With a war chest said to be in the range of $6 million, going up against Vision Vancouver is certain to be a risky venture this autumn. Still, almost a dozen political parties will dedicate their full-time energies and monetary resources to defeating the most arrogant, tone-deaf and anti-democratic civic administration since the days of brass-knuckle NPA Mayor Tom Campbell, one of the most polarizing figures in Vancouver municipal history.
VanRamblings looks forward to continuing our coverage of Vancouver’s civic scene in the lead-up to the November 15th municipal election.
Commencing next week, though — given that it’s summer, and somewhat of a laid back time — VanRamblings will cut back on our coverage of the civic political scene, posting only two or three times a week — although on the remaining days of the week we may supplement our political coverage with columns on the topics VanRamblings has traditionally covered, which is to say, the arts/cinema, web & tech, and other topics that catch our fancy.

Word emerging from inside the NPA camp has one, or more, members of the party’s Council slate “reconsidering” their candidacy, as putative Non-Partisan Association mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe continues his, now, weeks’ long vetting of the prospective NPA slate of candidates who will seek office this autumn in Vancouver 47th municipal election.
Apparently, La Pointe wants a more culturally diverse slate than the NPA had originally identified — there’s also some indication that he wants more women, and more younger folks, on the Council, Park Board and School Board slates. All of this well-intended dithering has caused some grousing about LaPointe’s own candidacy among a coterie of NPA folks, who (many of them) were none-too-thrilled with Mr. LaPointe’s ascension as the New Progressive Association mayoralty candidate, when it was set to be announced, as early as the beginning of May, only a couple of months ago.
All of this grousing and dithering has reportedly resulted in a renewed draft Carole Taylor movement. The prospect of a Carole Taylor candidacy was not looked upon favourably by her as little as two months ago, but apparently the accomplished Ms. Taylor has had a change of heart and is now giving serious consideration to entering the 2014 Vancouver municipal race as an Independent, and one would have to think, winning candidate for Mayor.
Meanwhile, extensive internal polling conducted by Stratcom, for Vision Vancouver, and Dimitri Pantazopoulos, for the NPA, has Kirk LaPointe running neck-and-neck with sitting Mayor Gregor Robertson, with an even odds chance of sending juice boy back for a long, long, long stay at Cortes Island’s warming and welcoming Hollyhock Centre for the truly misguided.
Now we have the prospect of not only a Carole Taylor independent mayoral candidacy, but according to The Straight’s Carlito Pablo, Hadden Park / Yaletown Residents lawyer, the talented and very bright Bob Kasting, is also considering a run for the Mayor’s chair this autumn electoral season.
Word from within The Electors’ Action Movement, and from some associated with Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver suggest that there’s support for a Bob Kasting mayoralty run — there’s even speculation that the Green Party of Vancouver (or, at least some of its candidates) could support A Better City’s Bob Kasting for a mayoral civic election run.

Potential mayoral hopefuls Carole Taylor, Gregor Robertson, Bob Kasting, and Kirk LaPointe

Word filtering out of the offices of the Coalition of Progressive Electors has COPE’s Left Front maneuvering to remove party stalwart Tim Louis from any elected office within Vancouver’s socialist municipal political party. The Left Front message is clear: Tim Louis no longer represents the forces of the vanguard, but rather that of a repressive counter-revolutionary force.
At COPE’s upcoming annual general meeting — to be held this Sunday, July 6th, at the Ukrainian Hall, 154 East 10th Avenue — the Left Front will actively oppose the re-election of Tim Louis as a COPE co-Chair, and de facto voice of the party, as well as any of his supporters — and instead offer a socialist slate wholly committed to revolutionary Marxist principles.

Vancouver is in the throes of a social and economic crisis; ours is a city on the verge of disintegration and collapse. The vital socialist forces of the Left Front will work together with the marginalized and the working class to develop a new economic order. This November, the masses once aroused, will emerge from the subterranean fires of their brutal repression, and establish a new and vital revolutionary sovereignty.

VanRamblings feels quite assured that the Left Front will set about to establish a necessary 100-year dictatorship of the proletariat that will lead, as it has in mother Russia and in China, to a free and egalitarian society without social classes and government, a just and democratic state for all.
Gosh, it’ll be just like the Paris Commune — VanRamblings, for one, can hardly wait to join the revolutionary brigades, as the Left Front proclaims a Republic of freedom, equality, and the fraternity of the people, while constituting a government of municipal defense and economic harmony.

The palaver above aside (only some of which is invented, by the way), VanRamblings’ sources tell us that, in fact, the members of the Left Front — a revolutionary cadre within COPE, mainly associated with the online publication, The Mainlander — will, indeed, oppose the election of Tim Louis to the position of COPE co-Chair, as well as any of his supporters who intend to run for the COPE BoD — that, indeed and in fact, the members of the Left Front consider the indefatigable Mr. Louis to be too “right wing”.
Yes, you read that right — Tim Louis, married (bourgeoise, don’tcha know), a lawyer (Q: What do you call 5000 dead lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A: A good start), and most egregious of all, a west side Vancouver resident, is too right wing, and represents the forces of counter-revolution.
Migawd, with less than five months to go before the upcoming November 15th municipal election, the once proud and now fractured and fractious Coalition of Progressive Electors finds itself in a sorry, unelectable state. COPE has marginalized itself or is, perhaps, finally and once and for all, about to fully marginalize itself, to recede as a powerful electoral force, as a potent voice for the marginalized within our city, to become what — a voice only for hoary, empty and nostalgic socialist platitudes, and little else?

Make no mistake, VanRamblings would fully support the election of a populist, socialist city councillor to Vancouver City Council. We’re just not entirely sure that the otherwise good-hearted folks in the Left Front represent the aspirations of the diversity of the Vancouver electorate.

Economics professor Kshama Sawant elected as Seattle’s first socialist City Councillor