Vancouver's election drama gets even stranger

by mtippett | November 10, 2008 at 10:38 pm
169 views | 5 Recommendations | 5 comments

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Robertsonmania at Vision vote

Robertsonmania at Vision vote

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I hardly know what to think these days.  Vancouver's election will likely be decided based on how people feel about a controversial loan made to a Vancouver developer who is involved in building the Olympic village.  The Vision party has accused the incumbent, Peter Ladner of hiding the fact that the city's Finance Director had concerns about the deal.  But  Ladner is now claiming that he was set up.  According to CTV:

Non-Partisan Association mayoral candidate Peter Ladner revealed Monday that a sensitive document assigned to him at an in-camera meeting last month went missing.

Ladner believes that the story was leaked to distract people from the fact that his challenger Gregor Robertson evaded a Sky Train fine.  As I have said in the past, the scandal, in my view, is not the fine but the fact that so much was made of it.  Nonetheless, Ladner Ladner has claimed that Vision is responsible for the leak and the resulting public outcry.  Vision people are saying the opposite:

"Peter Ladner has been saying that in fact that it is Vision Vancouver who are the source of the leak,'' said Vision Councillor Tim Stevenson. "Well now we know that it absolutely was not.''

And then there is the question of Estelle Lo, the Director of Finance.  Lo has reportedly had concerns about the deal but is unavailable for comment.  Nobody even knows what her employment status is.

Depending on who a reporter talks to Estelle Lo has either resigned, was fired, or is visiting her mother in Hong Kong.

So depending on who you ask, the Vision team is playing a classic FUD campaign or the Ladner team is avoiding answering questions about the deal. 


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eastvanray

It is nice to see that Vancouver municipal politics is finally getting as interesting as BC provincial politics.  LOL!

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mtippett

Never a dull moment Ray.

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Rachel Nixon

This is such a soap opera. I'd kind of like to know where they stand on other issues.

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eastvanray

For that kind of boring, un-newsworthy information you will have to do some research.  The mainstream media only reports on the horserace and the soap opera.  I dug up these 2 links that represent most of the 2 main party's positions regarding the Mayor/Council race:

NPA: http://www.npavancouver.ca/Portals/0/Newsfiles/NPA_Action%20Plan%20Brochure.pdf 

Vision/Cope: http://www.votevision.ca/sites/all/files/vision_platform_web.pdf 

Now brew a big pot of coffee and dive right in.......

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Rachel Nixon

Thanks!

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Paschen
First Flagged at 10:43 AM, Nov 11, 2008 by Paschen
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