There was a spirit of cooperation and good will in the room at yesterday's signing. Photo Credit: The Vancouver Observer

Yesterday’s Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Vancouver and the Squamish Nation aims to, according to Stephen Hui of the Georgia Straight:

“establish a cooperative government-to-government relationship for the purpose of sharing information, improving communications, addressing specific concerns, setting a solid foundation for future planning and raising awareness and understanding of Squamish Nation title, rights and responsibilities and the rights of the City under the Vancouver Charter”.

Both parties agreed to collaboration – let me repeat that word – collaboration – on governance, intergovernmental relations, economic development, cultural and heritage protection, tourism, environmental protection, land use planning and management, zoning processes, capacity building, shared/reciprocal service delivery, transportation initiatives, and sustainable healthy communities.

These areas of mutual interest go far beyond symbolism, as establishing a cooperative “government-to-government” relationship is a foundation upon which to grow together, which is particularly important for a nation that has 60 per cent of its population under the age of 25.

Contrast this with the approach that was taken by former NPA Park Board commissioner Marty Zlotnik towards the Musqueam band and supported by former Mayor Sam Sullivan, and you will see just one of the differences in priorities at City Hall between then and now.

Readers might remember Zlotnik’s fight to keep his beloved UBC golf course out of the hands of the Musqueam.  Zlotnik and merry band of west side ball whackers were up in arms when the Premier – their boy – contemplated  the UBC golf course handover as part of the Musqueam land claim.

The attitudes of this group were epitomized by the comments of University of British Columbia athletics and recreation professor emeritus Bob Hindmarch:

“We believe that this golf course has been a vital recreation resource and an important part of the social fabric of Vancouver since 1929, particularly those of us who are lucky enough to live in Point Grey.“

Exactly.  Enough said.  That was the profile of the typical NPA supporter then, and unfortunately for those poor unfortunate souls still in the mix with that sorry group, that profile continues on.

Their efforts to campaign in favour of giving up a portion of Pacific Spirit Regional Park involved a lot of false information and fear mongering, largely by Zlotnik himself:

“The thought of billboards, casinos, commercial development, all that sort of stuff, is not something I particularly relish.”

Zlotnik was speculating without any basis of proof for such claims, but hey…whatever it takes so that he could enjoy his round on Sunday.  He argued that it would be a loss to the public because the course provided lower rates for rounds of golf than many other courses around the city.

As Park Board Commissioner Loretta Woodcock clarified at the time, however:

“It is a privately run for-profit operation that is leased and happens to sit on Crown land. The eight-percent commission that the government receives from this course equals $450,000 a year. So there is a lot of money that is being made out of this course. It is not about saving a public golf course. It is about saving a private golf course that is accessible to the public.”

Readers might also remember that Zlotnik was a frequent absentee from Park Board meetings because of his part time living arrangements in Palm Springs.  He is still spends much of his year down there, and still enjoys his golf (a recent park board meeting received his regrets on not being able to speak on a local program designed to encourage golf and proper training for young people).

Ultimately, Zlotnik’s buddy Premier Gordon Campbell didn’t listen, and his government signed struck a deal with the Musqueam that included control of the course.

Zlotnik used a scorched earth policy, and what did Mayor Sam Sullivan do in response?  He condoned it, and in fact, insulated his NPA colleague:

“Sullivan ruled COPE Coun. David Cadman’s motion out of order when he requested city council go on record as opposing any proposal or plan that would reduce or give away any portion of Pacific Spirit Regional Park.”

“Basically what we have here is Sam the dictator, and if he doesn’t like what’s being raised, he won’t hear it. Fundamentally, we are losing the democratic ability as elected officials to represent the interests of our constituents.”

So here is reason number 653 as to why it is good to have a government in place that balances priorities and believes in the spirit of cooperation and social justice.

Thank goodness City Hall will no longer be a place where advocacy on behalf of the priveleged few and their golf games is a common practice.

Shameless political advertising or serving in the job that he was elected to?

