what on earth has the mild-mannered Mr. Hillman said that would require a little behind the scenes lecture?

I share those sentiments. Mr. Hillman just isn't the rough type. These kind of meetings are overblown -I'm sure Hillman and Metcalfe have an excellent working relationship through the provincial scene.

colin metcalfe, sam's campaign manager, was the former prez of the young americans for freedom at the University of California. he did this as a student, even though he is a canadian citizen. It is a far right-wing campus republican organization. website - http://www.yaf.com/

maybe colin met gordon gibson through the far-right wing fraser institute. webswite http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/

wonder what the yaf members think of sullivan's support for harm reduction strategies

Thanks, jjjj. checked out the site.

Here is a quote from the President of the Young Americans for Freedom (from the site):

"George W. Bush certainly knows where the war that matters is being fought. He must know that the education compromise will drive additional nails into the coffins of our dying schools. . . . He must know that the so-called Campaign Finance Bill flies in the face of morality, as well as of the law. . . . He must know that further encouragement of an enormous Hispanic bloc as a separate and distinct entity is incompatible with the survival of the United States.

Further encouragement of an enormous Hispanic bloc?

Thank god there are very few Hispanics in Vancouver, eh? Or, if there were a lot in Vancouver, would we have to make sure that their NPA credentials are heavily scrutinized by Colin and the boys? I am sure that Colin would be very much up to the challenge!

Does Sam know about this? Does Sam support George Bush too?

This just gets better and better! The SS backroom boys have secret links to the "far-right" Fraser Institute, while CC served as the FI's most loyal handmaiden during her stint as Education Minister. Her "choice & flexibility" education agenda was taken straight out of the Fraser Institute's privatization manual (http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/education/index.asp?snav=edu). She didn't even bother to change the codewords! At least the US neo-cons devised a slightly more creative label with their own "no child left behind" version.

"jjjj" and "concerned", maybe you should warn CC and her buddies at the province, including our own "Liberal" Premier, that their Fraser Institute idols are actually "far right" whackos, if the Martinis' plan is to pull out the "scary right-wingers" card again to funnel votes to their "Liberal" candidate.

The NPA guy Sullivan , long time city council member, was a star for the right of center group till along comes the ex politician who retired to be with her family decides to run against Sam. Out come the knives as can be seen in this article. A bit of mud thrown toward Gibson at the same time.

Dirty tricks coming up soon, as the NPA dearly want to take over the city one more time, and in these guys view Clarke is just great. The woman did not much as a MLA beside insult people but she is married to a fed. Liberal inside heavy so by gosh she must be just about perfect. Wonder how the case against those other federal Liberal isiders that required a raid on the Legislature is coming along?

Relax DL. Christy Clark and Mark Marissen may be Liberal insiders, but Christy is no Carol Taylor. On the contrary, she is being set up by provincial Liberal insiders to take a fall against Sullivan in order to put him onto a winning streak going into the election.

Remember, Christy was openly disloyal to Premier Gordon Campbell, and for that reason needs to be punished. Letting her ego talk her into an unwinnable contest is the chosen method of humiliating this pumped up suburbanite.

Christy is hardly being set up. The game plan is to have her win the nomination, get elected as Mayor of Vancouver and then three years later replace Gordon Campbell as Premier of BC.

Meanwhile Mark Marissen already is planning to have himself appointed to the Senate and in the meantime is billing himself out at $600 per hour in return for "access" to the Prime Minister.

Of course British Columbians may see through their overweening ambitions, but somehow I doubt it. In any event time will tell.

This race will be pretty interesting but in my view Christy will be getting the nomination and NPA will Steamroll the COPE/VV back into the pavement where they belong and should stay paved.

Clark is someone you should be looking upto it's sad that you don't relise that.

Try to imagine this scenario. The Mayor of Port Moody unexpectedly resigns to take up a new position elsewhere. Moody movers and shakers huddle and come up with a brilliant scheme. They will run former BC Finance Minister and current Shaughnessy resident Gary Farrell-Collins as the new Mayor of Port Moody! Sound like a doable proposition???

Christy is very definitely being setup and if Mark Marissen didn't get the hint about his own Senate seat dreasms when Larry Campbell was appointed, ... well, ... you sort of wonder when that's going to be possible, don't you?

hi, budd campbell: for your knowledge, Mark Marisen is the major player to get Larry Campbell to that porky room. Christy chose to run in vancouver as a step stone for the premiership. I still remember young liberal chanting "Christy for Primer" at Mark's birthday party last month.

Has is possibly occurred to anyone that the fact that the Clarke/Marisen household would be on friendly terms with Larry Campbell (even though Larry supports his friend Jim Green) shows that Clarke might actually have a different take on Vancouver politics than the traditional left/right spectrum?

