Last week I took a much needed break – partially as I mentioned because of a computer melt down, and partially because of a fatigue of pontificating.  I promised a return this past weekend, but that also didn’t happen because of my enjoyment of the malaise, some amazing weather, and a full slate of great football games.

But now, armed with a sleek and sexy new laptop, I am back.

• Mike Howell’s piece about lone NPA Councillor Suzanne Anton last Friday was very important in confirming what has become apparent: the NPA is desperate for attention, traction, and relevance.  I said it last week, and I will say it again: to attempt to draw Gregor Robertson into responsibility for the terrible gang shooting that happened on Oak Street is about the lowest form of politics one can engage in.  This is particularly emphasized when examining the NPA record of funding police officers, which Howell took a look at, or when considering the $200,000 that the VPD just received in the budget for anti-gang measures, also as pointed out by Howell.  This kind of tactic is in the same vein as Ian Robertson’s complaints about Park Board procedure with regards to the budget, even though he didn’t even bother to show up to speak to Council about the process after signing up as a speaker, and also abstained from voting on the budget altogether.  Empty political rhetoric with little in terms of a political record or current actions to back it up.  Typical NPA.

• Charlie Smith is back with his conspiracy theories.  The entire Park Board budget vote was delayed to allow for public input and further negotiations with City Council, so for anyone to suggest that the process was done in isolation is a complete falsehood.  Furthermore, if Charlie took a look at the conduct of Park Board Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon during meetings, he would realize that there is an attitude that is espoused in the form of belligerence, bullying and condescending remarks and tone.  Stuart is not prepared to work together with anyone unless he can get some cheap political points or attention out of it.  Forget about political deals – this is a stream of behaviour that Mackinnon clings to partially because of his arrogance, partially because of his longing for the spotlight, and partially because of his fear of not getting elected once again.  Go ask any of the Commissioners aside from Mackinnon’s best friend Ian Robertson about his conduct, and you will hear about how he creates conflict and looks to exploit the ensuing drama simply for his own political benefit, not the good of the public.  On this issue, Smith clearly hasn’t done enough research about the claims made by both Raj Hundal and Sarah Blyth.

• The NDP has set its rules and date to choose the party’s next leader, and the group of undeclared candidates are scrambling to sign up members before the cutoff date of January 16.  It is amazing that no one has announced quite yet, although Mike Farnworth and Adrian Dix are clearly the front-runners at this point.  I think that the problem with what has been laid out lies solely with the party’s requirement to be a member for 90 in order to be able to vote.  I think that an April 17 convention date allows the eventual BC Liberal leader to call a snap election and put the party in great peril.  That being said, the NDP is very religious about their rules and procedures, so this is no surprise.  The next few weeks are going to be a frantic race of membership signing between the potential candidates, and it looks as though these new members could be the deciding factor in consideration of the 13,000 that are already on the list, which represents an historic low for the party.

• Is the BC Rail stuff sticking to Christy Clark?  Hard to say.  In one sense, she is clearly the most popular with the public, and still most likely represents the best shot for the BC Liberals to maintain power.  On the other hand, she lacks caucus support, and has the chattering classes of the party talking about how her victory could truly open up a Pandora’s Box with regards to the trial that fellow candidate Mike De Jong thought he had squashed through a $6 million deal.  I don’t think that the story is salient enough with the media and/or the general public to become the thing that tanks Clark’s candidacy.  Yet, she has a long way to go before she is able to test out that teflon quality with British Columbians…she has to win over her own members first.

• Innovation towards business development at City Hall continues under the watch of Gregor Robertson, and this is yet another sign to the business community that this Mayor and Council are ready to serve as partners in prosperity rather than a burden of red tape and the status quo.  The City of Vancouver has always had some of the best city planning in the world, and finally this same kind of planning and infrastructure is being laid down for a thriving economic climate.

• Sorry, even for people who are used to big stars and big productions coming through town, this is very exciting news!  I am totally marking out, regardless of who they choose to fill the role, as Brandon Routh is most definitely not coming back.

• The rest of the world is catching up to Canada’s passion.  It is time that the City of Vancouver steps up to the plate to make Vancouver an annual destination on the UFC calendar.  Because as things stand right now, UFC will be unlikely to return in 2011.  What a terrible shame.