There was once a time where famed blogger and potential future NPA City Council candidate Mike Klassen thought that promoting the Olympics and Paralympics, and more specifically the free activities and events that populated the city during those periods, was a top priority:

“The Vision Vancouver Council seem to have had an aversion to promoting the Games since they were elected, so as to not upset part of their base who oppose the event.” – August 18, 2009

“Dwindling public dollars needn’t be the stumbling block for BC and Vancouver to sell itself to the world. Any savvy marketer knows there are a million opportunities to generate international buzz, and we only have to exploit them — NOW!” – August 18, 2009

“It wasn’t rocket science to understand that most of us can’t afford to attend Olympic events, but want to enjoy the party. How come bloggers are the ones making things happen?” – Jan 26, 2010

“Perhaps the best way that we get good value for our investment is to partake of the dozens of free events being staged during the Games. Think of the message we’d send to the world when thousands of us show up to celebrate in our own cities.” – February 23, 2010

“Then, almost as if the light went on, Canadians fell in love with hosting the Olympic & Paralympic Games. The change in mood was so sudden and so ebullient, that it came as a complete surprise to Games veterans. Even Jacques Rogge described Vancouver’s enthusiastic embrace as unprecedented.

Many theories exist now on why it worked so well, but there is no doubt in our minds that the key ingredient was the numerous free activities.” April 13, 2010

Klassen was also a supporter and web designer for Mayor Sam Sullivan around the time that the former Mayor appeared in the ad pictured above, designed to promote businesses who were facing disruption due to the Canada Line construction.

Yet from that point until the present, Klassen has had some political setbacks.  First, Klassen witnessed his own brethren within the NPA turn on their former fearless leader, supporting an adversary who at the time claimed that “a lot of people have lost confidence in Sam” and that there was “concern within the party that Sam may have been taking money for one purpose and using it for another” with regards to fundraising.

And then of course came Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson, whose emergence on the municipal political scene rankled Klassen to no end, turning him and his writing partner into the new Mayor’s “biggest critics.”

Along this bumpy political journey in recent years, Klassen has developed a condition where he often forgets what he once advocated for.  Mike’s Mother’s Day post (linked to in the last paragraph) is a perfect example of this unfortunate syndrome.

Klassen takes issue with a city expenditure of $16,025 on a “radio ad campaign across several stations that “welcomed” and “thanked” citizens for enjoying the Games” and “reminded everyone to take advantage of all the “FREE” activities.”

Klassen asserts that the Mayor’s “invisibility” during the Olympics prompted this campaign, which he also claims representeed a “highly unusual and costly decision to help build his profile.”

In what has to be considered the height of conceit, Klassen also argues that the fact that his website went “viral during the Games” provided another motivating factor to “spend precious tax dollars to remind people to ‘have fun’ and to ‘enjoy all the free events’.”

The ludicrous and self-absorbed nature of such declarations needs to be exposed, as Klassen’s possible political aspirations seem to be the sun that is eclipsing any hope of rational thought:

1. Vancouver hosted the largest event in Canadian history, with dozens and dozens of attractions and events available to experience for free.  Furthermore, the people in Vancouver were the main ambassadors to the world on behalf of the City, imbuing visitors with a sense of how friendly Canadians and Vancouverites truly are.  As such, how can an expenditure of $16,025 producing ads that informed and acknowledged these facts over a period of close to four weeks, across four different radio stations, “useless” and/or politically promotional?
2. In spite of Klassen’s claims about the Mayor being invisible, I have heard from many people that they saw Gregor everywhere.  Whether it was doing regular standups with NBC’s Today Show or any number of international media outlets, touring events and venues, or simply walking down the street where he was regularly mobbed by people simply wanting to say hello or congratulations, Robertson was one of the most prominent individuals in terms of exposure during the Games.  Then again, blogging and gushing over website traffic can lead to carpal and mental tunnel syndromes, disallowing accurate reflections of what is really happening in the real world, off of the internet.
3. Klassen is often critical of City Manager Penny Ballem hogging the spotlight when it comes to the dissmination of city-related information.  But when the Mayor gets on the horn to talk to residents of what is available to participate in, and how thankful and appreciative the city is for the unofficial hosting efforts delivered by the public, he continues to be critical.  So Mike, who else should have been featured in such ads?
4. And if Klassen is arguing that it is inappropriate for the Mayor to be engaging in such advertising at all, does that mean that Sam Sullivan’s appearance in an the above ad to spur business within Yaletown was also politically motivated and against protocol?  The City of Vancouver had to be a part of the mix in mitigating the damaging effects on business due to the Canada Line, in conjunction with the provincial and federal governments as well as VANOC.  The same goes for the City of Vancouver promoting free activities and encouraging good will by citizens within its geographic purview.  This kind of attack by Klassen is absolutely ridiculous – both Sullivan and Robertson were doing what should rightfully be expected of a Mayor…namely, to take responsibility and show leadership with regards to a pressing civic issue or event.
5. Mayors engage in promotion of their city all the time…just ask Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York, or Richard Daley, Mayor of Chicago.  Why are these the chosen individuals chosen as the face that promotes their respective cities?  Because by virtue of their job, they are clearly the main spokespeople on behalf of the citizens.  Just because Klassen’s guy Sullivan was diminutive and relatively shy by nature, making such promotion a real difficulty for him, doesn’t mean that future successors should take the same approach.  By contrast, whether it is developing and subsequently selling a distinct brand for the city, or standing by large-scale visions for his term in office (ending street homelessness, creating the greenest municipal environment in the world), Robertson is using his business-background inspired skill set to keep Vancouver in the global consciousness.

