I Am Skooter	«11.14.08 . home . 11.19.08»
So here's us, on the raggedy edge.

A Vision for Vancouver?

Ok, sorry. That’s about the most obvious and worst pun of a headline ever. I can’t come up with much else though.

Election results give Gregor Robertson the Mayor’s job in Vancouver, and every single one of his candidates was elected.

That’s the good news. Andrea Reimer made council, and it’s my sincere hope that she becomes mayor one of these days. Since living in Vancouver, there are few other people I’ve met who I’ve felt would be more capable of doing the job.

But what about our new Mayor, and the now unelected Peter Ladner?

Vision didn’t so much win this election as Ladner lost it. Generally speaking, the theory is that someone inside the NPA with nothing to lose from Ladner’s failure leaked Ladner’s copy of the Olympic loan documents to the media. Naturally, it couldn’t have been Sam Sullivan. Of course not. Citizen Sam showed Sam as a Machiavellian take no prisoners politician. Draw your own conclusions.

That $100 Million loan was the campaign’s killer issue, and it’s almost killed the NPA. With one councillor—the deliriously incompetent Suzanne Anton—the NPA will have a struggle ahead to remain relevant. Old habits die hard however, and I suspect they’ll be back for the next election (and shortly after adopt a policy of not allowing incumbents to be challenged.)

Gregor says he’s going to open up the talks about that Olympic loan. As I’ve said before, it would mean more if the four incumbent Vision councillors hadn’t voted with the council on the issue. It seems a bit hypocritical.

Hypocrisy is nothing new to Gregor. His sustainable juice business trucks tropical juices for untold miles to package them in Tetra Paks, which aren’t nearly as eco-friendly as the industry would have you believe in Vancouver. They’re shipped to China for recycling, the hyrdo-pulping recycling process is incredibly water intensive and much of the byproduct of that process goes to landfill. That one little hybrid company car driving around Vancouver doesn’t do much to make it sustainable (at least not in my books.)

Much has been made about Gregor’s lack of experience, a major concern of mine. A man who runs for provincial office and resigns before the end of his first term lacks both credibility and experience in my view. Some argue that Gregor saw the writing on the wall with no possibility of the NDP winning under Carole James, but Gregor ran with Carole James as his leader so that argument just shows a lack of loyalty. So he doesn’t have much experience, he lied to his constituents (by promising to stick around for a term) and he’s not loyal. Quite a guy.

Senator Larry Campbell was on CBC Radio One last night arguing that the days of requiring experience to sit as mayor were long gone, and citing his own bitter tenure as an example. Sure Larry: great example. You sat one term, had a divisive relationship with your own members which split the party into two, chaired meetings in an abrasive and aggressive manner, and then resigned saying you weren’t a political animal. Mere months later you accepted a political patronage appointment to the Senate—so much for not being a political animal.

You might want to come up with a better example to defend the lack of experience, Larry. That’s just my advice though. Take it with a grain of salt.

So, here we are in Vancouver with a new team at 12th & Cambie. I voted for Gregor, despite the fact that I’m doubtful the city will be better off in three years when we vote again. The thing is, I maybe be skeptical of Gregor’s ability to do any good for Vancouver, but I know that a Peter Ladner led NPA would just screw this city up more.

In this case, better the devil you don’t know than the one you do.

Good luck Gregor. You’re going to need it.

Posted by skooter at 2:51 AM This entry is filed under Politics, Vancouver.
This entry is tagged: Elections, Gregor Robertson, Vancouver, Vision Vancouver

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