Mike Klassen (@Twitter, @Facebook) is a born and raised Vancouverite and a proud East sider (Killarney High School alumni).
A writer, urbanist, technology buff and communications strategist, Mike had the honour to serve as Vice-Chair of the esteemed Vancouver City Planning Commission ('07-'09). He is known for his passionate commitment to his Fraser Street community. He formerly wrote a weekly political column for 24 Hours Vancouver, Metro Vancouver's third largest circulation daily, and has contributed to the Vancouver Sun opinion page, as well as appearing on CTV, GlobalTV, CBC TV News, CKNW Radio, Talk1040 and Shore 104 FM.
First published in 1988, Klassen wrote for alternative publications such as Discorder and Vancouver's legendary Terminal City magazine, as well as mainstream publications such as Moneysense and Reader's Digest. Citing the irreverent influences of Mad Magazine, Monty Python, National Lampoon & Canada's SCTV, as well as local radio & TV counter-culture icon J.B. Shayne, Klassen brings a wit to both his writing style and imaginative Photoshopping.
During the early 1990s Mike was regularly heard on local radio, including CBC Radio One, Coast 1040 (as writer/co-host of the Hollywood North Report), and Z95.3 in Vancouver. A frequent contributor to community television, Klassen won a 1994 Hometown USA award in the category of Best Comedy for his lighthearted send-up of film festival culture.
An early internet adopter, Mike built his first website in October '94 and has been publishing stories and commentary online – blogging – ever since. For the latter half of the '90s working at Electronic Arts, Mike was an assistant producer and game features designer on the world's most successful basketball videogame franchise – EA Sports' NBA Live. The highlights of his entertainment software career were conducting a private technology demo for filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and meeting a true hardwood hero, NBA superstar Kevin Garnett.
A veteran of civic, provincial and federal election campaigns for the past three decades, Mike played a pivotal role providing communications and organizational support to the successful 2004 Knowards campaign alongside then City Councillor Sam Sullivan, and twice managed the election campaigns of a provincial cabinet minister, achieving the highest winning margin of any constituency in British Columbia.
Mike is a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in English literature. He is an avid gardener, as well as a devoted BC wine enthusiast. Mike is married to Stacey and they have one child who attends the local public school.
In 2011 Mike ran with the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association (NPA) as a candidate for Vancouver City Council, and received over 47,000 votes, just 780 votes shy of a council spot.
If as the saying goes, all politics is local, then how come there is so little attention paid to the importance of our urban centres? We hope the ideas, the politics, and the people behind making Canadian cities will now be given their due at CityCaucus.com. Our goal here is to have a fun, but respectful dialogue about Canada's major urban centres, and we hope you will participate in "the conversation" by providing comments that stick to the issues, and do not stoop to name-calling or personal attacks. We won't always agree with each other, but the interchange must always be civil.
