Robertson's looking for another kind of handshake like this (minus the Conservative propaganda), but is unlikely to walk away with anything of substance from Harper this time around.

I have been delinquent during the Games, as unlike those who transformed themselves into “media”, I took some time away from the blog and municipal politics to enjoy the civic experience of a lifetime.

That being said, I am now back in the swing of things, and will be posting regularly from this point forward.  CivicScene will also have some featured pieces coming out in one of Vancouver’s preeminent news outlets in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has left himself little time to rest in between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as he has made his trek eastward to Ottawa and Toronto in search of “a commitment to a national housing strategy” and more provincial and federal funding for transit.

Yet on the heels of Premier Gordon Campbell’s government preparing people for today’s budget which will dramatically “cut back on the operating budgets of government” as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper prefacing his upcoming budget by calling it the “toughest of his career,” I can’t see the Vancouver Mayor walking away with anything at all in terms of financial commitments.

But the trip is significant for the way in which Robertson is graduating from his roles and responsibilities that are most often bound within the confines of Vancouver’s official boundaries.

First, let’s talk about transit.  Robertson is saying all the right things when it comes to an area of public policy in which he has little to no autonomy over.

He understands the trend in retail politics that links transit with the municipality it is operating within, even though Translink is of course regional in scope.  He gets that in spite of his goals for making Vancouver one of the world’s greenest cities, public transit is never something that he can ever firmly commit as part of the plan without the dollars kicked in from the upper levels of government.

He also understands that Vancouver is far better served by transit than municipalities like the Tri-Cities, and thus adhering to the prevailing logic that the “Evergreen Line is first up” is smart politics based on reality.

A UBC line down the broadway corridor?  Yeah…maybe in a decade.  And I strongly emphasize MAYBE.

Gregor is beginning to position himself behind the need for transit solidarity with his regional partners across Metro Vancouver, and that he is well placed to advocate broadly rather than just for the purposes of Vancouver’s benefit.

Which leads me into my second point having to do with homelessness.  I have written before about how Robertson should be leading a national rallying cry for better support for housing across the country.

Once again I am going to reference J. David Hulchanski report from 2002 entitled “Housing Policy for Tomorrow’s Cities,” which details how the “federal role in housing since the Second World War has been…checkered.”

It also delves into the fact that municipal or urban affairs has been something that the federal government has only delved into a handful of times over the past century.

Sorry, but this kind of hands off approach to municipalities – REGARDLESS of jurisdiction – does not lend itself well to the realities of the majority of our country’s population.

Enter Gregor Robertson.

Now I am by no means arguing that Robertson is definitely going to have any more success than the Larry Campbells or David Millers who over the years have been very aggressive in engaging the federal government on a number of public policy issues.

What I am suggesting, however, is that housing policy is a place where Gregor can make real inroads in if nothing else, raising the issue back up to a national consciousness and in turn initiating a cross-country debate.

If housing and eliminating street homelessness is his baby (and from all indications thus far into his term, this is shaping up to be his defining legacy – good or bad), then he needs to play a larger role in lifting the issue out of the specific situations found in every city across this country.

So, let’s see what comes about from the glad-handing and the post-Olympic Ottawa love-in that Gregor is bound to encounter.

Even without the dollars, this could be the start of Robertson emerging as an impact player within Canada’s municipal affairs.

John Tory will now contemplate his future as a private citizen, a tireless advocate for the charitable sector, and of course a father and a husband.

News of John Tory’s official departure from the race to become Toronto’s next Mayor this morning seems to have caught my contacts over at Queen’s Park and within the Toronto municipal political scene off guard, as he was clearly seen as a consensus candidate that centre and centre-right support could turn to in unison.

Even some friends who are David Miller supporters and traditionally aligned with the centre-left in all three realms of Canadian politics privately acknowledged Tory’s previous momentum and appeal in serveral conversations over the past few months.

Why you may ask was a bumbling and ineffective former Conservative leader and already once unsuccessful mayoral candidate already considered as such a hot political property?  Simply put…Tory was a guy with a personality that just about everyone liked and respected.  They might not have agreed with his politics, but they always appreciated the man.  Point and case?  My friend Warren Kinsella, who as a Liberal strategist and war room leader for Premier Dalton McGuinty was ruthless with a brilliance that few could match and from which Tory’s electoral prospects could never recover.  Enter the municipal realm, however, and Tory would have had a loyal general that would have gone all out for his campaign.

So with the “nice guy” out of the race, what happens to the new focal point of the mayoral campaign (some might say only serious candidate) whose straight-forward style often rubs people the wrong way?

Major outreach and a substantial branding overhaul, if he and his advisors have any smarts.

Smitherman should follow the words of wisdom from another famous George - "Serenity Now!"

Dont get me wrong.  From my limited experience in working with George back in the opposition days of 1999 and 2000, I really liked the guy.  Personable, off the cuff, passionate, and viciously partisan – all qualities that as a young politico I was quite impressed by.  Plus, I tend to gravitate towards the Jean Chretien/Larry Campbell type of brashness in leadership.

But that isn’t necessarily the kind of reputation that lends itself well to a city-wide electorate that collectively elects the Mayor to office.

