The Non-Partisan Association Facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/npavancouver

The folks who are seeking political office as members of the Non-Partisan Association, and have put their names forward in this 2014 Vancouver civic election campaign to garner your vote, constitute a retinue of decent, humble, and very bright, publically-minded servants of the public interest.
From the outset of the current Vancouver civic election campaign, NPA mayoralty candidate Kirk LaPointe made it clear that his party would run a “clean campaign”. All NPA candidates would be required to sign (and did so) an “issues not insults” code of conduct pledging that there would be no personal attacks by members of his party that would be directed to their “political foes”. As LaPointe stated when signing the pledge, “There is a very clear intersection with your conduct and your ability to perform your duties. All of us feel quite comfortable in the idea we’ve got rich, fertile territory to criticize policy, we don’t ever have to go into personal lives.”
In this 2014 Vancouver civic election campaign, mayoral hopeful Kirk LaPointe has made liberal use of a withering line about Vision Vancouver’s wrong-headed six years in power: “Vancouver is a great city, badly run.”
Who knows where the NPA grabbed that tag line — it’s effective, though.
On the face of it, “Vancouver is a great city, badly run” would seem to suggest that those running with the Non-Partisan Association would be better city managers, and more astute protectors of the public purse.
In practice, though, “Vancouver is a great city, badly run” serves as a reminder to voters, who have repeatedly taken Vision Vancouver to task for their egregiously “bad”, anti-neighbourhood, tower-driven, anti-park decisions. “Vancouver is a great city, badly run” implores us not to forget about just how unhappy we’ve been with Vision Vancouver in power.
Those living in the Langara neighbourhood were apoplectic about Mayor Robertson’s proposal to hive off half of the Langara Golf Course to sell to developers, while turning the other half of the golf course into a “park”.
A bad proposal with no support from neighbours of the golf course, and the residents of Langara, who saw through the sham, and realized that Vision’s actual intent was to diminish already scarce green space in their under-parked neighbourhood. Women who spoke up at Park Board were adamant that the trails around the golf course were safer as a consequence of the eyes of golfers on the runners and walkers. There was even a young Olympic medalist who told Park Board she trained on those trails as a child.
In this instance, as will be the case in so many other neighbourhoods across our city, “Vancouver is a great city, badly run” only serves to remind Langara residents about the anti-neighbourhood, anti-park policies of the Vision Vancouver civic administration, and the resource they could very well have lost, and might still lose if rumours of Vision’s intent to follow through on their original plans prove to be true, should Vision be re-elected.
And it’s not just Langara residents who will recall with ill feeling Vision’s “in the pocket of developers” ethos.

• Mount Pleasant residents mounted a vigorous opposition to the Rize Development at Kingsway and Broadway, and lost;
• Grandview Woodland residents decried Vision’s plan for massive tower complexes at both Clark Drive and Commercial Drive, six storey townhouses along Nanaimo Street, stacked townhouses along East 1st Avenue, and increased heights along East Hastings Street;
• Hastings Sunrise residents won’t soon forget Vision Council’s decision to block Park Board from taking control of Hastings Park, in order that a “massive $310.5 million redevelopment” of the park might continue. You can bet that there aren’t going be a great number of Hastings Sunrise residents who’ll being casting a vote for Vision in 2014.

Whether you live in Kitsilano, where Vision Vancouver sought to pave large portions of Kitsilano Beach and Hadden Park.
Or you’re a West End resident who was opposed to STIR (the city’s wildly unpopular Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing programme, a giveaway to developers), which resulted in the tearing down of a church at 1401 Comox (originally slated for park space), putting up a 22-storey tower in its place, while at the same time adding a sixth tower to the Beach Towers complex, to name just a couple of examples of Vision development plans that met with West End neighbourhood opposition.
Or you’re a former resident of the Downtown Eastside who lost their affordable housing when Vision Vancouver failed to respond to adamant opposition to Wall Corp’s proposal to build a massive condominium complex at 955 East Hastings — which, when it was approved by a thoughtless Vancouver Council, displaced 200 longtime DTES residents.
Or, you’re one of the residents of the Fairview neighbourhood’s affordable housing development, Heather Place, who will be displaced as a consequence of Vision Vancouver’s decision to redevelop the site as a “market rental” development — effectively doubling tenants’ rents …
You can bet that with the litany of secretive, wrong-headed, non-consultative, anti-neighbourhood proposals that became fact over the course of Vision Vancouver’s six years in power that “Vancouver is a great city, badly run” will almost certainly emerge as the devastatingly powerful and understated meme of the 2014 Vancouver civic election campaign, a constant, daily reminder by Kirk LaPointe, and his Non-Partisan Association colleagues, that Vision Vancouver is not a municipal political party that is on your side, or was ever on your side, that indeed Vancouver was a great city, but under Vision Vancouver our city has been unforgivably badly and terribly run, and not run for you, but rather in the interests of developers.
“Vancouver is a great city, badly run” offers cogent, reflective comment — and a devastating indictment of Vision Vancouver’s six years in power, and a reminder that with Vision Vancouver gone from the municipal political landscape come the evening of November 15th that under a revitalized Non-Partisan Association municipal administration (members of the NPA would suggest), Vancouver might once again become a truly great city.

