There isn't much difference between this fictional movie poster and the life and death drama surrounding "colours" in Vancouver - an emerging story that is directly connected to the top office in the city.

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.

3 of these will soon be on the streets of Vancouver.

Just left this event.  The cars look pretty snazzy, and the launch seemed like more than your typical corporate/government type of photo opportunity.

Media Advisory: Province of British Columbia, City of Vancouver, BC Hydro and Mitsubishi Motors

Electric cars delivered to Vancouver

November 18, 2009
The City of Vancouver and BC Hydro will receive three of North America’s first production-ready, highway-capable electric cars, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, at a handover event:
When: Friday, November 20, 2009
11 am
Where: Sunset Community Centre
6810 Main Street
Blair Lekstrom, B.C. Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources will be joined by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and representatives from BC Hydro for the car delivery. Mr. Tomoki Yanagawa, Vice-President of Sales/Marketing and Corporate Planning of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada Inc. will represent the manufacturer.
Photographers will be able to capture images of the dignitaries, the new vehicles and a new public electric plug-in station at the Sunset Community Centre.
The Province of B.C., City of Vancouver and BC Hydro signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Canada and Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada Incorporated earlier this year to allow the cars to be demonstrated in B.C. Two cars will be added to BC Hydro’s fleet and the City of Vancouver will receive one.

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Here are some random thoughts from this pilot program:

1. I wonder how fast an adequate infrastructure can be installed to support the sale of these to the general public.  In addition to the Mitsubishi i-MIEV, the Nissan LEAF is also coming to Vancouver for another pilot project in 2011.  In consideration of the fact that the i-MIEV’s specialized battery can be charged with a standard 110v wall socket or 220v dryer type socket, however, it should happen very quickly, both for already existing buildings and also new developments.  The retrofitting will require an investment – possibly as a partnership between the city and the province?
2. This is going to have significant impact across North America.  With Vancouver doing everything it can to support the new technology, the city is poised to be a focal point for the reemergence of the electric car in North America.  This is the kind of anchor the city needs to firmly establish it as a centre for cutting edge sustainable technologies.
3. Obama just weeks ago unveiled $2.4-billion (U.S.) in stimulus grants to jump start an electric vehicle industry in the United States – and the U.S. government also plans to give buyers a $7,500 electric vehicle subsidy. Ontario plans to offer rebates of up to $10,000 on the purchase of electric cars after July 1, 2010. Also, Ontario plans to make driving electric cars and the like easier by giving such cars access to high-occupancy lanes on expressways and special parking spaces at GO Transit and government lots.  Vancouver and the province should figure out a way to create the infrastructure and then stimulate purchasing across the city by way of a subsidy program.  This would dramatically help out local businesses while at the same time moving forward on Vancouver’s emission reduction targets.
4. I am aware that manufacturing of vehicles would NEVER work out here.  However, creating an economic cluster for electric car related industries and manufacturer North American offices devoted to these product lines is a very intriguing possibility.
5. The city and the province have the ability to do something very innovative in collaboration.  Whether or not such a partnership gets bogged down in the kind of territorial pissing matches that the homelessness and affordable housing colllaborations have been dominated by is most definitely up in the air, however.