Peter Hyndman? There's a name from the past. I wonder if he is still drinking Pouille Fouisse (sp?).

How is this at all relevant or news Greg, I mean Sean?

So the NPA are polling, so what? So they might want JP to do it. Big surprise.

Other than getting Mary Polak's name out there and trying to attach some distant venom or controversy to it, I don't know why Greg Wilson has leaked this story to you in such incredible (and in some places inaccurate) detail.

I wonder where Lynne Kennedy's outrage regarding leaks to your blog are now?

She's probably busy polishing her broom in anticipation of Halloween.....

spread the butter on them...NPA are toast

bad vibes within = negativity = defeat

Talk about a non-story. The NPA isn't a public body, it's a private association. As are COPE, Vision and Burquest Association of Three-Armed Midgets. The boards of any of these associations can contract with whomever they wish so long as the members are acting in the "best interests" of the association. Even if the timeline seems short, the variables the board would need to consider would likely be limited to cost and expected/guaranteed productivity (i.e., number of calls over a period of time).

Ah, my dear Mr. Biltmore...some background to help fill in the blanks for you...

1) Sean Holman and the NPA's now marginalized chief dimwit Greg Wilson are old pals from federal Grit days, they both of the left wing of that Sliperal spectrum (Rock, Copps etc.)

2) Mr. Wilson has been leaking very inside information to Mr. Holman for months. The story is ALWAYS favourable to either their own political end of the spectrum or highly supportive of the whackstar antics of one Mr. Wilson. Of course, those moves are always masked as newsworthy and the reportage allegedly coming from several sources. Not even the combined gray matter of Messers. Holman and Wilson are good enough to BS theri way through that.

3) As strong evidence of number 2 above, Mr. Holman didn't even cover the news that Mr. Wilson had basically been cast aside fro Mike Hillman so the NPA would have a real campaign boss and not the nutbar Wilson who pisses off candidates, and their staff by ruling by fiat and misses deadlines only to provide feeble and pathetic excuses in their place.

Nothing is covered with any balance anymore on this blog (like in the beginning)

But it is sure a great place to come read of what the asses far left of center think and are leaking.

This leak, truthfully, will certainly get someone fired.

Take good care.

NoSurprise and Mr. Biltmore are right on!

It is obvious to those of us in the NPA know that Sean Holman has sold his journalistic integrity to Greg Wilson every time he prints another anti-NPA piece that Wilson leaks to him.

Unless the piece involved actually involves Wilson himself, then the light is always positive.

It's really simple, in return for being the chief NPA leaker to this blog, Wilson is untouchable and Holman covers his ass with good news peices about him or twists the truth depending on the NPA story to make Wilson look good (which is a task of some enormity on a good day).

Pathetic excuse for political operative.

Holman used to be quite principled about this stuff.

But he sells himself everytime for Wilson...

Wonder what could be the motivating factor.....

I'm not sure why you guys are dumping on Holman. He's about the only one in town who publishes this grit, and whatever he needs to do to keep it coming, we ought to appreciate.

As long as he gets the dirty scoop across the spectrum, who care if he publishes non stories, heck, either way we need the reading material, and some of us civic novices love reading about the incestual relationships between the political freaks.

Keep up the good work, and "sources", whoever you are, keep on leaking information, no matter what your motives..

The point Mr. Grice is to not be subject to bullshit. And that's precisely what Mr. Holman has produced several times with Mr. Wilson as a source. But they are exposed now.

Sean is a very vital part of the political punditry in this province but if he wants to go anywhere, he needs to leave the bias behind.

Time to grow up.

Sorry Mr. Grice, your learning curve must happen with truth, not lies, fact not propaganda.

Holman holds himself to such a high standard. Read his stuff. Except where the NPA is concerned. If it's attached to Wilson, he'll say anything to protect the source IN THE STORY, and sometimes, that has included load o'bs. that is a disservice to you and anyone else reading this stuff, but when you don't challenge these guys they get away with murder, so to speak.

Wonder what why the bias......

Who writes "NO SURPRISE AT ALL'S copy, Mark Marissen ?

hello..is this damage control central?

I guess if your're fighting for your political life you'll strike out at the most visible
targets in the hope that you can spread some of the misery around or possibly stop the bleeding and make a comeback.
The impression that the NPA's nomination farce left with voters will take a lot longer than 6 weeks to erase.
Anybody that is into political life enough to make a career of it must have some kind of partisan leanings. Everyone in the business knows that so Hollman bends over backwards to spread the joy and the shoit around evenly.

