Well its nice to see who Sami will be putting in the overtime for,I wonder if he will get paid. Perhaps if Sullivan is elected, he can have Wal-Marts lawers re-write the bi-laws and development requirements which have proven such a nuisance for this great employer in the past. Perhaps Sam can then have Wal-Mart to show their progressive spirit build a crack smoking room, replete with two way mirrors. Think of all the research Sami could do and on Wal-Marts dime. Sounds like a win win situation for all.

Why am I not surprised!

Reminds me of the 'Good-Old-Days' when Bell left politics in N. Van. for a cushy post at Safeway - After he had bullied through approval of... yes, you guessed it... a new Safeway.

And Vision manager Iain Reid did consulting work for the recently council-approved Edgewater casino. So what?

In Vancouver, WalMart was at least willing to meet the City part way. They had an green building design and they were going to be redeveloping properties along Marine Drive that are already industrial/commercial in nature.

But WalMart in the suburbs and smaller communities is another matter. In those situations, the First Pro crowd won't even talk about redeveloping derelict shopping malls, let alone installing progressive building designs. Instead they insist on a greenfield site, and if necessary will hammer the Hell out of a municipal council and the Land Commission demanding exclusions from the ALR.

I find it hard, indeed EXTREMELY HARD, to believe that the backers of WalMart in Vancouver, including their architect, Peter Busby, and Mayor Campbell, and Mayoralty candidates Sullivan and Green, aren't fully aware of the distinctly different corporate faces that WalMart presents in Vancouver versus the rest of BC. As for commercial mass media, including the CBC, well, ... what can anyone say? Is there anything that needs to be said?

What a bunch of bunk. I thought guilt by association was reserved for the Americans.

Langdon has many other clients, has been involved in politics for years and has every right to volunteer for Ladner if he wants to.

Pathetic.

Just a coincidence...yeah that's it. It's a 'free' country....there's no conflict...so what if Langdon has a hobby managing Ladner's campaign. What a man does in his free time is nobody elses business..yeah that's it..that'll fly with the voters..they're easy to sucker.

Silly me!--Jim Green being in bed with the casino boys makes it all A-okay!

We're just the dumb plebs who cast a ballot--how foolish to expect them to work for us instead of for the boys who do the real work of electing them.

Good post Budd. I for one miss you on rabble.

Anyway, I just wanted to note how interesting it is to see the momentum going for Green. Polls, good articles, money coming in, the right endorsements. He's got all the pieces in place, and it's going to be interesting to see how the votes come down (ie. how well he gets people out to vote).

Rep and Name are perfect examples of the hypocrisy of the left. On one hand the union support VMREU, CUPE etc that COPE and Vision will receive is fine and dandy, along with Ian Reid and others.

But god forbid if someone non-labour affiliated does the same thing. Then it's all corporate and nasty.

Either people (all people) can participate or they can't. You have presidents of CUPE school board locals elected as trustees in other districts and are part of the bargaining process for other CUPE members.

Anyone on the left have a problem with that?

Your presumption of hypocrisy rests on your assumption that I endorse union support of political parties.

You assume wrong.

Our useless civic election financing laws makes local politics far more corrupt than either provincial or federal politics. Most people and journalists consider local politics largely trivial and the resulting lack of public scrutiny only compounds the problem.

Reid is NOT in a conflict with the casino major domos, nor is Langdon with the WalMart people.

Last I checked, companies (and individuals)are free to contribute to whomever they feel approrpiate. So what if those companies have relationships with any of those people. Until they are elected, the perception of conflict does not exist. And even then, it is not like the unions who have on going interests in COPE/VV/NDP. The lark has always been that the NPA kiss off to developers, when in reality the development community goes through cycles.

Mr. Holman, sadily, has gotten ahead of himself here. All these two examples show is that, depending on who wins, there may be a potential, perceived or real conflict of interest, in that order. Mind you, that also depends on a myriad of behaviors by either winning party. Reid or Langdon, or their respective parties may choose to eventually step aside once their candidate wins.