Alright people.  Have a fantastic day, drive safe, have patience in the shopping lineups, and show some good will towards others.

Mackinnon was on the horn last night, while Robertson didn't even bother to show up - much like this picture from the Kerrisdale Community Centre.

An inch deep and a mile wide…that seems to be the best description of the opposition when it comes to budgetary issues regarding the Vancouver Park Board.

Political observers might remember the joint press release sent out by Green Park Board Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon and NPA Park Board Commissioner Ian Robertson.

Yet in spite of that precursor, yesterday’s Council meeting (which had in excess of 30 speakers interested in offering their opinions on the budget) offered performances (or a lack thereof) that didn’t exactly live up to the bluster.

First, Robertson didn’t even bother to show up, in spite of being on the list of scheduled speakers.

Furthermore, Mackinnon made his speech, and literally bolted out of the room after refusing to take questions about his presentation from Council.  From the way I heard it, Mackinnon’s dust was still in the air by the time the next speaker came up to the podium.  Why he was in such a rush to leave is still a mystery.

Similarly, after crying foul about the cuts to the Park Board on Tuesday, NPA Councillor Suzanne Anton had little to talk about after Park Board Chair Aaron Jasper finished his presentation.  She took issue with the fact that Jasper was speaking solely on behalf of the Vision Vancouver caucus rather than the whole Board.  He explained that he could not speak for the other Commissioners from different parties, as his position as Chair did not give him license to present their positions.

And then, Anton was quiet, having nothing else to ask about the proposed budget cuts and the case that was made by Jasper.

In all cases, the opposition that tried so desperately to achieve a news hit in their objections to the budget cuts to the Park Board, didn’t follow through with anything of substance.

Political grandstanding doesn’t only reside with Mackinnon anymore, as his new alliance with the NPA seems to have caused that particular tactic to be passed on.

Meanwhile, it seems as though Jasper’s presentation was a hit, and maybe…just maybe…there will be some kind of concession offered as a result of a strong working relationship between the finance chair (Raymond Louie) and the Vision Park Board caucus.

When I called Jasper to find out whether he thought that there might be adjustments made to their proposed cuts, he was non-committal and had little to say.  He did, however, tell me that he was “very positive about the way the presentation was received” and was “optimistic” that something could be worked out.

The next week of negotiating should be interesting.

I would like to offer some general reactions to the just released Justason Market Intelligence poll.

First of all, you have got to be kidding me with this:

If Frances Bula is correct and the NPA is indeed “looking to prove, desperately these days,” that “potential NPA candidates,…have a fighting chance to beat Vision Vancouver,” then I think that by all means they should continue to use these results, and this question in particular, as their enticement.

Never mind the general public – there is a significant number of NPA supporters and members that don’t consider Suzanne Anton a viable candidate.

Furthermore, I just made a call to a few members of the Vision executive who have assured me that the internal polling that they are seeing tells a far different story.

I am no pollster, so I am in position to decipher whether the Justason poll is more accurate than any other.

But I do know this – Vision brass and decision makers are salivating at the chance to run Gregor Robertson head to head against Suzanne Anton.

If this “statistical tie” that is described by Justason and breathlessly promoted by City Caucus is the star that the NPA landscape is pinning their hopes on, then the next election will be a fun one for those working to secure another Vision Vancouver victory.

With regards to some of the other Justason findings, there are few points that need to be made for context.

The poll states that “disapproval now stands at 57% for the municipal government’s handling of Olympic Village (up 14 points from 43% since August).  More than one-in three (37%) now “strongly” disapprove.”

But this poll was taken between November 12-18, which does not fully take into account the fact that the OV has now been put into receivership through Ernst & Young – a move that was roundly seen as positive across the city.

Couple this new sense of control and stability with a new strategy from master real  estate marketer Bob Rennie, and things are looking up.

Furthermore, if the NPA thinks that fighting the election the Olympic Village is a good strategy, once again, then I fully support them going down that path.

The origins of the Olympic Village fiasco goes back to how the developer was selected and how the parameters for completion were structured – two factors that are directly attributable to the NPA reign of error under former Mayor Sam Sullivan and former City Manager Judy Rogers.

