It will be interesting to see what Tsakumis wrote. For as much as I dislike his conservative leanings, I enjoy his writing. Last month in 24hrs. he took on the wierdos in his own party. That takes guts. He also did it in an entertaining way. The man calls a spade a spade. You have to admire that.

Sullivan has lost Tsakumis? Maybe Metcalfe will finally have to do some real work. Alex was hardline for Sullivan during the nomination and he spanked Christy supporters on the board. If it wasn't for Alex the board members wanting to pass amendments to the nomination process that would favor Christy would have handed the nomination to her. If Sullivan starts losing loyalists then you can stick a fork in him. He is done.

I'm going to hazard a guess that the post by "former member" is actually an anonymous post written by none other than Alex himself.

I call bullshit. Tsakumis will not go hard against Sam. I will just feel sorry for anyone he does go after.

Sam has badly unperformed since he was elected. He wants us to talk to him about crime and safety and his media people send out the release last Friday afternoon. If you ever want anything buried that's when you send it on a Friday.

You have to love the way conspiracies start with the not too intelligent among us...the second anyone writes something supportive of Tsakumis, someone else writes in to say it's Tsakumis himself. bill needs help. Face it, Alex has a lot of supporters because people are tired of the spinning offered up by the pigs at the trough and Alex is outspoken, funny and knowledgable.

3:1 odds that Alex would never post anything against Metcalfe. They are goods friends. Even money that he goes after Daniel Fontaine and Anna Lily, who Alex has publicly blamed for Sam's mess and I agree. It's about time the truth came out.

This tells you everything you need to know. During the campaign Alex's first choice for NPA mayor nomination candidate was Carole Taylor.
His second choice was Bruce Allen.

Maybe everybody should just cool their heels and wait to see what Alex wrote. He's too smart to do a hatchet job so let's see first and then judge.

Funny, Alex told Christy throughout the nomination campaign that he supported HER.

Okay, I read the article and it makes no sense. I am actually confused. What does Alex want from Sam -- besides him magically transforming into Gordon Campbell or Carole Taylor. Can we have some example actions he should take?

Ummm - who really cares what AT has to say about much. But I am confused as well - does AT fancy himself as a media pundit or a political advisor? Given his article, it's clearly the former. I cannot imagine too many politicos wanting to cozy up to a fellow who on a whim will skewer them in the press.

I am usually loathe to comment on articles or stories that are about me, but because two of you have decided that outright lying and spinning are your plays of the day, I am compelled to right those wrongs:

Firstly, so that we are abundantly clear, I had three very productive and extremely enjoyable conversations with Christy during the nomination campaign. At no time, ever, did I tell her I was supporting her over Sam. What I did say was that I was supportive of her run, but thought she was more intersted in running for Premier (whenever that opportunity arose), and that I would speak to Sam about some of the nomination games (her words not mine), that to me, are par for the course in any such process. After all, as a then board member of the NPA, I had an obligation to comunicate with the head of caucus, Sam. As it turned out, I am of the firm belief that she and her very clearly skilled husband underestimated Sam Sullivan and most certainly Colin Metcalfe. As a board member, I chose to remain neutral and try to keep the rules fair and just for all. Generally speaking, with a few obvious exceptions, the rest of the board did the same. I was not neutral on the day of election when I voted for Sam.

Secondly, Public Eye Fan's usually confused, so my column in today's Sun should make PEF as confused as always, since reading comprehension is obviously not a strong suit for him/her. In short, Sam Sullivan has yet to reach his potential (not even close) because he is unecessarily shielded by senior staff. So dire is their state, that on Friday last, we witnessed, with continued disappointment, a release by the Mayor's office...on a bloody Friday?? You never release anything on a Friday unless you want it smothered and done with. Media relations 101 that no one in the Mayor's office gave a flying damn about. Geoff Meggs, by contrast, was a genius and even though I found Larry tiresome, Meggs was a credit to the Office of the Mayor. He took three simple planks of Larry's (and even though he and COPE sank two of them) Meggs still milked tremendous press out of it without being overtly political. Juxtaposition that with the Board of Variance issue, and it's obvious Sam needs a stack of resumes to look at.

