Robertson's prime ministerial pick?

Asked whether Mayor Robertson is backing Mr. Ignatieff, the former provincial New Democrat legislator's executive assistant Kevin Quinlan told Public Eye, "The mayor has met with Michael Ignatieff a number of times. And he's shown quite a bit of support for a number of issues the mayor has been campaigning on and working to implement: using infrastructure funding for social housing; supporting regional transportation issues - particularly the removal of the $1,500 charge for second Amtrak train coming up to Vancouver. Mr. Ignatieff has been quite supportive of that. And if those are the policies he's going to be implementing as prime minister, I think you'd see the mayor be quite supportive of that because those things would definitely benefit Vancouver."

But why isn't Mayor Robertson backing federal New Democrat leader Jack Layton? "Well, Mr. Layton has definitely been pretty supportive of our agenda as well," Mr. Quinlan responded. "I mean, the NDP caucus have been big backers of a national housing strategy - which, obviously, is very important to the mayor. They've also been big backers of more federal support for dealing with the gang situation out here. And if Mr. Layton is elected prime minister, I'm sure we'd see a number of policies that would benefit Vancouver on those issues and the mayor would be supportive of those too. But, ultimately, it's also about the context of what's most likely in the next parliament."

So does that mean Mayor Robertson would vote for Mr. Ignatieff over Mr. Layton? "Well, for starters, it's going to be ultimately about policies and the issues that any of the federal parties are going to be championing going into the election. The mayor's been very clear what his priorities are. It's going to be housing, it's going to be transportation, public safety, the economy - There's a whole number of issues we want to see Ottawa moving on. And, as far as any vote goes, it's going to be based on the issues and not the parties."

As for whether Mayor Robertson statement might adversely effect Vancouver's relationship with the Harper administration, Mr. Quinlan stated, "Well, the city's relationship with Ottawa goes far beyond any one comment. The mayor has met and worked closely already with ministers like James Moore and Stockwell Day on a number of big issues. And we expect that to continue. But, frankly, there is a level of frustration with Ottawa's lack of movement on a number of key issues the mayor has been working on - whether it was using infrastructure funds to support new social housing in Vancouver or the issue of a $1,500 charge on a second Amtrak train coming to Vancouver which would definitely benefit Vancouver. And, frankly, we haven't seen a lot of movement on that yet from Ottawa."