Reprinted with the permission of the author of the article, Tim Louis.

As we say, looks like folks from Vancouver won’t be able to afford Vancouver House, anyway — well, certainly not you or me.
Like, so what, eh? The folks who live in Vancouver have bigger things to worry about — will the kids be back in school on September 2nd, or when to set aside some time to go to the PNE, and important stuff like that.
Who does that Pete Fry guy think he is, anyway, questioning his betters — I mean, Geoff Meggs and Andrea Reimer, they done got themselves elected to Council, and the folks who live in Vancouver put their trust in them, and now youse got this Pete Fry fella askin’ questions, like somehow he’s got a right to ask questions of his betters. Gosh, we think not. Heck, you’d think that there was an election going on, or sumptin’ like that there.
And, don’tcha know — probably under a threat of a lawsuit — The Province pulled the original story, and all readers can find now is this correction.
Thank goodness the Non-Partisan Association seems to think that the Vancouver House skullduggery is just fine, with nary a peep from NPA Mayoralty hopeful Kirk LaPointe — although, one supposes, these are early days in Campaign 2014. LaPointe will certainly have to enunciate a position on development once the civic election campaign begins in earnest.
Let us hope that the NPA narrative on development in our city differentiates itself from the Vision Vancouver development narrative, which is …

“Hey folks, it’s only development we’re talkin’ about here. You should let your betters make decisions on your behalf, cuz we know what we’re doing, and you don’t. Honest, there’s nothing to see here folks, just move along. Don’tcha know, the PNE is on, and there’s this darn teacher’s strike that’s happenin’, you don’t want to worry your pretty little heads with something as stupid and arcane as development. Ewww, that’s yucky stuff — you’re not really interested in that. Oh look — a bright shiny object. Pretty, isn’t it?”

And thank god, too, that the naïfs and ne’er-do-wells over at COPE headquarters could give a good goddamn about secretive and unsavoury development in our city — gosh, they’re only concerned with turning our city into a communist paradise. Me, I can’t wait til they issue the drab grey uniforms that we’ll all have to wear when COPE takes over — gosh that’ll be no fun, and don’tcha know that’s exactly what COPE wants, for all of us to live under the yolk of COPE oppression. Gosh, that oughta be great!
And best of all, thank God we’ve got such a subservient media, who wouldn’t say shit if their mouths were full of it. Well, it is Vision Vancouver, after all, and who in the media would dare to question the majority party that has reigned supreme at Vancouver City Hall these past six years?

A couple of weeks back, in an interview with The Straight’s Carlito Pablo, former three-term Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) City Councillor David Cadman predicted that Vision Vancouver would likely win a third consecutive majority term in office at City Hall come this November 15th.

“I’m not a betting person but I would think, and I haven’t seen any of the polls, but I would think…that they will get another majority, yeah.”

As it happens, VanRamblings concurs with Mr. Cadman’s prediction. Let’s take a closer look at Vision Vancouver’s prospects for re-election in 2014.
Vancouver Civic Election: The Mayor’s Race, Robertson vs LaPointe