Proverb either cannot read or doesn;t want to.

Holman's bias where the NPa is concerned is not based on strictly politics--that's ok--it's based on some bizarre personal allegiance to Greg Wilson who has infamously threatened many with the media many times before. Holman's bias on issues related ot the NPA are based on lies that he does not double check, I suspect intentionally, because he knows the Wilson is a bullshitter but Sean wants the story so bad, he can't contain himself. So anyone who reads anything NPA related in this blog has to take it with a grain of salt because it comes through the Greg Wilson bullshit filter and spin machine.
Sean is way better than that and should not be selling his journalistic integrity like that. Lots of promise in this boy but he doen;t cut loose the riff raff.

So you see Proverb, it's not about accepting politics, it's about stopping the bullshit train.

I understand that your're trying to stop the bloodshed 'green lantern' and 'no surprise'.
I also understand exactly what you have written.
If I were part of the NPA 'brain' trust I would be flinging shit in every direction hoping to lessen the load of shit that was clinging to the party.
You guys must have thought you'd seen the worst of it..then JLH does her thing on the steps of city hall and the NPA is going to wear that too.

Ouch!

A word of advice...Vancouverites are generally more disposed to embracing someone who fled from Uncle Sam's warmongering insanity than someone whose manager is an ardent Republican.

Proverb,

JLH has nothing to do with the NPA thankfully. Other than cleverly--NOT--trying to attach herself to Sam Sullivan and others, she is just a sideshow in the best sense of a carnival. She makes herself that way. All the crap she shovels about Jim is repugnant and the NPa has privately warned some of her backers about this. It's all about personal crap between Jim and her. No one cares about that and the NPA is reviled at the thought of that discussion. the new NPA is really about ideas and action, not about bullshit and innuendo.

Also, you are presuming that I am attaching a bad campaign to Sean or just trying to fling the shit around to cover the NPa, and I am not. Sean should just not sell himself like that and claim such lofty goals and make such prious statements about whata great writer he is. He maybe, but where the NPA is concerned, this election, he has allowed Wilson's bullshit to sink his credibility. Please deal with the facts Proverb. You are quite a deflection machine yourself there.

The NPA has run a very poor campaign thanks the Greg Wilson and his apologists, chiefly among them, Lynne Kennedy, who has to be one of the most insidious women alive. They did not organizae as they should have and Wilson's often times conflicting and poor advice may have done too much damage for the great talents of even a Mike Hillman to rescue.

So, I agree, the NPA will probably walk away with four councillors and Sam as Mayor, by a hair, and a couple each on School and Parks. And then the entire administration will be taken to task for their bovine stupidity.

There you have it, Green Lantern and the Amamzing Kreskin all rolled into one.

I'll be at the J A on E night with a big grin...if your're there in your green tights I'll buy you a beer..you'll need it.
Peter will be lucky to hang on to his seat..and that's all she wrote

...off to the island in a few hours to carve the tofu turkey and burn a few blunts.

I really am tired of the circling of the wagons and shooting inward demonstrated by the back biting in this blog. We have an election to win. Get on with it.

Eleanor, you are absolutely correct. The NPA is most likely winning the campaign against Mr Green thanks to the hard work of Sam and an excellent young group of candidates. Let's get on with it people, if some of you spent as much time raising money or knocking doors as you do writing on this blog, this election fight with Green and his COPE pals would be over alot quicker.

Give me a big break. With Conservative Party whack jobs like Marko Dekovic running the voter contact there's not a hope that the COPE nuts will get turfed this time around. I mean, why doesn't he go back to screw things up with Peschisolido and stop wasting time in Vancouver.

Roberta and Eleanor need a reality check, unfortunately it won't come until election night. The NPA, if it wins, will owe it all to people like Marko Dekovic and a select few others. Certainly not the oh-let's-just-love one-another crowd. Sorry Eleanor, but at lesat you can go back to your practice. Leaving Greg Wilson at the manager's position all but guarantees that the NPA won't win big, if at all. You can thank Lynne Kennedy and the brainturst for that. The NPA thanks to her and a couple of others has done nothing to cover the candidates. All they've done is said, go fight the lions, no shields, no spears. That was your buddy Wilson's idiotic idea and he was followed by the neophite politicos in the upper rafters of the current NPA administration.

