Charlie Smith’s exposes Vision Vancouver’s true colours

The Georgia Straight’s Charlie Smith, one of Vancouver’s top investigative journalists, continues to hit homeruns with his stunning exposé of Vision Vancouver’s troubling colour associations, and the frightening implications for our beloved city.

Yesterday CivicScene profiled Charlie’s first gem, where he exposed the “green-washing” of the Mayor’s image on the City of Vancouver’s website.  What made this even more disturbing was the absence of colour from the backgrounds of any of the Councillors.

Well, if there was any doubt as to whether Vision Vancouver was trying to manipulate us with their colour schemes, Charlie’s follow-up piece should erase it completely.

The new logo for the city’s economic branding strategy “Green Capital”:

uses green and blue just like the Vision Vancouver logo:

My God…the circumstances surrounding “logo-gate” as Charlie has brilliantly labeled this this scandal are astounding.

As pointed out by some of the comments to Charlie’s post, Vision Vancouver’s reign of colour doesn’t stop there, however.  There is the Canucks logo:

And then of course, there is the BC Hydro logo:

Never mind the fact that the blues and greens are different, nor the fact that green and blue are “colours that represent our city’s ocean and mountain setting” as one comment points out.  These are irrelevant details designed to distract from what is really going on.

This is Vision Vancouver at its very worst, and there is no telling when they will stop.

And now I must come clean.  I can’t live with the shame anymore, and I need to tell the world.

Yesterday, Charlie posted a comment asking whether the party is “paying you to operate this Web site.”

Well, if the prominence of green and blue in my site design wasn’t already a giveaway, then here I am to deliver a revelation in full and living colour:

Vision Vancouver had me within its grasp, and I really didn’t know how to escape – until I read Charlie’s two pieces, that is, and decided to snap out of the downward spiral I have engaged in for the past four months.

At first, it was a touch of colour they offered me…a “sample” as the Visionistas called it.

Soon, my itch to cover myself from head to toe in blue and green was insatiable.

Then, I was hooked.  Yes, they took over this website.  They made me change my wardrobe.  They even forced me switch toothpaste to one with a blue and green swirl.

Now they have me running my wares on the street.  With a couple of cans of spraypaint, I now wander aimlessly, desperately looking for any individual I can co-opt into the Vision Vancouver “family” – voluntarily, or with full body-painting fury.

Those bastards.

Well, I’m here to say that I am not going to take it anymore.

I have just entered a colour therapy healing detox program and I feel that I am well on my way to recovery.

So thank you Charlie – thank you for setting me free.

You are truly amazing.