I see where Sean, and some of you, has/have gone here, and it's precipitous at the very least, and, frankly, prejudiced, at the very worst.

Neither the NPA, nor COPE are in a current conflict based on these matters, as neither Mr. Green, nor Mr. Sullivan have won or been elected to anything and none of their backers have brought forward any proposals. When or if they do, that's a different matter. Mr. Holman's really stretching here.

Post election, this MIGHT be a story. At this point in time, it started out as an opportunity to take a unfair kick at the NPA's can, and has turned into an unfair kick at Mr. Reid for seeking to do what any one of us does: work and get paid for doing so.

Once again, rabid accusations from the left and an incompetent defence from the right.

"I for one miss you on rabble."

Thanks David M. There's a thread on Babble right now that I would really love to jump into. All the Babble Liberals are getting out their strategic voting "STOP HARPER AT ANY AND ALL COSTS" texts. A couple of them make it very clear that if the price of defeating the Tories is deliberately doing away with some NDP votes and seats, fine. So be it. The thread is called:

What's better: A Liberal win/Low NDP seats or CPC win /Higher NDP seats?
http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=35&t=000893

I haven't read the thread on Rabble, but it is a very rational argument.

I think the best result of all is a Liberal win, and a strong number of NDP seats.

But it is dangerous to think that way -- I would rather have Ujjal Dosanjh running my health care than Stockwell Day.

"Once Again", your "but they haven't done it yet!" defence is pretty sad at best.

Concern over the influence of big money in municipal politics is not a "rabid" leftist preoccupation, it is an issue that should concern anyone who professes to care about the integrity of our democratic system.

In dismissing such concerns as "rabid accusations from the left", you display a disdain for integrity in politics and completely ignore the weight of evidence that has fuelled political finance reforms in other countries and at other levels of government in Canada. Apparently, your "incompetent" colleagues on the right, meanwhile, should do better in defending the entitlement of whoever can afford to pay the piper to try their very best to call the tune.

"I haven't read the thread on Rabble, but it is a very rational argument."

Posted by makes sense at November 2, 2005 03:43 PM

Well then read the thread on Babble. You'll find that health care is not the issue, and that the arguments made, far from being "very rational" are highly charged, extremely emotional, and characterized by a kind of witch hunt mentality.

One of the truly hard-boiled Babble regulars even says "one Conservative MP is one Conservative MP too many", ... not realizing that he is unwittingly paraphrasing Sen Joseph McCarthy's 1952 Republican National Convention speech ... "one Communist in the State Dept is one Communist too many".

Name,

Interesting still, that you would manipulate the clear intent of my words.

I was not, as you erroneously assert, suggesting that your argument, or that of other rabid idelogically driven nutbars, was invalid because the donor parties or contractors were without current favor at 12th and Cambie. What I was, in fact, stating was clear: no harm, no foul. WalMart aren't going to be donating to the crazies who voted against an exceedingly acceptable green proposed building, (because of some perceived support of a politician in a foreign land, whose politics are different from those insane enough to laud Che Guevara and feebly try to save harmless Vancouver, from a nuclear attack. Neither should the casino interests think that they would be served by the devil they don't know (the NPA).

You, and other like minded freaks (RepublicanWetDream, etc.) are all left coasters who be virtue of the inherent envy of those who do well, have to have something negative and counterproductive to say about progressive business people, who at the end of the day will support those they feel will further their cause.

No corruption here. If WalMart made Peter LAdner a member of it's BOard of Directors, that's different, or if Sam Sullivan became a spontaneously large sharholder, that's also a problem. But for Reid to be consulting for the casino folks and Langdon to be consulting for WalMart is NOT a conflict for today or for any day in the near future.

More mental masturbatory efforts from the loonie left, aided and abetted, this time, sadly, by our own Mr. Holman.