Christie made some mistakes in the provincial government, but everyone knows that she is more progressive than Campbell and the Kevin Falcolns and Rich Colemans of the world.

She is a fiscal conservative, but it was pretty clear that, after her first instinct to be the loyal cheerleader, she was feeling uncomfortable about how the government was working. The Children and Families ministry was probably not the place for any kind of small-l Liberal to want to work in during the Campbell regime. Especially with a child of her own.

One person with insight into Christie's personality is Joy MacPhail, who was pretty much singing Christie's praises on CKNW the other night. They got along famously and showed mutual respect to eachother while on tour earlier this year.

Everyone will try to paint Christie with the Gordon Campbell brush, but I notice that the people coming to her aid are not Gordon Campbell and the boys, but the federal Liberals, the same people who recognized Larry Campbell's abilities and got him working for British Columbians in the Senate -- the same people Vancouverites have felt comfortable enough with over the past decade to give almost all of their federal seats to.

Sounds like the kind of progressive, pragmatic, and sensible leadership we need.

FYI, bobby, I really couldn't care less who chanted what or where they chanted it.

Larry Campbell is filling the seat that Mark Marissen coveted. If part of Mark's party soldier duties was to arrange that very appointment, ... well, ... that's a rather nice touch, don't you think? It shows that PM Paul Martin sees Marissen for what he is, a second-string third-rater who shoud NEVER be promoted out of the backrooms and into the front rooms.

jack raises some intesting points, and it's true that some NDP and former NDP types have endorsed Sam Sullivan (Tom Perry and Bernie Simpson, though Bernie shifted allegiances to the Federal Liberals some time ago, to support John Manley in his utterly futile drive for the Liberal Leadership).

In any case, here's my question. With Larry Campbell now in the Senate as a Liberal Partry Man, and yet still friendly with Jim Green, and with Jim Green having several very rich developers at his fundraiser, how on earth will NPA Mayoral candidate Sam Sullivan be able to credibly smear Green as an ideologically-driven, "union kissing" (Barb Yaffee wording here) wastrel who wants to kill business and the economy to death!

Budd, what on earth are you talking about? Are you on crack? For one thing, Mark Marrisen would never expect to be appointed to the Senate. He's only 38 years old -- so it would be a tad scandalous.

And Sam Sullivan isn't going to be mayorality candidate. Christy just had her campaign kick-off at lunch today, and she had over 1000 people at it. Biggest event of the municipal campaign so far, and it's only just the beginning. Expect a Christy Clark - Jim Green fight to the finish!

what the? is right!

What 1,000 people turned out to cheer on Christy? Is that what Bill Bennett used to call a rent-a-crowd affair? Was $100K/year Federal Govt donut hole puncher Bill Cunningham among the amused well-wishers who know the inside scoop, that Christy is being ruthlessly treated to the buildup to the letdown?

Marrissen sure as Hell wanted to be a Senator, if not now, then in a very few years time. If someone ten or fifteen years older than Larry Campbell had been appointed, fine. But Larry has nearly 20 years to go to age 75. This is a very definite blow coming from very, very high up. Try to cover it up or repackage it all you want, Paul Martin is slowly making it absolutely crystal clear that he want's little to do with the David Anderson-Mark Marrissen crowd. He knows they are high risk politically even if Dave Basi manages to escape a serious conviction this time.

I'm the one that said "Christy for Premier!" at Marks B-Day and I really think she should be Premier!

Budd, you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Period.

I shall stop reading your delusional rants.

David Anderson-Mark Marrissen crowd???

Budd Campbell is someone who needs to get back on his meds, because he has no idea what he is talking about.

Everyone knows very well why Paul Martin removed David Anderson from his Cabinet. Anderson was too involved with the Marrissen and Basi crowds, and his continued presence in Cabinet posed a serious risk to the PM himself.

So, Budd. You think Marrissen would go and recruit Ujjal Dosanjh and David Emerson, and then Raymond Chan would go and recruit thousands for Paul Martin's leadership campaign, and Stephen Owen would win the biggest riding majority in Western Canada, and Senator Austin would provide the intelligence to be the best possible leader of the government in the Senate, and on top of all that, there would still be room for David Anderson in cabinet???

Oh, it must have been Basi. Yeah, wackjob. You really know something about federal politics.

Since yes did not mention $100,000 per year Federal Employee and once upon a time Star Candidate Bill Cunningham, nor did he mention that other Star Candidate of the Past, Dave Haggard, I can only conclude that yes is either Cunningham or Marrissen.