The Olympic Village is a tough issue, but I would be interested in seeing what the chattering classes are saying come next summer, where the landscape of real estate purchasing and the ability for the City to recover all of its money could have improved exponentially.

Once again, Suzanne Anton as a Mayoral candidate, criticizing the Vision Council for decisions she and her colleagues made when her party was in power, is a dream scenario for Gregor Robertson and his team.

I think that polls like this one, or the one released over the weekend by Christy Clark supporters, need to be taken for what they are – a political tool designed to achieve a particular outcome.  In the case of Christy, showing that she is the only person who can win an election for the BC Liberals, and in the case of Justason, showing that the NPA is really in the game when it comes to political viability.

This isn’t to say that the poll is without merit.  It is only to suggest that different polls done by different pollsters are telling a very different story with very similar questions.

Maybe someone can explain exactly how that works within the realm of “random” samples.

So as I try and get a lesson about the ins and outs of proper polling, I am not going to pay too much attention to a poll that has produced results that seem to have come straight out of the wish list of Vision Vancouver’s top strategic minds.

Neither will they as they try to contain their expressions of glee, I suspect.

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.

Philip Owen was deposed by one of his own Councillors.  Larry Campbell hated the majority of his caucus and started his own party.  Sam Sullivan was also taken on by one of his Councillors intent on carrying the party’s banner into battle.

Gregor Robertson, however, has presided over a caucus that is not only personally friendly with each other, but extremely loyal, both publicly and privately.

Raymond Louie, Robertson’s main competition in the 2008 Vision Vancouver Mayoral nomination battle, has been relied upon by Robertson and his crew for his experience and know how of how City Hall runs.  The working relationship between the two is solid and without political backbiting.

And while each member of City Council has their own portfolios, the way in which Councillors collaborate together (Jang and Meggs on Olympic Village and Social Housing, Reimer and Louie on the Greenest City Action Team, Chow and Deal on business development and creative capital initiatives) is a model for political peace.

As an example, what happens when one member of the caucus goes public with their budgetary concerns?  Well, it is an exchange that is handled with respect, class and non-aggression:

“Park Board stretched thin

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
Penny Daflos
11/26/2010

The Park Board isn’t happy about what it has to do to help balance the budget.

Chair Aaron Jasper says after shedding more than one point six million dollars from their budget in the first round, it’s tough to find another million dollars in savings to help balance the budget, “This is really starting to eat into our core operations. We’re asking Council to reconsider that and that’ll be our job. My job as the Chair of the Park Board and my colleagues as Commissioners, to make the case. I would hope Council is open to that discussion.”

Jasper says some public washrooms may have to close and lawns will go longer between cuttings as a result. He adds that in general, he supports keeping property taxes down, but the Board can’t cut much further.

City budget balanced?
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
Penny Daflos

11/26/2010

A month after City staff whittled down Vancouver’s 2011 operating budget to 21 million dollars, City Council has squeezed it down to zero.

Councillor Raymond Louie says a spending review found 13 million dollars in savings and they’ll only raise property taxes by two percent to raise the rest along with some service increases.

He’s not sympathetic to Park Board complaints they’re not getting enough money to run their services, “It’s sort of like when you’re running household finances and your income isn’t there to match the service needs of your household; you really do need to rationalize and make hard choices on what’s necessary.”

Louie is confident no jobs will be lost since last year’s budget had similar savings and no one was fired as a result.”

In terms of the internal party workings, caucus peace has been one of the strongest features of Robertson’s reign as leader, which when compared to other political entities, is a real accomplishment in a time of political egos and selfish political in-fighting.

With the NPA likely headed for a leadership showdown between Ian Robertson and Suzanne Anton, the old cleavages that destroyed the party 2 years ago are going to come bubbling to the surface once again.

And in a climate where the NPA as an organization has lost its ability to raise money, attract volunteers and entice talent to be a part of their team, this race could be the death knell for the party’s chances in November, 2011.

I have a feeling that party solidarity is going to give Vision Vancouver a decided edge as civic political forces gear up for next year’s campaign.