Pete Fry, candidate for Vancouver City Council
Bio: Pete Fry was born in Ireland, and grew up in Vancouver with divorced Anglo-Trinidadian parents. His teenage years were largely influenced by the art, punk, music and club scenes. Each had profound influences on his life: a career in design and illustration, steeped in arts, community activism, D.I.Y. ethic and volunteering with AIDS causes.
After dropping out of SFU to start an art/publishing business in 1988, Fry lived in the various neighbourhoods of Downtown Eastside - and been actively involved in community work. Since 1992, he’s been self-employed as a graphic and web designer. In 2006 Fry sat on the Park Board’s dog strategy task force. As a community activist, he has volunteered extensively on numerous projects, helped organize the Strathcona's 125 anniversary event, rallied a community response to the City's viaducts removal scheme and its lack of traffic planning east of Main. From 2012 to 2014, Fry has served as chair of the Strathcona Residents’ Association and representative on the DTES Local Area Planning Process. He feels the singular biggest issue facing our City is affordability and how that relates to the sustainability of Vancouver.
Fry lives in Strathcona with his wife, dog, and two cats. They enjoy a car free lifestyle, making art, entertaining friends, and hosting the occassional foreign student.
Why is Pete running with the Green Party of Vancouver? - “I feel strongly that the focus and responsibility of our civic government needs to prioritize the people who live here, and that a healthy democracy needs a diversity of voices at the Council table to ensure that it does,” says Fry when describing his reasons for running. “We have some big challenges; in the face of the general condition of precarity that is so overwhelming in Vancouver, we need to ensure affordability, homes, and a city where everyone can thrive. I'm sick of seeing my friends squeezed out of the city because they can no longer afford to live here. If Vancouver is to remain home to the brilliant diversity of people who currently live here, we need to do a better job of supporting the arts and small business, improve transit, and shake the "No Fun City" label once and for all. We need to strengthen and empower our communities and citizens to build a sustainable and resilient city where people come before profits.”
What are the issues that Pete will champion during the campaign and if elected?
1. Making Vancouver genuinely affordable for the people who live and are growing up here.
2. Working with neighbourhoods to protect and enhance what makes them so special.
3. Adopting a more thoughtful, sustainable and respectful approach to the way we densify our city.
4. Working for genuine sustainability.
Learn more about Pete at petefry.ca.