If the NPA loses it will be because of the leadership vacuum both on the campaign and the association side. Poorly run campaign from the beginning--tough to turn around.

See you at the JA on election night Proverb. There won't be much celebrating at NPA headquarters.

Come on Green Lantern, are you serious about Dekovic? the guy practically created war on the Chinese community with his Reform Party whack job Peschilido. I'd love to see the voter contact strategy for the Chinese community with him at the helm. what a joke!

Remarkable,

Yes, your trusted political crime fighter and justice advocate is very serious about Dekovic. Firstly, when he worked for Pesch (the Fish), Dekovic was a wet behind the ears kid in political terms and he had NO team around him. He has matured into a very fine political operative who knows limitations, bounds etc. He has done a superb job on Voter ID. I've seen it, and I've been at this game a long time.

The NPA wins: they owe Dekovic, and about a dozen others on the board and the surrounding support group.

The NPA loses: and those standing sentry at the door of incompetence, Hyndman, Barbeau but particularly Kennedy, will have to answer, huge time. The man behind the door laughing all the way to the Gregor Roberstons of the world, Greg Wilson.

If there's one thing that's remarkable is that the NPA braintrust politically paid off Wilson for delivering the brass ring to them, and in the process, through their own political naivete, may have delivered an otherwise winnable campaign to Green.

I have to leave this post friends. Off to the south for awhile.

I'll be watching election night via satellite.

So, goodnight and good luck.......

It would appear that the infighting in the NPA didn't stop at the nomination meeting. It's just kept on rolling, if anything gathering material as it goes, kind of like an avalanche or landslide. As in Landslide for Jim Green, perhaps?

I think Sam Sullivan is an infinitely more responsible and respectable choice than the perfectly silly alternative from Port Moody. Still, I expect this to be a very close race, probably to be settled by less than 5,000 votes. As for council, school and parks boards, I think the NPA will pick up seats, but there will still be small left-wing majorities.

However, if more of this internecine warfare gets reported more widely, in the Sun and Province, Global and CKNW, etc., the Sullivan-NPA ticket might be looking at a more severe defeat. Voters find it hard enough to turn out for municipal elections. If their prefered party is wracked with dissension, staying home becomes an extremely attractive option.

Greg Wilson is crazy, but the motivator for anyone who is voting in this election is the candidate for Mayor.

Greg Wilson is not the mayor's campaign manager. Colin Metcalfe is.

Greg and Colin have a lot in common: they are both nutbars. The only difference is that Colin is a wackjob from the far right. The scrutineers he used for Sam's nomination bid were all from the Fraser Valley, ie. rabid anti-gay, anti-abortion folks who interfered in the Vancouver election to stop Christy Clark and her liberal ways.

The NPA is going to lose because of Colin Metcalfe, not Greg Wilson.

Real Reason,

Alas, because of you I may miss my plane to sunnier climes!!!!!

Metcalfe had one ton of lawyers, not farmers, present at the nomination--as well he should have with all the bullshit going on. Get your story straight. Nice propaganda. Lawyers, not farmers. And the lawyers that were there were led by one Tory but supported by Grits and osme Tories, so you're all wet.

No one interfered with Christy, she simply did not get her vote out. That's it. A good portion of her people were not resident, non citizens (both against NPA rules). With Greg Wilson running interference during the run up to the 10th., the numbers were obvioulsy meant to intimidate Sullivan onto the sidelines. That's what really happen. The number of objections was less than the spread, so you're wrong again. You could have included the non-residents/non-citizen Christy Clark vote and she still would have lost.

What happen was the grassroots came out in force and no amount of lawyers or farmers made the difference.

Get your story straight. Who feeds you your information, Greg Wilson?

P.S. Colin is a benevolent nutter who is effective and loyal. Wilson is the ultimate nutbar.

P.P.S. Can I please go now? I have to peel these green tights off again in favour of my linens. I'll think of you when I'm playing the back nine at La Quinta. See you at the Jolly Alderman on the 19th.

I never suggested that farmers were scrutineering.

I said that right-wing, anti-gay and anti-abortion folks from the Fraser Valley were scrutineering.

Is John Hof, the President of Campaign Life Coalition BC, a farmer or a lawyer? I dont't know, and I don't care.

What I do know is that he was a scrutineer for Sam Sullivan, and his views are WAY outside of the mainstream of Vancouver voters.

John Hof had all of his buddies helping him.

I am not suggesting that he actually helped make the difference. I think Christy lost fair and square.

