Brendan Dawe
@dawe.bsky.social
Your friendly neighbourhood Vancouverite
Housing abundance enthusiast. Planning & Real Estate Consultant.
Vive le Canada. Elbows Up
Housing abundance enthusiast. Planning & Real Estate Consultant.
Vive le Canada. Elbows Up
some times I read city hall watch for the entertainment value cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/a...
Anatomy of a public hearing: Developer + YIMBY mobilization threatens protected industrial lands in Vancouver. Public Hearing Jan 22, 2026.
In these disruptive times we need more democracy, not less. It helps to see how things are working. We have an example unfolding in real time. It’s worth looking at here, as we’ve seen …
cityhallwatch.wordpress.com
January 26, 2026 at 4:28 AM
some times I read city hall watch for the entertainment value cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/a...
My friend @evercoop.bsky.social organized a delightful secret Santa this year, where the theme was to find a book your giftee likes and pick something that would go along with it.
@whapow.bsky.social heard I enjoyed a book in the Roman Persian War of 602-628
@whapow.bsky.social heard I enjoyed a book in the Roman Persian War of 602-628
January 26, 2026 at 2:58 AM
My friend @evercoop.bsky.social organized a delightful secret Santa this year, where the theme was to find a book your giftee likes and pick something that would go along with it.
@whapow.bsky.social heard I enjoyed a book in the Roman Persian War of 602-628
@whapow.bsky.social heard I enjoyed a book in the Roman Persian War of 602-628
Is that of those Made in Canada armoured vehicles that we’ve been selling to the Trump regime?
Live footage of Hannah Arendt's dichotomy between violence and power.
This administration is cooked. Literally no one is scared of them.
January 25, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Is that of those Made in Canada armoured vehicles that we’ve been selling to the Trump regime?
Reposted by Brendan Dawe
An objective description of Canadian policy vis-a-vis China trade over the last couple decades is that we keep trying to work with the US to approach is together; the US stabs us in the back, laughs and cuts a solo deal with China; then Canada tries to cut a solo deal and thr US goes fucking nuts.
January 24, 2026 at 4:55 PM
An objective description of Canadian policy vis-a-vis China trade over the last couple decades is that we keep trying to work with the US to approach is together; the US stabs us in the back, laughs and cuts a solo deal with China; then Canada tries to cut a solo deal and thr US goes fucking nuts.
Something that I have picked up from a couple of rightwingers in have known is that they really do believe that everything is “psyops”when it comes to things they dislike. Everything is presumed to be organized, nothing is spontaneous
January 25, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Something that I have picked up from a couple of rightwingers in have known is that they really do believe that everything is “psyops”when it comes to things they dislike. Everything is presumed to be organized, nothing is spontaneous
Reposted by Brendan Dawe
You’re on the right path, Mark. Canada must stand on our own two feet. British Columbia has your back.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
Trump threatens 100% tariff on Canada if it makes deal with China
Ottawa and Beijing struck a ‘strategic partnership’ on trade this month, with agreements on electric vehicles and canola
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:41 PM
You’re on the right path, Mark. Canada must stand on our own two feet. British Columbia has your back.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
We gotta just make Trump eat his tacos on this one.
January 24, 2026 at 6:19 PM
We gotta just make Trump eat his tacos on this one.
thread
We have a consultation problem. I write about a Toronto rec centre that will have taken 14 years to plan, cost at least three times the original budget - and be a bad building.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
What is the cost of consultation?
Toronto recreation centre that started as $40-million project in 2016 has ballooned to nearly $113-million before construction even starts
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 24, 2026 at 6:00 AM
thread
If it weren’t that airports are a huge nuisance that consume a large amount of land they would also benefit from being located downtown
I want to be convinced otherwise I just don't see the argument for how union has a better catchment for HSR service than Pearson.
January 23, 2026 at 6:26 PM
If it weren’t that airports are a huge nuisance that consume a large amount of land they would also benefit from being located downtown
Reposted by Brendan Dawe
We can have our cake and eat it too. Central station locations in Toronto and Montreal DO NOT REQUIRE TUNNELING. They require our governmental right hand to work with our governmental left hand.
The right answer is not stations outside the centres, but making gov work. If it doesn't we should quit.
The right answer is not stations outside the centres, but making gov work. If it doesn't we should quit.
It seems obscene to be honest, part of me feels like it's an appeal to the public reaction of the more reasonable approach of not having stations so central.
