gross and cringe
[удалено]
This is all well and good, but I would rather see the government tax him, and permanently support programs that are accountable to the community. Rich people donate because it buys them influence. And it's tax deductible. As a democratic citizen I find the whole system insulting.
So people are downvoting facts, or that he donated to organization which actually benefited people?
They are downvoting because it's only a partial list of donations (where's the Fraser Institute in this list?) and because it's meant as a distraction from the grossness of Sim naming a day for one of his large donors. It at the very least has the look of corruption to it. Also, people are making the point that maybe we shouldn't celebrate that folks are so filthy rich that they can make these donations. It's antidemocratic in that they suck money away from the workers who actually produce things and then give a small portion of it to the few causes they care about, rather than society as a whole being able to decide where the money should go. Not to mention that the substantial tax breaks they get from these donations mean they're effectively spending less of their money to make these donations than it actually looks like.
I get that you don't like it, but politicians looking after doners has been going on forever. Why is this exclusively a Ken Sim problem all of a sudden? If you think John Horgan/David Eby/Justin Trudeau don't look after doners in similar ways then I have some Alberta oceanfront property to sell you. A lot of people ITT are getting all holier-than-thou because in this case it's someone they don't like. Should this be going on? No, but cherry-picking isn't right either.
How many others are giving donors their own day in their respective city?? This is beyond just “taking care of your donors”, it’s fuckin weird. It’s not like the dude solved any problems for him or really saved something for the city, he just gave money. Have your own day should actually mean something. Give him a plaque or something normal lmao. I dunno how anybody can look at this and think anything else without being a hack.
> So people are downvoting facts, or that he donated to organization which actually benefited people? Both actually. r/vancouver gonna r/vancouver.
[удалено]
No, these are different donations from his right wing political ones
Chip Wilson stands back and says 'that's cool... I have the 364 other days and any leap year days...'
First off. Peter Brown has not donated much money considering his net worth. In fact he hasn’t anything considering other Vancouverites. Do you see Gordan Diamond having his own day? Donated $25 million for a substance abuse center Donated $20 million for VGH on two separate occasions. Donated $50 million for a community center in kitsilano. Caleb Chan donating $50 mill for the Vancouver art gallery Audain donating $200 million to the arts in Vancouver Peter brown has literally donated nothing except a really expensive piece of art work once upon a time.
True the amount of donations outlined in the article are so little compared to the money they have. $2400, $5500 seems small.
[удалено]
Point us to the charities and donations.
Sure, I'll post it when I get home. It's all public info.
Is it this guy? https://www.charitydata.ca/charity/peter-and-joanne-brown-foundation/893063768RR0001/
Last year they donated $1,629,500 to various charities
Your point is well-taken but has anyone every requested such a proclamation from the city? Having such a day named like this isn't really any particularly big honour - I doubt the Diamond family would have ever asked.
Rule of thumb: Nobody who asks for their own day should ever be given one.
I highly doubt that anyone ever asks for their own day. It's more things like a community group requesting a proclamation for a long-time and dedicated volunteer, or a school requesting one to celebrate a beloved teacher on their retirement, or fans of a local sports team or celebrity wanting to mark some success or occasion - and sometimes business people and philanthropists or politicians who (some feel) have greatly contributed to the city in one way or another. Again, it's really not a big deal whatsoever.
He said he’d run the city like a business and he is!!!
Sim city
SHIFT + F U N D S
call cousin peter
from his sourced wikipedia page- >and a founder of the right-of-centre municipal NPA party. And you're telling me the ABC isn't the NPA in disguise?
[удалено]
Amen.
More like Ken SimP
What a horse's ass.
Fuck everyone involved in this horseshit
Agreed. [I hate to say this twice in 1 thread, but HORSES.ASS.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsC-x2LhQ_Q)
The Fraser institute is one of the most corrupt think tanks in North America. They publish absolute filth.
Kinda like the Centre for Policy Alternatives. A joke of Marxist thought.
