What would 麻豆传媒映画look like today had Harry Rankin won the mayor鈥檚 race in 1986?
Maybe it鈥檚 na茂ve (or sci-fi) to believe that the impact of a single election could still be felt more than 30 years in the future.
But that 1986 election 鈥� a race between bombastic, left-leaning political activist Harry Rankin and a young NPA upstart named Gordon Campbell 鈥� embodied the choice that a post-Expo 鈥�86 麻豆传媒映画faced: do we serve the needs of the people who already live here with pushes towards affordable housing and caps on development, or do we capitalize on the global attention and open the city up for business?
Campbell won that watershed election in 1986, and the rest is both history and our present reality: 麻豆传媒映画hung out its 鈥渙pen for business鈥� sign to developers and foreign investors; 麻豆传媒映画is in the midst of a housing crisis that is making it increasingly difficult for people to stay. 听
The current relevance of this long-ago election is clear in The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, which kicks off the 2018 DOXA Documentary Film Festival on May 3.
鈥淭he comparisons between 1986 and 2018 make themselves,鈥� says director Teresa Alfeld in a recent phone interview. 鈥淭here was a lot of attention on the city at that time about where are we going to go. Now that we鈥檙e moving into being a metropolitan, world-class city, what does that really mean and what do we want to do and how do we want to build?鈥�
Alfeld knew little more than Rankin鈥檚 name when his son Phil showed up at the social justice film organization she worked at with a request: to make sense of a 鈥渂asement archive鈥� of more than a dozen boxes of material related to his dad, who had died in 2002.
What Alfeld discovered in that basement archive was a treasure trove of clippings, campaign materials, and news footage, as well as reels of studio interviews with Rankin that were conducted as part of an unfinished documentary by filmmaker Peter Smilsky and left to languish in Phil Rankin鈥檚 basement.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know too much about Harry Rankin when I first got my hands on the film, but as I watched more and more, I came to learn this amazing story of this absolutely passionate, hilarious as hell and completely politically convicted individual and what he was trying to do with the city back in the 鈥�80s, and so I realized, 鈥極h my god, I have to keep going with this,鈥欌�� recalls Alfeld.
She did, and seven years later, the result of her diligence is The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, which shines a spotlight on a man whose dire warnings about Vancouver鈥檚 future have arguably come to pass.听
Rankin had been on local council for years 鈥� and was considered the most popular politician in 麻豆传媒映画鈥� by the time he announced his candidacy for the mayor鈥檚 race in 1986.
He鈥檇 been waiting until COPE had a stronger presence on council before he ran, and when they did, he was that spoke to his long-held socialist beliefs.
Rankin believed in protections for tenants. He believed in affordable housing. He believed that 35 per cent of all new dwellings should be social housing. In one campaign rally shown in the film, the late social activist Jim Green calls Rankin 鈥渢he best friend the Downtown Eastside ever had鈥� (Rankin鈥檚 people called Campbell 鈥渢he marathon man鈥� because he was so closely associated with Marathon Realty).
This is how Rankin describes himself in the documentary: 鈥淚 have a great capacity to be indignant about other people鈥檚 problems.鈥�
But Rankin could also be rude and irritable. He鈥檇 verbally lash out at audience members during Q&As. In one debate with Campbell, he interrupted him and called him a twerp.
Thus, Rankin鈥檚 message was often lost, buried beneath the bombast (as well as incessant insinuations that he was a communist 鈥� which, during the Cold War, could and did cast a pall).
The Rankin File includes present-day interviews with Rankin colleagues and foes who enjoyed a front-row seat to the campaign, including Libby Davies, Mike Harcourt, documentarian Smilsky (who expresses gratitude to Alfeld for finishing what he started), and Campbell himself.
鈥淣one of my peers knew who Harry was,鈥� says Alfeld, who grew up in East Vancouver. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard now in 2018 to even begin to think that the city was different. There鈥檚 a polarization of wealth, and people my age can鈥檛 find places to live. Now that it鈥檚 an election year, it maybe could be different if we have the right folks in the right roles making the right decisions.鈥�
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The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical screens May 3 and 8 at the 2018 DOXA Documentary Festival. For tickets and schedule information, visit .
Sabrina Furminger is the editor-in-chief of and is a regular columnist with the 麻豆传媒映画Courier.
