“One wish for 2017 is I want to take a trip to Ontario to visit my cousins in January. I was born there and I haven’t seen them in 18 years. The only answer to solving the homeless issue is to build more housing and start dolling out the welfare to people on the street, instead of waiting three weeks for an appointment. It’s ridiculous. Christy Clark is flying around in a jet while there are people lying on the street.

“My hopes for Megaphone for the next year are for there to be some stories about homelessness—it’s a big issue right now— and fentanyl overdoses. There was one in my building last night. He lived on my floor. My fear for 2017 is that the paper will close. I’ve been selling street papers for almost 20 years, the journalism now is much better.

“This time next year I would like to still be on Granville Island, I’ve sold papers there for 18 years. I know everyone who works out there, I know all the maintenance people, all the office staff, everybody. Nice people go down there, not like downtown, I ran into a lot of rude people.

“Lots of people from England and Australia buy the paper because of The Big Issue [A sister street paper to Megaphone]. My message to readers for the new year is that I hope they continue to buy, it really helps the vendors.

“There’s nothing I enjoy more than selling the paper. Always remember nobody has it all together, but together we have it all.” (Editor's note: Megaphone is going strong and has no plans to close!)

Vince Broad sells Megaphone outside the Granville Island market in Vancouver.