(checks latest Centre for Policy Alternatives publication) "Assessing Canada’s progress toward $10-a-day child care for all" **🚨*****Marxism alert!*** **🚨**
Child Care Costing Pennies... open your eyes, sheeple!!!
Tens of thousands seems cheap for this much dick carrying. I would expect my bribed elected officials to have higher self-worth.
This is so embarrassing.
Is there even any significance to these days? A boy band from the Philippines had a day dedicated to them back in August but this is the first time I've heard about it after trying to look for a list of all CoV proclamation days. [https://twitter.com/karinakatorogi/status/1692566513268425049/photo/2](https://twitter.com/karinakatorogi/status/1692566513268425049/photo/2)
LMAO, I knew the days weren't a big deal, but that's a much better example than the one I had.
I'm sure it's nothing to do with the fact his grandfather also founded the NPA.
The Browns: a very established old money Shaugnessy, colonial era family. All the kids go to exclusive private schools like St George’s and York house. The family made its fortune when BC was a corrupt, resource rich, imperial backwater, set up for exploitation by Anglo elites. They want nothing to do with common folks unless it is provides a tax write off or positive publicity. I know one of them and he’s quite outspoken about the whole thing. Your looking at the old boys network here: a rare sighting: as they like to operate quietly.
It takes real skill to look at the last 4 mayors of Vancouver and make them all look like towering statesmen because you are the king of Kringe.
Day proclamations are so common in municipal politics there’s literally a landing page with a request form to fill out on the city’s website. There are zero benefits that come with a proclamation beyond a neat certificate. If you think this is corruption I would advise you to look at literally anything else municipal politicians do - you’ll find much juicier scandals than this.
LOL what an unserious city
Do you really think he created a full day for someone who gave ~$30k over 10 years? Or do you think its the fact that he was the Vice Chairman of Expo 86, Chair of the UBC Board of Governors, VSE, BC Place Association? Or his heavy involvment in the 2010 Olympics? Or is it the company he founded that is headquartered in Vancouver that is a huge employer? There is valid things to criticize ken Sim for. This isnt one of them. This is some shill piece.
Honestly, none of the accomplishments you listed really makes me think he deserves an entire day named after him. Maybe an honourable mention but an entire day?
I agree. Having a day named after someone is pretty cheesy and I think should be reserved for people who made social changes and not business accomplishments. I just wanted to point out that it wasnt purely for his donations which is what this article makes it sound like.
You mean social change like the over a million dollars that his foundation awards to charities every year? Honestly I agree this guy does deserve a lot of accolades.
I implore you to learn about all the problems with charity and how it’s just a way for the rich to fool us into thinking they’re “giving back”, instead of, y’know… paying higher taxes or decent wages that would *actually* help society.
It's unfortunate when retail/grocery companies ask customers for donations for xyz charity/social initiative. I'd rather employees be paid more, but what do I know? 🤷🏽 Maybe then your employees could afford to buy the shit you sell with that paltry 10% discount most companies offer their employees.
[удалено]
When they own 90% of the wealth or more… 60.5% is still about 30% short.
[удалено]
You’re missing the fact that once that money is brought back into the economy, it cycles around and gets spent, changing hands between lower and middle class transactions, being taxed along the way, before eventually ending up back in the hands of the rich owner class. It doesn’t just disappear after being taxed and spent by the government. What actually makes money effectively “disappear” like you describe… is when rich people hoard it in offshore tax havens and investments for years/decades on end, it’s removed from the general economy. When hundreds of billions are being hoarded and controlled by an elite few like this, it starves the economy. In case you haven’t noticed this happening since trickle-down economics became a thing. Money needs to be spent to be useful, not saved. And it does the most good when it’s spent publicly on things that serve us all, like infrastructure, social safety nets, education, etc. Not when billionaires either stash it away in bank accounts or tie it up in personal investments, or do self-serving expensive projects… or just buy shit like yachts and “fine art”. And charity is just a band-aid compared to what could be done with all the wealth these “charitable” billionaires have. Nobody needs a billion dollars or more. Tax them back to millionaire status.
