I think that Sam is the right person for the job of Mayor Vancouver at this time.

While the idea of Christy Clark running for mayor is interesting and I have always had good dealings with her, I do not think it is the right time for Vancouver to have her as Mayor. I also think it is better for her politically to sit out a while longer, otherwise she will look like Brian Tobin

The bigger issue that Christy Clarks rumours of running for mayor have raised is the very parochial nature of the lower mainland. She is being pilloried for not living within the boundaries of the city of Vancouver.

The time has come for the lower mainland to look at amalgamation - having 16 or so seperate municipalities is harming the region. The region has no one leader that can speak for it.

The region is a single socio-economic area that is pointlessly balkanized by having all these little kings of their little empires.

Christy Clark would be a dream-candidate mayor for Vancouver. I am sure the NPA will find some way to screw it up and lose her.

Bernard, you aren't suggesting that the municipalities in the Greater Vancouver area should be amalgamated a la Toronto, are you?

Yes I am....

though there has to be mechanisms and governing structures that protect communities - something that we do not have at the moment.

Many of the municipal boundaries in the lower mainland split neighbourhoods.

The parochial nature of each small bantustan of a municipality in the lower mainland means the quality of governance is lower, regional planning is not effective and each mayour acts like a king of their own realm.

The only regional goverance is the GVRD - it is unelected and does not report to the public but to the municipal governments. Regional districts are unaccountable and an experiment that needs to come to an end.

Amalgamation of all the municipalities? Maybe, but at minimum it should be reduced to 3-5 of them.

The NPA doesn't need a carpetbagger for mayor. Despite much hype and hoopla, Christy Clarke was a political failure a typical Liberal mouth - all talk, no action. If it wasn't for the Asper Press and CORUS radio, she would be just another Liberal also ran.

The trouble with NPA is that they didn't read the last civic election right and blamed their loss on good old boy 'Larry'. The truth is, the public were sick and tired of the NPA arrogance, especially Puil, TransLink, and the bus strike.

Wait til the fallout from RAV hits, torn up streets, closed and bankrupt businesses, law suits, Clarke, Sam and Peter, along with COPE Light a.k.a. Vision Vancouver, will be like rats leaving a sinking ship. "Wot me support RAV.....nah that was someone else."

COPE Classic is not the best, but you don't have to be if everyone else is a 1 and you are a 3, you will get re-elected.

I don't think Christy will run, however all of the speculation has done wonders to keep her political profile alive and well. 24 more hours to go and we will all know.

The thing to remember about Christie Clark is that she is Larry Campbell in a skirt: she is plain-talking, shoot-from-the-hip, fun, and can offer pure entertainment.

The only difference between the two of them is that Christie actually loves politics (Larry says he hates politics).

Christie has my vote if she throws her hat into the ring.

Christy Clark was compelling as an opposition member, forthright and strong as a Minister and decent talk show host. Shes regular people, and knows about real issues. I wish she'd run for Mayor of Burnaby where I live.

I agree that amalgamation of the GVRD is needed, and that includes the health and education boards as well as municipalities.

Right now Vancouver has the preferred tax base while suburban "bedroom" municipalities have to struggle. Yet it's their consumers and labour force that make Vancouver work.

What a transformation. Concerned mother who just had to leave politics to be with her young child. so how is it that your readers are telling us what a great candidate she would be for the NPA. Did she suddenly lose the need to mother her child in a very few months, or did she leave politics because she figured the last election wasn't going to be a cake walk for her.

Jim Green will be mayor this time around

I don't know if anyone sees the comparison or not, but this reminds me of Hillary Clinton.

If Christy does run, you can be certain it's because she thinks it will serve as a perfect stepping stone to the Premier's chair when Campbell retires.

If I have my municipal terms right, the new mayor's would expire at the end of 2008. Meaning perfect timing to make the jump back to provincial politics should Campbell choose not to stick around for 2010 and fight the 2009 election.

Hopefully Vancouver will see through a carpetbagger trying to boost her future political prospects and elect a guy like Sam Sullivan, whose been selflessly serving the city and the surrounding sommunity for years.

Christy Clark would have to explain to Vancouverites why she refused to meet with or respond to the 14,000 Vancouver parents from across the political spectrum who wrote letters in 2002 pleading with her to fully fund the teachers' pay increase that she had legislated, to avert the damanging $25 million cuts that the NPA-dominated school board of the day was forced to make that year.

Clark's high-handed response was to dismiss the protest as political, when in fact it was largely organized by West side PACs and traditional Liberal/NPA supporters. Even the NPA Board and Chair criticized her actions at the time. Residual bitterness over this issue certainly fuelled the significant erosion of support for Campbell and co in many transitionally staunch Liberal/NPA bastions of Vancouver.

Thousands of Vancouver families who were distressed by Clark's arrogant response and whose kids felt the impact of cuts to ESL and multicultural school workers, inner city school funding, special ed services, libraries, enriched programs, etc. will not be thrilled now by the prospect of having her as Mayor.

Hmm... I wouldn't mind having an elected GVRD board, for greater accountability. But I'm not sure about ceding any of the powers currently held by the current municipalities to any mega-city. Lots of cities, towns, and villages work fine in smaller chunks, and I don't see why there has to be one city hall for the entire Lower Mainland area.