November 26, 2010 - 12:34 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
These wo former competitors have since formed a strong working relationship within City Hall, giving Vision peace within the caucus.
The landscape of BC politics right now is like nothing that observers have ever experienced before. A Premier has just stepped down, and his party is now at the beginning stages of what should be a hotly contested leadership contest. The stakes of this race are huge, as the winner becomes the new leader of the province, and the one tasked with pulling the BC Liberals out of the toilet.
Far be it for the ridiculous New Democratic Party to take an advantage of such a situation, as they are embroiled in a partial caucus revolt against their own leader. The dissidents are determined to push the envelope until Carole James walks out the door, which might happen soon with a leadership review likely coming in the new year.
If we turn our attention to the municipal scene in Vancouver, even the NPA continues to struggle with factions within their party, even as they try to rebuild the organization back into a competitive force for next year’s election. The recent party fundraiser saw Park Board Commissioner Ian Robertson and his silent supporters draw a line in the sand between them and the Sam Sullivan loyalists, while delivering a speech that showed he was most definitely going to take a shot at being the party’s Mayoral candidate. Meanwhile, Councillor Suzann Anton continues to cling to the Sullivan faithful for her base of support, making a showdown between the two an inevitability, and rehashing of all the nastiness that ensued between the Peter Ladner and Sullivan forces back in 2008. This is of course just the latest episode in a party that for many years has cannibalized its own in the name of personal politics of ambition.
Which brings me to Vision Vancouver. For a party that continues to grow as a coalition of progressive forces, the caucus has been one of the most peaceful that Vancouver’s civic political scene has seen in several terms.
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November 9, 2010 - 2:41 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Taxis lined up on Toronto streets is a common occurrence as drivers are really struggling under the weight of higher fares and far too many cabs on the road to sustain viable numbers.
This is an important piece from Councillor Geoff Meggs about the taxi industry.
Like I wondered a few weeks back, it is amazing how cab drivers are able to make enough to feed their families:
“Although Vancouver has the lowest number of cabs per capita of any major Canadian city, no one is arguing that taxi driving is a ticket to wealth. Cab driving is made up of long hours of unemployment punctuated by periods of intense activity. A driver sitting waiting for a fare is paying the car owner for the privilege.”
Let me tell you that the Ambassador licenses in Toronto have made driving cab in Toronto a very tough proposition, and rates have risen to the highest in the country.
A similar idea in Vancouver might very well lead to a mass exodus of drivers from the industry, largely because the living offered by the job would not be enough to make the long hours worth a driver’s while.
Meanwhile, there is one company that continues to baffle logic when it comes to their recent moves.
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October 29, 2010 - 10:49 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
These kinds of images provided by CTV are deceiving and fail to give the entire picture about the state of affairs within the local cab industry.
Every year around this time, CTV does a story about how the local cab industry is not serving the public well, and how there are not enough cabs on the road. The latest two installments of this annual series can be found here and here.
But as per usual, their analysis is slanted towards the sensational, and the depth in which they cover the issue is a centimetre deep.
Here are some realities when it comes to the local cab business.
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September 27, 2010 - 10:56 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Hair salon owner David Prior, whose salon is on Hornby, should have his views listened to and interpreted free from the hyperbole and rhetoric of bike lane opponents.
In a younger incarnation, I met Laura Jones, the VP of Western Canada for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses via a job interview. And, in successsive, years, I have met her at various events and business functions (although I doubt she remembers). And, just like her husband, she has always struck me as brilliant – one of the power women of the city, and a true thought leader when it comes to economic issues within the province.
And, in that ilk, her column in this morning’s Province is quite compelling. The CFIB’s membership is strong, and as is usually the case with the business community, Hornby have stuck close to the script and banded together to give 92% disappoval to the Hornby bike lane (EDITOR’S NOTE: Although Jones makes reference to “several hundred businesses on Hornby,” she never actually mentions what the CFIB’s sample size for the survey was, and how many returns she got back from the 300 originally sent out). The comments that Jones presents are also quite powerful in conveying her message.
Regardless, where I take issue with the piece is with the hyperbole, a tendency that seems to engulf those that take issue with the bike lanes.
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