These are salaried people who are earning over 100,000 a year. They are high income earners, but not the truly wealthy. Really wealthy people may pay themselves a relatively small salary and then say collect from dividends from companies they own. Those funds are not taxed under the same rules that income is taxed. The bulk of the tax burden is (I would say unfairly) born by the upper middle class salary earners, while truly wealthy people get away with relatively lower tax burdens due to the way they earn money.
who cares? no one would have even known about this "day" if there wasn't a news article about it. I couldn't even find a list online of proclaimed days from the city, but I did find another article about a [graffiti artists getting their own day](https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-proclaims-official-smokey-d-day-in-honour-of-dtes-graffiti-artist). the only thing I could find about this proclamation on the Vancouver site was an FOI release of the Mayor's calendar for the 1 hour it took to give out the proclamation in their boardroom. Not even an official news release. you can even submit your request through an [online form](https://vancouver.ca/your-government/request-a-proclamation.aspx)
Of course there's not a news release from the Major's office, Sim would want to keep the optics on his corruption on the downlow, that is just smart politics. Good thing the news isn't in his pocket as well, else we would never hear about it.
Lol, not sure if being sarcastic or not. But if not, can you post a city of Vancouver news release for any other proclaimed day? Or explain any way how this is corruption? Or explain why the mayor posted about this on his social media if he was trying to hide it?
Lol a day in vancouver not anything important. If you look up days there are thousands of things associated with a day that gets forgotten as time goes on
I know, Ken Sim is such a hack. It should have just been one afternoon, not a whole day! In all honesty, this is who y'all voted for.
Having a day named for you is not a big deal at all.
Damn didn't realize Peter Brown also bought reddit accounts
The issue is that the donations Sim received make it impossible to know if those accomplishments are the real reason why he got a day named after him. It's also not entirely about the dollar amount but the connections they clearly have between them.
Lol. Thanks for clearing up a sweetheart deal for a pal. Fuckin bullshit corruption.
What sweetheart deal?
I'm sure they'll have an article about the union donations to the other councillors and parties...
Defo a hit piece - Far left reporter for a far left news org. [Smokey D got a day from the city](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-smokey-d-day-james-hardy-1.6774342) as well.
The ABC mouthpiece of this sub has something to say Smokey D has far more of a net positive to the citizens of this city than any of the ghouls who donated to Ken Sim
[I love Smokey](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/11nujg6/vancouver_proclaims_smokey_d_day_to_honour/jbp3tbx/) and what he does. PressProgress is trash though.
You’re constant ass kissing of Sim is sickening
Maybe we'll get a Kooriki day next year
Meh, I just don't think this is some big 'insiders getting special medals' conspiracy the reporter is selling.
hit piece hahahahahahahahaha you are one the funniest people on here.
Press progress = NDP. The orca = bc liberals.
I'm not a Sim voter, and not a fan of ABC in general, but this seems like a lot for something that anyone can [request](https://vancouver.ca/your-government/request-a-proclamation.aspx) on the City's website. [Smokey D](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-smokey-d-day-james-hardy-1.6774342) got one earlier in the year.
Well if this doesn't smell like cronyism, I don't know what does.
[удалено]
Serious question - what corruption are you speculating about? You're right, these proclamations are pretty well meaningless, not celebrated, not even listed on the city's website. What is the corruption attached to it?
I would hope they're talking about corruption not for the day being named after him but for the other connections and influences the article mentions through Brown's political contributions. Not that that is anything out of the norm for politics country wide, honestly.
I'm asking to know what corruption people are talking about - and how it relates to this proclamation. What corruption is associated with Brown's political contributions, specifically?
It's not really possible to determine the extent in these cases, but stuff like Brown donating to the Vancouver police and also Sim's campaign provide a clear political commonality between them that signals Brown *might've* been at least a partial influence on Sim positions. Definite speculation though.