Vision Mayor Gregor Robertson, the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe, and the Cedar Party’s Glen Chernen
In the 2014 Vancouver civic election, Mayor Gregor Robertson would seem to have another win at the polls, come November 15th, virtually in the bag.
In 2011, Mr. Robertson took 53.17% of the vote, as 77,005 electors cast a ballot for the sitting Mayor, almost 10,000 more votes than were cast for him in 2008. Meanwhile, in 2011, the opposition Non-Partisan Association garnered only 58,152 votes, or 40.15% support. In order for Kirk LaPointe, the NPA’s mayoralty candidate in 2014, to triumph on the evening of November 15th, the Mayor’s popularity would have to drop by almost 10,000 votes, with a concomitant rise in popularity for the NPA. What are the prospects that the Mayor will lose 10,000 votes, while Mr. LaPointe transfers Mr. Robertson’s lost votes into the winning column for the NPA?
VanRamblings’ answer to that question: bloody unlikely.
For all the kvetching of the opposition poli parties about City Hall secrecy, development run amuck, Vision’s failure to build affordable housing, and the utter collapse of the Mayor’s commitment to end homelessness by 2015, a recent Justason poll indicates that the Mayor maintains the support of 59% of the electorate, an almost insurmountable lead in popularity over the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe, who registers only 41% support from the electorate.
Opposition parties don’t win elections; the party in power loses government, generally arising from scandal, utter incompetence, in-fighting within the party, or a weariness among the electorate. None of those latter attributes apply to Vision Vancouver, who would not only appear to have maintained the support of the electorate, but have, as well, an experienced, well-funded, and professionally-run electoral machine that has won majority government twice, and means to win a third majority mandate in 2014.
As we’ve written previously, in 2002 the NPA lost office at Vancouver City Hall when City Councillor Jennifer Clarke succeeded in a party coup to dislodge popular three-term sitting Mayor Philip Owen, much the same circumstance as occurred in 2008, when NPA City Councillor Peter Ladner defeated sitting Mayor Sam Sullivan to run — in what proved to be a losing bid — as the NPA mayoralty candidate. Both times the party was trounced at the polls. As we say, the electorate simply doesn’t like party in-fighting.
In 2005, the Non-Partisan Association was once again able to gain a win at the polls, when the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) — the sitting civic government of the day — found itself rent with division.

What could cause Mayor Robertson to lose in 2014? Character issues, or evidence of financial impropriety. Rumours continue to abound about indiscreet behaviour involving the Mayor. Meanwhile, there are rumours afloat about the Mayor’s involvement in financial / development transactions where the Mayor and / or his friends have unduly, or ‘illegally’, benefited.
VanRamblings’ perspective on these politically-inclined rumours: political partisans opposed to the Mayor’s re-election are dreaming in technicolor.
At this point, there are only three Mayoralty candidates, other than the Mr. Robertson, who’ve announced their intention to seek office at Vancouver City Hall: the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe, the Vancouver Cedar Party’s Glen Chernen, and independent candidate for Mayor, Colin Shandler. COPE, as well as TEAM, had been rumoured to be running mayoralty candidates, but that prospect seems to have dimmed in recent months.
The Non-Partisan Association is the only civic party, other than Vision Vancouver, that has the funding necessary to mount a winning campaign for office. For all that the Cedar Party’s Glen Chernen is a fine fellow, his party is underfunded and understaffed, with little or no history of involvement on the civic scene — as such, Chernen’s potential for success at the polls is remote, his role in a bid for civic office that of spoiler, most probably as it relates to the prospects of the NPA’s mayoralty candidate. Colin Shandler’s prospects for a win are nil — he’ll just not find himself in the conversation, however much of a decent guy he may be.
All is not necessarily lost for the NPA’s mayoralty candidate, though.
In Kirk LaPointe, the Non-Partisan Association has a handsome, informed, articulate, grounded and charismatic candidate, a mayoralty hopeful who thinks on his feet, writes well, connects in a palpable manner, and has staked out firm positions on the issues that have arisen over the summer.
Unfortunately, Mr. LaPointe would seem to be suffering from Left Foot Syndrome — which is to say that Mr. LaPointe would seem to favour that particular appendage for regular placement in his mouth (at least it’s not both feet!). It’s difficult to disagree with what Green Party of Vancouver Park Board candidate Stuart Mackinnon has to say when he writes …

“While I’m not a fan of the current regime at City Hall and agree that we need change, I think Kirk LaPointe should choose his examples a little more carefully. All three examples he uses — Aquarium, tankers and Granville Island ownership — are very important civic issues. The Aquarium because it sits on public park land and leases this from the Park Board, tankers because even one mishap could have irreversible consequences for Vancouver, and Granville Island because what happens there has great effect on the City as a whole.

There are many examples to show why we need a new government in Vancouver, these 3 are not amongst them.”

VanRamblings believes the points Mr. Mackinnon raises to be unassailable.
Even if Kirk LaPointe hasn’t proved to be too much the politician to this point in the civic electoral race — why would he take a position on a hot-button issue like the Aquarium, and risk alienating a goodly portion of the electorate who don’t agree with his enunciated position of ‘Park Board should leave well enough alone, things are fine at the Aquarium’? — these are early days in Campaign 2014 for elected office in the City of Vancouver.
As much as Vision Vancouver aims to emerge victorious at the polls come November 15, 2014, Kirk LaPointe and his ready band of NPA colleagues are just as intent in securing a majority victory on that very same evening.
In 2014, Vancouverites may just find themselves witness to an honest-to-goodness civic election campaign that engages the hearts and minds of the electorate. In the coming days, VanRamblings will publish analyses of the Councillors’ race for elected office, as well as Board of Education and Park Board. Welcome back. Nice to have you reading VanRamblings again!