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Veteran Vancouver city hall journalist looks to cross 'thin line' with first political run

'The move to politics makes for a strange and bumpy ride for former journalists,' Frances Bula wrote in 2014. Now, 12 years later, the veteran city-hall-watcher is taking the ride herself

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Vancouver’s longest-serving civic affairs journalist wants to trade her spot at the council chambers media desk for a seat on council.

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After 43 years of working in B.C. journalism — including more than three decades focused on civic affairs and Vancouver city hall — Frances Bula will seek OneCity’s nomination to run for city council in this October’s municipal election.

Veteran Vancouver city hall journalist looks to cross 'thin line' with first political run Back to video

She does not expect an easy transition. Learning the basics of how to organize a political campaign over the past couple weeks has posed a steep learning curve, she said.

“It is daunting,” Bula said. “It’s like going to a totally new country and just taking in everything all at once.”

Bula herself wrote, back in 2014, that “the move to politics makes for a strange and bumpy ride for former journalists, say those who’ve done it and those who’ve watched it.”

In that 2014 Globe and Mail story about her former managing editor at The Vancouver Sun, Kirk LaPointe, launching his own run for mayor, Bula wrote that it’s “a thin line that often separates journalists from politicians,” moving from being scrutinizers of government, to being scrutinized by their former colleagues. Some were successful, such as René Lévesque in Quebec, Ralph Klein in Alberta, and Simma Holt in B.C.

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Others, Bula noted, were “notable flops.”

Over the years Bula covered city hall, people often asked her if she’d consider running, she said, but she didn’t really think about it seriously until the last year or two.

She felt like 2026 was the time to make the jump, for reasons both personal and political.

On the personal side, Bula said: “I’m 71, so if I was ever going to change careers, this was the time to do it.”

And politically, she said that after covering seven different mayors, she feels there has never been such a dire need to restore accountability, transparency, and a sense of respectful behaviour in the mayor’s office and council chamber.

Bula was a reporter for The Vancouver Sun for 21 years, and then a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, among other publications, for the last 18 years. She also spent many years teaching journalism at Langara College and the University of B.C.

She told her editor at the Globe last year that she was considering running in 2026. As of last December, she was still undecided, but stopped pitching stories about Vancouver politics, “just to be on the safe side.”

She filed a few stories in January and February for the Globe, B.C. Business, and University Affairs magazine, but nothing about civic politics.

There is no universally agreed upon “cooling off” period for journalists to stop reporting before running for office. Bula spent time thinking about what would be reasonable, and she feels confident that her approach has been ethical.

In common with most journalists, Bula has never been a card-carrying member of a political party.

“The idea of being with a party seemed physically painful. It still does,” she said. “I can’t even get myself to join a book club. It’s the journalism personality, you’re always standing a little bit outside.”

She considered running as an independent candidate, or as part of a slate with other independents. But, she decided, it’s too difficult to get elected in Vancouver without a party.

On Feb. 13, the day after OneCity nominated non-profit housing executive William Azaroff as its mayoral candidate, she reached out to the party.

Bula did not have a close relationship with Azaroff, but was familiar with his work running Brightside Community Homes Foundation. He understands the economics of housing, she said, and seemed like “a person I could work with.”

OneCity was surprised to hear from Bula, she said, but they seemed interested.

Bula said OneCity’s “practical progressivism” aligns with her values. And because the party has been around for a while, she’s not as worried about them heading off in a strange new direction, something that sometimes happens with new parties, she said.

Bula told the OneCity leadership that she won’t necessarily vote in lock-step with the rest of her party on everything, and she does not necessarily agree with every move the party made in the past.

She cited the proposal that came to council last year to pre-zone much of the city to allow social housing towers of up to 20 storeys. It was supported last year by both Azaroff and current OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney, but Bula says she believes it was an example of well-intentioned people “inadvertently creating a public backlash to many forms of housing by trying to push big new buildings into every area.”

“The city needs a more thoughtful and tailored approach, so that social housing is welcomed as the benefit that it is,” she said. If she had been on council, she might have tried to amend the proposal so it was less of a “blanket” approach, and may have had a chance of success.

Bula also has good things to say about councillors from other parties, including the ruling ABC party.

“I don’t totally have it in for ABC, I think there’s councillors who have done really good work,” Bula said, singling out Lisa Dominato and Sarah Kirby-Yung for being hardworking and effective.

“But it’s hard to say Ken Sim has done a great job,” Bula said. “I’d say his term has overall been very weird and not what people thought they were getting when they elected his team,” as he got distracted with “relatively minor issues he didn’t even campaign on” like abolishing the elected park board and investing public funds in bitcoin.

Bula believes the city needs to try new pilot projects to house homeless people — including, perhaps, tiny home villages — and not to “just chase them around the streets or wait for the magical billions in federal or provincial funding.”

Whether Bula’s first run for office is successful or not, it likely marks the end of her career in civic journalism. Even if she loses, she figures she won’t be able to go back to the kind of reporting she’s done for the past three decades.

And if she wins, she doesn’t expect her former colleagues in the media — including many of her former students — will go easy on her.

dfumano@postmedia.com

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