Everyone knows damn well that the Ottawa types were getting creeped out as the potential magnitude of the Basi-Virk situation unfolded. The possibility that drug money was used to finance part of the Paul Martin leadership drive, and that these operatives, along with Marrissen's contingent, were closely associated with David Anderson clearly called Anderson's judgement into question. Simply put, Anderson had become a security risk because of his associations.

Oh, yeah, Budd. Paul Martin was so "worried" about Mark that he appointed him the man in charge of the campaign in BC for the next election. I guess the PM wants to get rid of Mark's friends but not Mark?

How do you type when your arms should be in a straightjacket?

Why hasn't Martin gotten rid of Marrissen? A good question, I don't have all the answers. But it's still obvious why Anderson had to go. He was in Cabinet, Marrissen is just a paid flunky. If things go south and Marrissen is implicated after all, he can be fired at that time. But having a man in Cabinet go sour, that would be too risky. Preventive action was called for, and taken, in the decisive manner Canadians have come to associate with Paul Martin.

There is a difference between having over 1000 people at a campaign kick-off and holding a campaign kick-off at Flota where there are already 100s of people lunching who have nothing to do with the NPA or Ms. Clark. It might have looked good for the cameras, but here's a rare circumstance where perception might not be more important than reality.

You mean the 1000 people who were all wearing Christy Clark buttons and clapping to her every word? They felt that they had to do that in order to eat? Everyone needed a ticket to get in. JJBC you have no idea what you are talking about.

martin does not pay marrisen. anderson had to go for two reasons: 4 other mP'S and one senator who had better claims to a cabinet spot in bc, and the fact that he crapped all over marrisen, cunningham, bruce young, herle and the campaign team during the election. anderson was marching to his own drummer, didn't lift a finger during the leadership campaign, heavily criticised the election campaign in the media, and then expected to be top bc cabinet minister again after it was all over. these silly basi consipracy theories: tempest in a teapot. big deal for basi, but everyone else simply caught in the crossfire. it was greg wilson, the copps/chretien organizer, ironically, who was musing in the media about all the drug stuff, trying to embarrass marrisen&christy, even though they never did anything wrong other than receive a few emails, and now greg's running the npa campaign and appears to be sucking up. weird.

is greg now finding resistance to the borg futile? or does he have a split personality? or is he actually part of a plot to stop christy at the last minute? his final revenge?

stay tuned ... we'll know soon enough.

truth, ... you may be able to claim certain inside knowledge, but you're really overlooking the main issue here. If it could ever be shown that Basi used drug profits to pay for some of his pro-Martin organizing, busing and meeting stacking, if it could ever be shown that drug money financed any part, even a small part in just one province, of the Paul Martin Leadership Drive, then that, linked up with Gomery, would be enough to seriously alter the balance of credibility and authority as between the Martin and Chretien wings of the Liberal Party.

In order to prevent any potential Basi-Virk stain from sticking to him, PM Paul Martin had no option but to remove from Cabinet the one Minister, David Anderson, who was involved with all of this crowd,... Marrissen, Borman, Basi, Virk, etc.

The argument that Anderson had to go to make way for Emerson is really a joke. Yes, Anderson is green (or so he and his patronage appointees like Vicki Husband and Terry Glavin claim), Emerson is vigorously anti-green, but all of that means zippo in Liberal land. BC could have had three Cabinet Ministers, Emerson, Anderson and Owen, along with Senator Austin and there would have been no problem. And there is no question that Anderson is THE senior Liberal from BC, having first been elected in Esquimalt Saanich in the 1968 Trudeaumania Sweep.

Anderson was kicked out because he had become careless about his associations to the point of posing a potential risk to the entire team.

Budd Campbell, it's good to see your steady hand on the tiller ... my worst nightmare is that British Columbians will succumb to the West Coast media's efforts to forget Basi, Virk, and Basi.

Justice Patrick Dohm popped up in the news recently, seemingly alone on Cloud Nine, to admit that he may have been a bit hasty in setting an early court date and seemingly alone decided to postpone their trial yet again, from Nov. 2005 to Feb. 2006. Was there a court hearing? Did Basi, Virk, or Basi request such a delay?

And then the drug charges were dropped. Like you, I think this is a very worrying segment of the whole story, because it included money laundering and the possibility of vote-buying.

I can't forget that Paul Martin appointed those 3 candidates you mentioned above (Dosanjjh, Emerson, Chan) as a spectacular distraction on 1 April 2005 at the very time and place when Justice Dohm was presiding over a critical hearing for Basi, Virk, Basi.

Martin didn't have to land in Vancouver that day. He was taking an awful risk if things were actually on the up-and-up. So, I think he had advance reassurance that his boys had nothing to fear that day, which means (to my mind) that the B.C. judiciary is heavily influenced too. So Paul Martin, IMO, is tainted no matter what he does. Ask Herb Dhaliwal.