Oh well.

Deny,deny,deny

Page 1 in the Neoconservatism for Dummies guide book right after Lie,lie,lie.
(there is no page 2)

Once again..if you think lefties are jealous of financially successful righties then you must be on the receiving end of way too much of Sam's notorious generosity.

Let's face it...Ladner's choice of campaign manager represents a huge potential conflict of interest. Here's some big IFs for you to put in your metaphorical crack pipe.

-IF Ladner gets elected then he can show us how ethical he is by abstaining from a vote on Walmart.
-IF there is enough proWalmart votes to make it interesting then we will see how ethical a re-elected Ladner will be.

Since IF #2 isn't within the realm of possibility we'll have to wait and see if Peter will be joining Sam begging for work in the Republican Party of Canada's campaign to arm Canadians against the 'RED MENACE'.

When Ladner gets reelected, he should vote his conscience (guided by the party line) and support WalMart.

The ONLY reason that proposal didn't make it was because of the insidious, ideologically screwed up councillors, including one Jim Green, who have so much hatred for anyone to the right who makes any kind of money. Is it no surprise that the greatest success stories (and the largest employers) are all right wing?!

Ladner is in no conflict as his vote in support of WalMart was well prior to Langdon becoming his manager. So, if the old proposal goes forward again, with even more progressive changes to accomodate the nut house chroniclers that will surely be returned to City Hall, then Ladner should again vote in favour with impugnity.

All the other lather surfers in this stream have proved nothing except that the typically frothy cranial vomit from the left is alive and well.

Here's some more frothy cranial vomit...Walmart will never open a store in Vancouver as too many of us know this enterprise is symbolic of all that's wrong with America.

Once again your logic escapes me..you seem to take pride in the right wing leanings of a vast majority of the ultra rich. The rub comes when you try and term this obscene acquisition of wealth as "successful" when there are more and more poor and starving in the world as each day goes by. This "success" really indicates nothing more than greed and callous disregard for our fellow man and don't think that donating millions to cancer research or other high society 'causes du jour' will exculpate these jet setting leeches.

Alas good buddy..your prediction of 3 NPA councillors is way too optimistic...that's not pessimistic puke..it's rabid realism.

walmart creates jobs,, the majority of walmart employee,s probably will not or could not work anywhere else,,,
sadly, but true , there is a place for walmart in our society,, competition is healthy, you freeloading socialist hordes,,,nic,,

I'm waiting for the poster who connects Mayor Campbell's vote in favour of the Wal-Mart proposal to a shady cabal of property developers who conspired to deliver him a senate appointment.

Sullivan is finished and even as he tries to hobble the dregs of tarnished and irrelevant NPA candidates towards electoral victory he is washed up. His ties to Bush Republicans,Jamie Lee Hamilton and the other Jim Green paint Sami as someone who defineteley won't be wheeling his way to victory. What a sad and desperate bunch this new crop of NPA'S are. It almost makes me miss Puil, almost.

Oooohhh! Don't you go letting us freaks & nutbars with our "inherent envy" get you all snippy like that, Once Again.

"Mental masturbation" and "frothy cranial vomit"? Sorry, where you're going is way too weird for me!

Bye!

I was voting for Sam because I can't stand COPE and didn't believe that Jim Green has really changed.

Now I find out that Sam would rather work with COPE councillors than VISION councillors.

Is Sam on crack???

I will vote for Jim Green, all of the VISION candidates, and the rest will be NPA candidates.

We need to run COPE out of the city. That now includes their supporter Sam Sullivan!

Unfortunately, Sam's biggest problem is that in a political careers marked by considerable accomplishment, he has not been able to stay on message--ever.

He suffers from the same political disease that inflicts Peter Ladner (although I notice, with considerable glee, less os lately) in trying to be all things to both sides of the political spectrum. Voting for gambling at Hastings Park, but effectively shutting down the Burrard Bridge every morning and every afternoon. Saying that you support the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge, but advocating the COPE position on how to get there.....AGH!