What I am suggesting is that Sam Sullivan keeps disgusting company. I don't know the actual names of the other people who were working there, but I know that they were from the Fraser Valley, much farther away from Vancouver than Port Moody.

I also heard that they also huddled in prayer before they got to work scrutineering.

Mr./Ms. Real Reason,

Please say it ain't so!!!!

Those people prayed!!!

My goodness they must be rabid lunatics.

Good to see such wise comments from the CC and MM fan-club / peanut gallery.

Real Reason,

Head down to the Four Pillars in a jiffy for some drug counselling! What are you on?

1) Although repugnant and abhorrent, being anti-gay is well within the rights of anyone. Up yours if you cannot handle free speech. If someone is rabid about it, he should be scorned not pittied, but it is his/her right, thanks to Trudeau, to be that demented.

2) Praying is actually very good for you and also something that half this country do on a daily basis. Try it. Don't wait for cancer or your sister getting raped to fall on your knees and pray. What's wrong with prayer? Muslims, Jews Chirstians, we all do it. Get off the crack pipe and try it.

3) Those with an abortion agenda had NOTHING to do with Sam's campaign. But again, provided they are peacable about it, suggesting that having an abortion is a kin to killing is well within their rights to believe it, even if it isn't true.

Sam had a great cross section of folks. I know of three federal Grits who lead the pro-gay marriage vote in the house of Commons who worked like dogs to support Sam. They all knew some of the white shoes and cowboy hat types that came in from Langley (their were two only) that were supportive of Sam also, as phone bankers.

John Hof had one other like minded individual there. Learn the truth.

What you are illustrating is your own intolerance for those opinions that you disagree with and that you have not the first clue about the make up of Sam's scrutineers or his workers and supporters. The VAST majority were lawyers and members of the YNPA (Young NPA).

Green Lantern was right, you are out to lunch on this, but keep pressing your point. Oh well.

Hey Mr./Ms. Real Reason,

I was a Sam Sullivan scrutineer. I don't know John Hof. Maybe he was one of the guys at the scrutineer prep meeting(?) I just don't know. What I do know is that I, along with the half-dozen or so others that I know who scrutineered with me, are Vancouverites. Hopefully, I won't be tainted by having stopped for lunch in Abbotsford once. I'm neither anti-gay nor anti-abortion and I'm fairly certain the others that I know (admittedly I didn't know all of the scrutineers) share the same positions.

And I don't know who you've been talking to (likely yourself in a small, lonely room), but far from interfering with the "Vancouver election" most of us got along famously with Ms. Clark's scrutineers. We all had to stand on our feet for for four to five hours in a loud, stuffy room. Misery loves company. From personal experience, I spent the day alongside Ms. Clark's scrutineers who, like me, were checking off names, challenging suspicious voters (who, more often than not, were duly qualified at the credentials table and soon returned to vote) and sharing food, water and jokes.

You sir/madam, actually don't know a thing.

I find it REALLY interesting that supporters for a mayoralty candidate need to make excuses for some of their team. I've translated some of the above so we can all understand what is being said. (names have been changed to protect the inexcusable)

- Yes Billy Bob drove in from Langhole to help screwtinears but Tinears was busy so Billy Bob started praying out loud in the registration room. Well..you KNOW how contagious thet can be.

- Sure, Colon was a Republican in college..that don't mean nothin'..my daddy used to string up black folk and burn they churches..now he's a CPC MP..folks kin change.

My question remains: What was Mr. Hof doing scrutineering for Sam Sullivan?

All you have to know about Mr. Hof is to do a Google search on him, and you know how his views are far outside the mainstream of Vancouver residents.

Why was he coming in from Jesus-land to interfere in Vancouver?

Are abortion issues and gay issues dealt with by City Hall?

No!

What he was doing was working with Colin Metcalfe and a number of other wacked-out right-wingers on a mission to stop Christy Clark because she is a liberal, and, even worse, a woman who, in the minds of people like Colin Metcalfe and John Hof, should stay at home, barefoot and pregnant.

Full-stop.

There is no other explanation for Mr. Hof to be there. If there is one, I am all ears.

John Hof was Mary Polak's key recruiter.

Remember Mary Polak? She is the Langley MLA who lost the Surrey byelection and was the former school board chair in Surrey who wanted to ban books because they were pro-Gay.

That is the kind of company Sam Sullivan is keeping.