Maybe they'll show the alternative as a huge project timeline and cash savings potential and go that route ultimately.
Maybe they'll show the alternative as a huge project timeline and cash savings potential and go that route ultimately.
January 22, 2026 at 11:38 PM
We can have our cake and eat it too. Central station locations in Toronto and Montreal DO NOT REQUIRE TUNNELING. They require our governmental right hand to work with our governmental left hand.
The right answer is not stations outside the centres, but making gov work. If it doesn't we should quit.
The right answer is not stations outside the centres, but making gov work. If it doesn't we should quit.
Reposted by Brendan Dawe
“Cant sleep… i’ll just have a quick look at my phone”
January 22, 2026 at 4:21 AM
“Cant sleep… i’ll just have a quick look at my phone”
Proposal: any pedestrian pushing an occupied baby carriage should be allowed to issue a limited number of roadside summary driving bans every month
January 23, 2026 at 1:55 AM
Proposal: any pedestrian pushing an occupied baby carriage should be allowed to issue a limited number of roadside summary driving bans every month
Housing is the most important issue for city government and if you’re being bad or underdeveloped ideas to the table you are a bad candidate for mayor
I like that the r/vancouver consensus on Pete Fry is that he’s a nice guy who is not very good on housing (correct!) www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/...
From the vancouver community on Reddit: Pete Fry considering a run for mayor of Vancouver — and he could be the candidate to unite the left
Explore this post and more from the vancouver community
www.reddit.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Housing is the most important issue for city government and if you’re being bad or underdeveloped ideas to the table you are a bad candidate for mayor
Sorry about your townhouses bro
January 22, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Sorry about your townhouses bro
Baby’s first View Cone
January 22, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Baby’s first View Cone
Reposted by Brendan Dawe
Problem gets to a structural one. Alto was given no tools to help understand and rationalize approaches int and out of Canada’s major cities. Embrace @chittimarco.bsky.social thought.
January 21, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Problem gets to a structural one. Alto was given no tools to help understand and rationalize approaches int and out of Canada’s major cities. Embrace @chittimarco.bsky.social thought.
Reposted by Brendan Dawe
It seems Alto might be building huge tunnels to get into Toronto and Montreal, feels totally unnecessary and not the pragmatic way to actually get us high speed rail instead of creating another HS2 / CAHSR
January 21, 2026 at 6:28 PM
It seems Alto might be building huge tunnels to get into Toronto and Montreal, feels totally unnecessary and not the pragmatic way to actually get us high speed rail instead of creating another HS2 / CAHSR
This seems right to me. I suspect that Washington was seriously considering some sort of quick, “cheap” scheme to create facts-on-the-ground but the Danes and their allies failed to preform the expected fecklessness necessary for such a thing to work. Hence the pivot to ham-fisted economic coercion
Let's save crashing out about Greenland until we actually see some movement from US assets that would indicate staging for an op. With a few hundred European troops and a couple warships already in theatre or imminently arriving, a clandestine SOF raid isn't going to cut it anymore.
January 21, 2026 at 6:43 PM
This seems right to me. I suspect that Washington was seriously considering some sort of quick, “cheap” scheme to create facts-on-the-ground but the Danes and their allies failed to preform the expected fecklessness necessary for such a thing to work. Hence the pivot to ham-fisted economic coercion
One solution to this sort of thinking is thermo-nuclear weapons systems
Donald Trump at Davos: "Canada lives because of the US, remember that Mark next time you make your statement."
January 21, 2026 at 4:54 PM
One solution to this sort of thinking is thermo-nuclear weapons systems
What a nauseating headline to have at the top of your morning paper
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/8b64d4e...
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/8b64d4e...
January 20, 2026 at 5:23 PM
What a nauseating headline to have at the top of your morning paper
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/8b64d4e...
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/8b64d4e...
There is something so incredibly repulsive about this messaging
The Olympic Village Save-On Foods has come out in support of the NIMBYs opposed to the long-promised but unbuilt Olympic Village Elementary School.
January 18, 2026 at 5:26 AM
There is something so incredibly repulsive about this messaging
I don’t think the message here paints the United States or their chosen leaders in a positive light
#CBC news: "Does Canada really need a Prime Minister? The Venezuela case for 'No'."
January 18, 2026 at 1:19 AM
I don’t think the message here paints the United States or their chosen leaders in a positive light