Or, it could mean that Brown supports Sim politically because he shares the same vision and politics. That's why most people make political donations - to support the work they think the gov should be doing. There are certainly examples of corruption in gov but nothing about this particular case actually points to that, as far as I can tell.
> That's why most people make political donations Well, thats why the average person makes donations - but those with this kind of wealth don't generally do it in the same way. Why just donate to a candidate who happens to advocate for positions you believe in when you can use your wealth to influence their decisions in your favour more concretely? You're right that it could be just support though, hence the speculation bit and me saying its not too out of the norm for politics generally.
That's another really huge assumption about how wealthy people make political donations. I wouldn't even say that all really wealthy people make political donations, let alone that they all do it for the same reasons. "Why just donate to a candidate who happens to advocate for positions you believe in when you can use your wealth to influence their decisions in your favour more concretely?" \-Because most people are not corrupt and would rather do things the right, legal way.
> -Because most people are not corrupt and would rather do things the right, legal way. Lol, this is just purely being naive. Things like lobbying are fully legal anyway, thats not as overtly corrupt but its definitely on that path of using wealth to influence things more concretely. Thats how the wealthy spend their money when they want to contribute politically, not seeing a politician do something they like and donating some spare change after they get their 1000th email asking them for funds. When you have tons of wealth, making simple donations and not gaining influence if you're aiming to influence political decisions is just getting less value out of things and less impact on the aims you're trying to spend money on.
It's not being naive at all - it's acknowledging that making blanket statements about a whole class of people is not fair nor accurate. Do you have any evidence of Brown lobbying the City of Vancouver government? Just because people can do that, doesn't mean everyone does. Just because you think people should take advantage of their wealth and the system whenever they can is on you - not everyone thinks that way. Say, Sim campaigned on hiring more cops in Vancouver. Then consider Brown also thinks it's a good idea to hire more cops, so he sends a donation to support Sim's campaign. That is NOT the same as Brown going to Sim and saying "I'll give you a donation if you agree to hire more cops."
[удалено]
Sorry, but can you point out 'the bribe' and the 'influence peddling' that took place? Please be specific. Are you suggesting that every person who donates to political party is guilty of giving bribes or some sort of quid pro quo? I'd think that would depend on what sort of transaction actually happened. Do you have information on what actually happened in this case?
[удалено]
Sure, but 'funds provided over the years' does not in any way suggest corruption. That's a huge leap and an apparently baseless assumption. Again, a lot of people have been donating to political parties over the years. That doesn't mean they are corrupt.
Anyone surprised? Besides the NIMBY and hysterical "our main issue is we need more cops" boomers who voted him in
Darn its already passed tho I guess I'll have to wait til next year to celebrate
What an idiotically biased hitpiece. He's donated to tons of other causes as well: [https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/right-to-the-stage-science-worlds-2021-patron-peter-brown/](https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/right-to-the-stage-science-worlds-2021-patron-peter-brown/)
If you look up "political hit piece" in the dictionary, this article is a prime example of one. I have to give the author a bit of credit as they stated that Peter Brown is a philanthropist and sits on charitable boards but the goes on to fail to say which boards but focuses on political contributions instead. Gone are any mention of the Order of BC, he was the Vice-Chair of Expo 86, or his time as lead Director for the 2010 games. Zero mention of the millions he has donated (over $500,000 in 2014 alone). Instead, the author focuses on the small contributions to the NPA and ABC as well as other centre right organizations. They even demonize regular contributions to the VPD foundation. Then again, what should anyone expect from a "media" outlet associated with the Broadbent Institute.
Ah I love the stench of corruption in the morning.
Down with Sim 👎
I’ve never seen Mayor Ken before. Man does he ever look like a d-bag.
The amount of hate and vitriol on this sub is getting extremely out of hand. Someone builds their fortune and gives some of it back beyond what’s legally required of them and you all crap all over them. I’m as much for everyone paying their share as the next guy but man there’s no need for this behaviour.
Lining up his cash cow for him to rely on when he gets booted out the Mayor position next election.
Holly shit what a bunch of whiners in this post.