Here's the link:

http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/000588.html

When Colin Metcalfe gets himself the job as Chief of Staff to Mayor Sullivan, is he going to order NPA school board members to ban pro-gay books in Vancouver classrooms?

What other reason did Mr. Hof have to be out there scrutineering for Sam Sullivan?

Mr. Hof was probably just trying to get a feel for the lay of the land...maybe see if Vancouver was floodable or....find out where 25,000 Southern Baptist Conventioneers might hunker down for their all out campaign against big city wickedness...

Real Reason asks why Mr. Hof was "coming in from Jesus-land to interfere in Vancouver?" I'll ask why Ms. Clark was coming in from suburbia to "interfere" in Vancouver?

I suppose my question has been answered. Early on, I suggested there was no story here. Looks like I was correct.

In your dreams Biltmore...this one's got legs.

There is no upside for the NPA in this one. The more Vancouver voters know about the candidates and their backers..the better to inform them where to mark their X.

Hardly my dreams Mr./Ms. sleepswithangels. I've been voting COPE since the late 70s and don't intend to change my vote any time soon. At the start, my point was that who the NPA contacts about "bidding" on the association's voter identification contract is a non-story. And, as I asserted this afternoon, there is no story. You, your many admirers and opponents went off track almost from the get-go.

Hey Real Reason: If Hof is pulling Mary Polak's strings, then why was Polak's key caucus buddy, Kevin Falcon, helping Clark? Why was Chris Gardiner from iTrend working for Clark? Talk about hedging your bets!

Sometimes, just sometimes, folks come out and help in a nomination not because of ulterior motives but because they like their particular candidate. Perhaps Hof did that...

James

You were referring to the lead story, I was gloating over NPA squables. We were both right.

Sure, it is understandable that Kevin Falcon might support Christy Clark. Even if they didn't like eachother, Kevin knew Christy from back when they were students at SFU together, and he wants, like any other BC Liberal, to beat Jim Green, and he knew that Gordon Campbell would rather see Christy win than Jim Green win. He also probably thought that Christy was going to win (most people did) and Kevin likes to be on the side of the "winner."

But Jim Hof? How did he become a Sam Sullivan supporter?

Was he at Vancouver city council meetings hanging out and listening to Mr. Sullivan's every word? I hardly think so.

Did he know that Mr. Sullivan bought illicit drugs for people on the downtown east side? I also hardly think so.

It all doesn't make sense. The only thing that makes sense is the idea that the "federal Liberals were about to take over City Hall and they had to be stopped"

The only other thing that made sense, fromthe Campaign Life Coalition point of view, is that he had to come in to protect Hamish from a woman with (gasp!) ambition!

This meant that the Randy Whites and the Jim Hofs HAD to get involved. Their line of thinking would go like this: "My God! Christy Clark might actually take control of the city and make homosexuals and women work at City Hall or be on City Committees!!"

What on earth is any other explanation? What on earth is Mr. Hof's relationship with Mr. Sullivan?

No one has answered this question, and, as a Vancouver voter, I want to know.

I have never heard of anyone from the Campaign Life Coalition coming out to support something if it didn't have something to do with their agenda.

Was Sam Sullivan a college roomate of John Hof's, and that's why he helped? Did they smoke pot or do crack together?

I hardly think so.

Why WAS Jim Hof involved?

I am sure that one of the previous posters has the answer, and they have not provided it.

Sorry, I referred to him as Jim Hof. His name is John Hof. It doesn't change my question.

It's certainly clear YOU have an agenda.
Sam's team just beat Christy, plain and simple. Get over it. Hamish has.

Christy Clark wasn't an interferer. She was an interloper. There is a difference.

Mr. Obvious - you have not answered my question.

Yes, I have an agenda - I want to know why an anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-woman activist from Langley was an official of the Sam Sullvian campaign? Why did he bring other people with him?

You can tell a lot about a candidate by the company they keep. I am very confused by Sam Sullivan. On the one hand, he is buying dope for addicts in some kind of voyeuristic tour of the Downtown Eastside, and on the other hand, he attracts folks like this from the Fraser Valley to take a day off of their weekend to review the voting procedure of the NPA on his behalf.

It is really strange. I am sure that I am not the only person who is asking these questions.

It is pretty clear that both Sam Sullivan and Christy Clark had political machines working for them. Clark had the federal Liberal machine. Paul Martin and Gordon Campbell. Not my favourites. Sullivan had the Conservative machine. Stephen Harper and the religious right. Even less favourite.

I'm voting for Green.