It is understandable that Klassen has such trouble with the concept of marketing in light of his staunch support for a party whose best idea for maintaining relevance is to change its name.

But if my prediction is correct and Klassen is indeed pining to run for a spot on City Council, he would be well advised to take a page out of Gregor Robertson’s playbook when it comes to promoting his wares beyond the world of blogging.

Scenes like this will hopefully disappear from our beaches now that the new bylaw has been passed.

“I’m not doing it.  I’m not the guy who’s gonna lead the charge.  If [the] park board decided that they wanted to vote in favour of that, I would probably vote in favour of that because I don’t think smoking is a good thing for anybody.” – former NPA Park Board Commissioner Marty Zlotnik, June 2007

“What I might be supportive of is testing.  In other words, there may be a particular area of the beach that a family could go and know that in that area there is no smoking.” – current NPA Park Board Commissioner (and former chair) Ian Robertson, June, 2007

Last night the Park Board passed a groundbreaking decision to ban smoking in our parks and beaches.  After listening to the proceedings, and monitoring the overwhelmingly positive news coverage, this was a decision that was long overdue.

This step is the natural progression within a city that has moved on from systematically banning indoor and patio smoking.  The fact is that smoking within public spaces like beaches and parks – where families congregate for recreation – is simply not acceptable.

Park Board Commissioner Stuart MacKinnon had the line of the evening, when in his remarks he recounted an applicable saying his mother used to tell him:

“Your right to swing your fists ends at the tip of my nose.”

The decision, however, draws light to the fact that the previous NPA majority were not only gutless, but without any vision when it came to a clear political winner.

As can be seen from the above quotes, the ever elusive Marty Zlotnik was most likely too focused on his golf game (as it happens, Zlotnik was once again down in Arizona last night, preventing him from speaking about the First Tee Youth Golf program at last night’s meeting, which he had a lot to do with getting off the ground while he was a commissioner).

As for Ian Robertson, his wishy-washy position from a few years ago carried over to last night, where he didn’t even bother to show up for the decision.

Maybe if the former NPA park board majority had spent more time meeting and consulting with the community (check out page 7 for the contrast between then and now), maybe they would have understood that this is a political accomplishment that they could have benefitted from.

Regardless of who has done it however, this is something that will improve the quality of life in the City of Vancouver.  Period.

In fact, I am going to be bold and state that this might be the most significant and impactful decision made by this current incarnation of the Park Board thus far into the term.

Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen (minus the nowhere-to-be-found Robertson).

CTV Sportsnet's "Showdown" Joe Ferraro might have stepped into an empty octagon before, but that certainly didn't help his credibility last week after falsely reporting that the UFC Vancouver pay-per-view had been cancelled.

He calls himself “Showdown Joe” and ironically, the name of the show he hosts on CTV Sportsnet is entitled “MMA Connected.”  Yet, you would never have known that Joe Ferraro has any knowledge or connection to the sport with the way he inserted himself into the UFC-Vancouver courtship last week, which revolved  around his shoddy reporting that put the now-secured deal in serious jeopardy.

Before I get into the story of how everything went down last week, here are a couple of excerpts from a from an interview Joe did where he described how he broke into MMA broadcasting:

“From there, we started sponsoring fighters at various events and then I met up with some promoters. They fell in love with the knowledge that I had and how I could break down fights into what this guy needs to do to win and what that guy needs to do to win, and then during the fight I would explain what guys needed to do to get out of a position and they said, “Did you ever think about doing commentary?”

