I suppose Joy MacPhail would feel that COPE is too much on the left for her to join. If Jenny Kwan starts a NDP-takeover of Vision Vancouver, Joy is quite possibly their pick to run against Sam Sullivan. But c'mon, we all know she has no chance beating Sam.

Bob on the other hand truly has a deep warchest and a sea of financiers if he wants to run so he can have a chance to put his company onto the world map once Olympics comes around. But he has positioned himself perfectly as he will effectiively take over Green's support after backing Green who we knew had no hope in 2005 and would not run again. I wonder though how the Micahel Bloomberg of Vancouver would do against a hugely popularly mayor. If Bob decides to throw his hat in, it will certainly be a facinating match to watch as both/all sides will have real deep pockets.

"... Joy is quite possibly their pick to run against Sam Sullivan. But c'mon, we all know she has no chance beating Sam.

... Green who we knew had no hope in 2005 and would not run again. I wonder though how the Micahel Bloomberg of Vancouver would do against a hugely popularly mayor. ..."

Posted by FHK on August 16, 2006 06:09 PM

There's always a lot of slop and drivel in online chat forums, ... Hell, I may have contributed something to that output myself! But this is really too much. Everyone knows that in actual fact the last Vancouver mayoralty election was settled by the narrowest of margins. FHK's silly attempt at revisionism is so threadbare I really don't know why he bothered with it. There is no reason to believe that since the election Sullivan's popularity has increased in any substantial way, any more than there is any reason to believe it has fallen off precipitously. If there were another vote today it would presumably be another close race.

By the time there is an election, in November of 2008, there's an excellent chance that Vancouver's hot housing construction industry will have fallen off considerably, and that City politicians will be faced with the task of seriously upping densities in order to get the residential construction sector moving again with lower effective land prices. That won't be an easy decision for any party, left, right or centre, as they all depend on people who love seeing their property assessments going up and up every year. But it would on balance be hardest of all for the NPA, the party of the Westside property owners.

Wow, Bob Rennie for mayor.

That's an interesting thought. Frankly, I'm not sure that he'd be a great one, though I'm pretty sure that he'd be a good one (and if he had a major stroke, he still couldn't be worse that Sammy and the Gang). The fact that he'd have the means to wage a successful campaign is only part of it - he'd also have the ability to recruit progressive and viable candidates to compliment the current Vision list. Properly executed, I could imagine a Rennie candidacy heralding something like the end of the NPA.

No matter who runs, Vision has this big problem with what to do about COPE. Clearly, both sides are going to have to run a full slate next time, and clearly that's going to mean vote splitting. Essentially, then, in a split left environment, Vision will need to field a candidate with the profile capable of siphoning off a lot of NPA votes. Someone like Macphail would be a left person, someone like the juice king wouldn't really get either side, but someone like Rennie would be perfect. A centre-left party with a capitalist icon at the top of the ticket. Anyway, that's what Vision will need in 2008, but who knows if they'll get it.

1) I don't like the idea of rich "movers and shakers" making their first run for office right into the Mayor's chair. The developer connection makes it worse. A term as a councillor would prove Rennie's ability.

2)Since the civil war is still on and COPE has to have learned their lesson that you can't run a slate without a Mayoral campaign since that's all the media really focuses on, Vision has to give up it's initial goal of just replacing COPE.

3) If Vision truly wants to sell itself as a centerist party and not just split the left wing vote, it has to evolve into more than than the farm team of the NPD that COPE always was. The cleaning up of the political system and most importantly items like campaign finance reform is paramount to this. Electoral reform that just reforms and doesn't increase the number of councillors and attempt to gerrymander to the left is also vital.

4) Allen would be far better off to run as an independent Parks Board candidate and recruit a slate of independents to take the parties out of the Parks Board. Sam Sullivan and the South Surrey to Abbotsford crowd that have taken over the NPA has to be defeated, they have left lots of room for Vancouverites to take back the Council.
What Sam is doing to the Falun Gong is absolutely disgusting, he needs to go.

5)Hi Budd, again we disagree. I doubt that the housing market will even cool down so the chance of the left exploiting a downturn.

Boob Rennie and Al divaNova? Some of you are really heavy into the sauce.

With the way Sullivan and his staff have been circle jerking over chocolate eggs, flags and not much else, you can say hello to Mayor Larry Beasley, Councillors, Kash Heed, Al divaNova, Jamie Graham, Heather Deal and Raymond Louie.

Boob Rennie would be in a conflict of interest about every three seconds. Stop sniffin' the glue kids.

Way to go Langdon. Your coup d' etat really worked.

Rennie for NDP Lite? I kinda suspect that Rennie's support for Green was more on a personal level vis-a-vis the Woodward's redevelopment than centre-left political tendencies.

Anyways, when was the last time an incumbent mayor was defeated?

In 1980 - 26 years ago in the close Volrich/Harcourt match-up!

Hey Budd,

Aren't you forgetting Sam swirling around in his chair waving the flag? Besides Bloomberg and Nagin, he is one of the most well known Mayors is the world at the moment. Any candidate Vision puts up against Sullivan is going to be a sacrificial lamb. So they have to find someone who could afford to lose and has deep pockets.... Bob Rennie anyone?

As for the others:
Gregor is a mimbo and wouldn't be able to debate Sam.
DivaNova could do it... if Vancouver didn't recent hate-on for party swappers (thanks Emerson)
Joy MacPhail.. Joy who? wasn't she relevant 6 years ago?

"Aren't you forgetting Sam swirling around in his chair waving the flag? Besides Bloomberg and Nagin, he is one of the most well known Mayors is the world at the moment."

Posted by PublicEyeFan on August 18, 2006 03:25 AM

I think this is the kind of wrong end of the telescope perspective one usually gets from Vancouver and Toronto types. They really do think their cities are at the centre of the universe and it's just going to be a matter of a little bit more time before everyone knows their name. Right.

PublicEyeFan,

Sam may be well known, but middle aged women who wept in Italy while he was twirling, don't vote in Strathcona. Give your noggin a shake.

If Larry Beasley does it for VV, anyone currently in the NPA stable is toast. Ladner, done. Anton, done. Sullivan probably won't even get the nomination because he and his illustrious senior staff have done such a great job of alienating or otherwise pissing off, the media, insiders, donors, key members of caucus and key members of the board. You need a combination of all those folks to get the ball across the line. Sullivan doesn't have one of them. You need to reach out to people legitimately, without saying one thing behind their back and another face up. The mayor's media relations team has raised that from a science to an art.

Gregor Robertson you underestimate. DivaNova has been playing the media like a harp (of course, there's no response from the mayor's crew) and he could be a contenda.

No, one this one, I'm going to say you've been getting too much sun, since I happen to agree with you most of the time.

Think before you speak, Budd. Surely you would rather see communists taking over Vancouver. Unforutnately, with the majority of Vancouverites supporting NPA, it is only right to have an NPA mayor/city council. Jim Green is never a mayor material and he never will be. PublicEyeFan, I echo your opinion but Bob Rennie would be a formidable opponent. A win with Bob will finally pull VV from the leftward movement/NDP takeover which I was hoping to destroy the party. But I say we can always use a $1 mayor anytime:).

"Think before you speak, Budd. Surely you would rather see communists taking over Vancouver."

Posted by FHK on August 18, 2006 03:07 PM

What kind of dishonest smear tactic is that? I have never supported any kind of communist ideology.