The idiots that allowed the NPA campaign to slip for so long before September will wear this loss. Thet deserve it. If they cannot even find ways to fix the Wilsonesque lapses, and motivate a Mayoral candidate who will never get this opportunity again.....then......

All Hartrick's horses and all Metcalfe's men...can't put Sammy together again.....

An apt eulogy for a star crossed campaign..once again.

Here's a great suggestion..gratis. Have Mike Hillman step down and put Greg Wilson in charge. You know he is just aching for more authority and he could drum up a lot more gossip to leak and you know how much we like gossip here.

Other than Peter "there's no conflict..I don't mind driving out of town to shop at my favourite Arkansas retailer" Ladner, there are no NPA candidates with name recognition except for the lass with the hyphenated name. I'm kind of curious as to when she started tacking her maiden name on to her married name. But that's just me..I'm a political animal, I'm sure no one else gives a rat's ass.

To close on a more pleasant note...looking forward to a fed erection..lot's more grist for the mill. I just hope it doesn't screw up xmas..we don't want Santa Crack to be distracted.
Have a great weekend.. there's a workshop for the terminally nasty ..maybe see you there.

Yep, RWDream, we're agreed...eulogy indeed.

No way on the Hillman sugestion though. If the NPA has had someone like that from the beginning, the election would be MUCHO differnt at this point, I can assure you. Missed opportunities galore, errant messaging (until recently), no media overage, zerto candiate outreach. And to top all that off, a political neophyte at the organization's controls, protecting the lunatic fringe of yesteryear (Hello, Ms. Kennedy!) in a vain effort to polish upa tarnished star. Four and a half million peronsal and professional agendas, mixed with ego after ego of blather and bullshit, and you have the NPA election cocktail par excellence for 2005.

JP Shason, God bless him, must just be sitting back and laughing, aloud, and for good reason...

Oh, what could have been.....have a good weekend to you to too (and to all), see ya at the nasties conference.

"But now the days grow short...I'm in the autumn of the year..."

there are no NPA candidates with name recognition except for the lass with the hyphenated name.

Susan Anton is known as she was a Parks Commissioner and good old Ken Denike is running again for school board.

Consider a vote for a friend of mine for Council - he's Lea Johnson - check out www.leajohnson.com

Really, guys, civic elections are not nearly about name recognition as they are about mobilization.

The NPA have been out nearly ever second day on the Burrard bridge, targeting the 70,000 people each day who cross it. These are South/West REsidents who live downtown. Also, they scored big on Patterson signs, which lie at almost every major thoroughway.

I have yet to see Vision or Cope out there to the same extent. Also, starting Monday, look for the media blitz to begin from both sides. I take it that the NPA has a bigger war chest than Vision this time around.

But really what it comes down to is day of mobilization. Cope/Visions fracture left them with serious issues in mobilization, and they no longer have the Star Power of Larry Campbell to draw people out. Most people seem to have no idea that there is an election going on, with the exception of each parties powerbase. Unless V/C can raise their fortunes, look to see NPA do stronger on a really low voter turnout. HOwever, the general mood in East Van is not highly favourable to council. Some of V/C's strongest supporters were really polarized over gambling expansion, and while they won't toss their support behind NPA, they also won't be too enthuusiastic about Vision candidates, even if they push for COPE.

It will be interesting to see if George Chow has any effect in the Chinese community. He drew a lot of votes in the past, and while he should be able to keep them, it will be interesting to see if they transfer to any of the other VVers. Sam's really done a good job over the years with reaching out to them, so it will be interesting to see how they are doing.

Mike Hillman? Isn't he the guy that ran Christy Clark's campaign? Didn't Christy's campaign lose?

What's so special about the guy?

Its called Liberal votes. While they are getting scarcer, like sheep, they will go to the polls on mass.