“About three or four month in, the guys from Sportsnet started getting into MMA, they started covering the UFC and they decided, “We need an analyst; someone who is involved in the sport and can pick up the phone and call Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture.” So they started looking around and realized that The Fan 590 is owned by the same company as Sportsnet – Rogers Communications – and said, “Who’s this Showdown Joe guy? Let’s bring him in.”

Humble and not at all self-absorbed, as you can clearly see.

Now let’s examine Joe’s breaking news from last week, and his supposed chat with UFC president Dana White, which he still will not confirm with any certainty in spite of repeated emails from me.

Last Monday, the UFC and the City of Vancouver were deep in meetings regarding the proposed June event after weeks of trying to get a deal done.  Now in spite of reports to the contrary (which I will cite in a second), the reason that things took so long is not because Council was holding things up, or that bureaucrats were running amok within the walls of City Hall.

Simply, the City of Vancouver will be the first host city of a UFC pay-per-view where a province or state sanctioning body does not exist.  As an example, there have been two successful UFC events held in Montreal, both of which were facilitated by the Quebec Alcohol Racing and Gaming Commission (QAC).  This provincial sanctioning body is responsible for the rules, regulations and parameters of such contests, which in turn insulates the City of Montreal from potential legal action.

Pretty simple stuff.  But in the midst of the talks about Vancouver’s UFC future, these are the kinds of headlines that started seeping out, unbeknownst to anyone involved in the negotiations at the time:

“Source says UFC Vancouver show is off, may be switched to Cincinnati”

“Vancouver UFC show likely moving to Cincy”

“UFC Vancouver show is off: source”

“UFC down for the count in Vancouver“

So who was this “source”?  Was it someone within the city?  Or maybe a representative from UFC like VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner or Lawrence Epstein, the organization’s general legal counsel?

No.  It was Showdown Joe, who allegedly received confirmation from Dana White.  As I mentioned, I sent Joe a few emails last week to find out what exactly White allegedly told him, and was greeted with complete silence.  No surprise there, I guess, in consideration of the fact that a deal was indeed reached just 3 days after Joe’s initial claims became public.

Now Joe was correct about one thing – the show in Vancouver would have been moved to Cincinnati if terms were not reached.

But I have deep reservations about what Ferraro is claiming Dana White told him.

And before Ferraro goes and claims that it was his reporting of White’s supposed utterance that changed the course of the negotiations, let me tell you that I hear it simply caused bitter feelings and miscommunication between the two parties rather than helping to speed the process along.

The fact is that talks never failed, and never stopped.  There were issues that came down to the wire, without a doubt, but at no point did the City of Vancouver back away from trying to make something happen.

As an example, the requests for indemnification and insurance protection for the city were drastically altered by City Manager Penny Ballem and her staff to ensure that Vancouver didn’t lose out on what could prove to be a cash infusion of approximately $20 million.

Take a look at this interview from Joe on the day that his network was looking for answers as to who was responsible for the “show being choked out in Vancouver.”

He claimed that “it’s the politicians over there that are apparently making this extremely difficult for the UFC and any mixed martial arts events in general from occurring on their soil.”

WRONG.  As soon as Council passed the motion lifting the ban back in December, they had little to do with the day-to-day negotiations.  Actually, the Mayor, from what I hear, was the only one who was actively encouraging, not obstructing, officials to get a deal signed.

When asked why Vancouver was any different than Montreal in terms of securing an event, Joe responded with “It’s very difficult to try figure out, only because…uh…I’m trying to understand what are the liabilities, because every commission out there, be it North America or around the world, that regulates mixed martial arts, they’ve got the same issues so why can they still hold these events?”

Well Joe, that is also WRONG.  As I mentioned above, Vancouver is breaking new ground because of the fact that the province of British Columbia has no sanctioning body for MMA, making it different from any other past UFC host city.

So no Joe, the City of Vancouver COULD NOT “follow the model that’s been successful for all these different states and provinces that continue to hold mixed martial arts events” – not without the provincial government.

Joe’s clearly one of those reporters that revels in the access he has in the big names of UFC, whether it is Dana White or Tito Ortiz.  In fact, as you can see above from the excerpt I posted from the print interview with Ferraro, he flashes his ability to “pick up the phone and call Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture” as one of his selling points.

Good for you Joe.  That is a real feather in the cap of an MMA reporter.

But next time you want to make use of those speed dial numbers you have programmed into your phone, maybe you should do a little more digging into the facts before you insert false stories into the mix and almost compromise an event of such importance – particuarly to your profession.