Bringing (More) Process Back to Politics, with VanGreens Councillor Michael Wiebe

You might be a fan of Vancouver Councillor Michael Wiebe’s previous work with the Park Board, including the Jericho Lands Agreement, the Biodiversity Strategy, and warming shelters.

Or maybe you prefer his first big hit, as co-owner of eight 1/2, the well-regarded Mt. Pleasant restaurant.

You may even appreciate his 10 years as Park Board staff, or his debut in administrative management in the provincial government.

But if you’re invested in Vancouver’s new era of power and politics, you may only want to hear one thing from this conversation with Wiebe — what Wiebe stands for. And, by extension, the Vancouver Green Party itself.

And on that…will the Greens run out of time before they run out of process?

We find out a little bit of everything in this fast-moving conversation, including Wiebe’s intriguing response to that last question. Regardless, one thing is clear — he wholeheartedly believes in the rationale behind his party’s deference to consensus-building as part (in place of?) decision-making.

“If the process is done right, the implementation will follow.” Wiebe commits not just to bringing process back to politics, but to being part of that process. Even f that means being the political target in the room.

Guest host Rob McDowell joins the fray, to try to figure out how Wiebe and the Greens expect to bring about major change — Rental100, a retrofitted Granville Bridge, a “blue way” creek connection from Science World to New Westminster — without being the decision-makers in the room.

“We’re passing a lot. It’s just that our meetings take two or three times as long.”