Tory had attracted Liberals like Warren and disaffected provincial Liberals upset with Smitherman for abandoning the ship at such a difficult time for the McGuinty government.

Then of course there is Rocco Rossi, whose entry into the race came first, fresh from serving as the National Director for the Liberal Party of Canada.  Rossi is far from a candidate of threat, but he too will be able to pull some loyal Liberal supporters into his sphere simply for his affiliations to the federal party.

This is a constituency that Smitherman and his team must make a priority to reach out to.  Humility, acknowledgment of objections, and substantial offers for roles on the campaign would be a great start for these types of efforts.

I have a hard time picturing another name entering the race at this point, as Tory’s broad appeal is not something that will be easily replicated.  That being said, maybe the multi-year dream of getting Pinball Clemons into the mix is now something that Tory supporters are looking to once again attempt.

Smitherman would be wise to keep any assumption of his ascension to the throne as low key as possible, and instead focus on immediately releasing tangible platform ideas to define what his campaign will be about.

The image needs to be softened, his reasons for running need to be defined and properly articulated, and a vision for Toronto must be released in a slow and steady progression.

Then, and only then, wil Smitherman be able to turn a corner and overcome some of the long-standing opinions that exist about him and his demeanour.

This is no longer simply about winning for Smitherman.  This is now also about managing the responsibilities and challenges associated with being the front-runner.

This image demonstrates the way some feel that City of Vancouver staff need to act when implementing the agenda of a democratically elected government.

I read the comments for this posting by Frances Bula and laugh.

Are we to believe that the previous Vancouver City Manager Judy Rogers was somehow apolitical when, as an example, she distributed a confidential memo to staff that accused the unions of using the 2007 civic strike to defeat the NPA in the next election?

Regardless, the recommendations that come from staff are only as good as the direction the Council chooses to ultimately head towards – a position that Gregor made very clear during the 2008 campaign:

“Staff are there to provide information and not to make decisions…that should be left up to those that are elected by the people.”

The same applies to the issue of street homelessness.  Gregor Robertson campaigned on ending it by 2015 as his number one issue during the election – no surprises there.  And, as the map in the linked article demonstrates, those were the results that the Vancouver electorate returned in the ballot boxes.

So you’ll forgive me if I also scoff at the criticisms of a man who presided over the Mayor’s office during a period where street homelessness increased by 37 per cent in spite of promising a reduction of 50 per cent (yes…clearly a pipe dream).  Oh yeah, and a former provincial cabinet minister and his “blue chip law firm” got contracts for consulting on the initiative (half of the budget is reported by the Tyee to have been spent in the first year).  The initiative I am referring to – Project Civil City – brilliantly demonized the homeless and the mentally ill by using law enforcement to ticket people without a permanent address.

Truth be told…the Council years under Larry Campbell were far, far worse.  But then again, they aren’t there beating the drums against an agenda that the voters of Vancouver overwhelmingly endorsed.

There is an agenda with regards to targeting homelessness.  The people of Vancouver overwhelmingly embraced the party that advocated it as their number one priority.  NIMBY neighbourhood minorities that support this intent as long as it doesn’t involve their piece of paradise will never be appeased no matter how much consultation is engaged in.  The Mayor is making sure that he is living up to his campaign commmitment, and the majority of Vancouverites understand the importance of tackling one of Vancouver’s most systemic problems.  Tangible efforts both in terms of shelters and more permanent housing arrangements are coming on line quickly.

Tough issues are always going to be controversial to those who do not support change that impacts them personally.

Political leadership is about mitigating these narrow interests and staring them down in favour of leaving a lasting legacy for Vancouver’s downtrodden populations.

Enough said

David Miller is ranting against the Conservative government's piss-poor environmental record.

One of the political luxuries of announcing retirement a year in advance is the freedom to comment on a wide array of issues without consequences, as evidenced here.

Fresh with a fossil award in hand, Miller said the following:

“I think I speak on behalf of all Canadians when I say it’s an embarrassment to us that our government’s being singled out as one that’s not acting on the most important issue the planet is facing.”

Miller speaks with much more authority in consideration of the fact that he is the current chair of a climate change association made up of the world’s 40 largest cities, known as the C40.

Meanwhile, the humble Mayor from Vancouver only walks into Copenhagen with North America’s most impressive performance on controlling emissions.  Now while that might be golden in terms of his status within the climate change talks and in his ability to attract business interest in Vancouver (an objective that I am told the Mayor is also aggressively pursuing in his efforts over in Europe), it also represents constraints when it comes to making a political statement with regards to Canada’s environmental record.

Unlike Miller, or former Mayor Larry Campbell, whose utterance about the Conservatives in the midst of an election campaign secured his exit from municipal politics, Gregor is going to be around for a while and going to have to work with his federal counterparts for some time to come.

On the other hand, the contrast between Vancouver’s record on emissions when compared to the country as a whole is quite compelling, meaning that maybe Gregor doesn’t have to say a thing to emphasize the city’s attractiveness to foreign audiences.

Still, I would have loved to have seen the diplomatic, mild-mannered Robertson turn into a political beast for one moment, if for nothing else but to castigate this clueless bunch of neanderthals we currently have in Ottawa on his favourite public policy issue.