What does it say about the Mayor's senior staff, that the most compelling media item emanting from his office is a Pollyanna piece in BC Business Magazine about his media relations clerk, where Photoshop and airbrushing were as important as the idiotic anecdotal drivel in the article was not?

Sam Sullivan is everyone's Mayor and he should have the best people at his disposal. They're only a third of the way there.

Large than life? That's Tsakumis. I thought his article was very well done. Where did he skewer Sullivan? I think if I were Anna Lilly or Daniel Fontaine I would be embarassed. Lots of people want to hear from Tsakumis. He tells it like it is.

If I remember correctly, Sam is the mayor and not Fontaine or Lilley.

Sam should be providing leadership and direction. If there is a problem at City Hall - it is Sam.

Where is the leadership? Who is running City Hall? Sam? Fontaine and Lilley? Or Judy Rogers?

Sam as the mayor has been nothing short of pathetic!

The wheelchair thing only goes so far...I think the people of Vancouver are already tired of it.

Good for you Alex. I think you are doing Sullivan a big favour by coming our publicy like this. At least now he will make some real changes and start focusing on his vision for the city.

Maybe to political insiders, Sullivan has underperformed, but I'm not sure that it looks that way to anyone else.

Yeah, there've been some mis-steps. If they continue, Sullivan's term could start to look a lot like Larry Campbell's.

But so far, he's held a narrow NPA majority together to roll back much of the progress made by COPE and Vision. I'm appalled by what he's doing, while I admire his apparent skill in carrying it out.

As for the specific examples in Mr. T's article, he blows just about all of them out of proportion.

A couple of votes have not gone Sullivan's way, like the one on the police budget and the one on advisory committees. The budget one could be a harbinger of future NPA divisions, with Kim Capri (who considered running for Vision before Campbell bowed out). The committee vote back in December, where Sullivan was thrashed 9-2, was either a rookie mistake or a bit of a deke to show the NPA as sensitive to community and policy concerns before they went and steamrollered the Burrard Bridge bike lane trial and Southeast False Creek affordable housing component.

De Genova's suspension, the aquarium expansion, the board of variance firing, and Ecodensity are probably not major issues outside of a small circle of activists and people who follow local politics obsessively (like myself).

And the business with Graham went exactly the way Sullivan wanted it to. He let the media do the job of discredting Graham, perhaps also knowing that Graham would help them do the job.

So far Sullivan's done well at following Philip Owen's model of the "teflon mayor," staying invisible while councillors like Anton and Ladner take the heat for controversial decisions.

Like Jean Chretien and George W. Bush, Sullivan's easy to underestimate. I never thought he'd be the NPA mayoral candidate, let alone win a battle for the nomination. I didn't think he could be elected mayor. And I thought that he couldn't keep all the NPA councillors onside to vote for his ambitiously reactionary agenda.

Which may make me a fool, but at least I know I have company!

I thought Alex Tsakumis's column was terrific. He was funny and infromative. I never realized he knew so much about city issues. I agree with sam above though. Sullivan's staff really do seem to be clueless. I think Alex was probably just trying to protect his friend, but Sullivan must act to clean up this mess otherwise he will never get relected. Sullivan owes Tsakumis for this one.

Whoa, I didn't expect backlash like that.

So is it safe to say that your only real advice for Sam is to fire his staff? or is there something else?

Anyone hear any thing from the Mayor or Metcalf about the article?

Metcalfe probably agrees with Alex. They are upset that City Hall is being run by federal Liberal staffers. Alex can't get in.

But they should be happy to be running the federal Ministers' Regional Office. Can't have everything.

I actually worked at City Hall at one time (though not for very long). That the same can be said about so many other public (and private) sector bureaucracies does not excuse the reality that it is hopelessly mismanaged and riddled with nepotism and cronyism. Who cares who the mayor is anyway? The bureaucrats certainly don't. It is they who are responsible for wasting the taxpayers money. Heads should roll starting at the top of the administration. That's not going to happen so long as the public is faced with the choice of NPA or COPE politicians.