December 14, 2009 - 10:31 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Retiring Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae is sick and tired of the hopeless fiscal situation of municipalities.
The political retirement of veteran Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae is not particularly significant for us here on the west coast as a stand alone story. Rae was Toronto’s first openly gay politician, and spent 18 years as the representative for Toronto Centre-Rosedale.
What is significant from the perspective of Vancouver, and indeed all BC municipalities however, is his reasoning for doing so.
In fact, in light of Vancouver’s current budget crunch, local Councillors and critics alike would be wise to use his experience as an indicator of what could be our future.
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November 16, 2009 - 11:06 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Civic affairs were front and centre in an interesting and engaging forum hosted this past Saturday.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into the “Year In Review” forum hosted by previous NPA candidate Michael Geller, largely because I suspected an overwhelmingly NPA supportive crowd would be the only ones to show up.
And, for the most part, I was correct – former and current NPA board members, elected officials and supporters roamed the room, with few Vision or COPE supporters in tow. In fact, one of those former NPA elected officials tried to tell me that the morning remained civil and well-behaved because “the right-of-centre” had been behind the organizing, suggesting that had the “left” been at the helm, chaos and hostility would have ruled the day.
This is exactly the type of comment that I have come to expect from your typical NPA, Quadra-type of supporter. When confronted with the question, I told the individual that having grown up in Marpole/Kerrisdale, I knew first hand that civility was by no means exclusive to her end of the political spectrum.
That bit of nonsense aside, I found the morning to be a fantastic endeavour that could prove to be a model for civic engagement for all parties – assuming, of course, that the pool of interest is widened with future sessions.
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