I want to preface this commentary with an acknowledgment that an administration without effective political opposition operates without a true understanding of what it feels like to face off against alternatives.
That being said, I am truly getting a kick out of the bloggers (three in particular) that are getting into a lather of fury over the popularity of both Vision Vancouver and Gregor Robertson amongst the municipal beat reporters around town.
The frustration that they are spewing only confirms that the Vision Vancouver juggernaut is real, in as much as is possible within the municipal political realm.
I don’t have the energy to craft a well-thought out, cogent post on why that juggernaut exists, nor do I have to quite frankly. Rather, I would like to perform a political brain dump on the state of Vision Vancouver and the rest of the civic political scene at the halfway point of the term.
Civicscene.ca returns to the pages of the Vancouver Sun this morning with a column about the lack of quality opposition currently tarnishing Vancouver’s City Hall these days.
Gregor Robertson may be high in the polls at the moment, but he also faces little to no opposition, which has the possibility of damaging the credibility of his agenda. As far as I am concerned, scrutiny and dissent is a necessary thing for an ambitious agenda like Robertson’s.
Here’s hoping that the three opposition councillors pick up their games in the second half of this election cycle, as I would love to see some fireworks return to council chambers.
As an example, go read “Showdown” Joe’s rebuttal, and my subsequent response, to yesterday’s piece for a little bit of the kind of tussle I am referring to, and check back later in the day for a post on the Vancouver Park Board’s new principles for the city’s community centres, and how the network of little fiefdoms attached to the community centre association presidents needs to be discontinued…in spite of their confusing objections.
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More than 221,000 people have taken the second Amtrak evening train to Vancouver since the service began last August. It had a record month in July with nearly 25,000 passengers. Ridership on the morning train has also increased 21% in the past year.
“Economic power is [dependent] on how fast you move people and goods around. You see China growing right now very rapidly in this direction. This is the direction North America must go.” – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger