A really thoughtful email came to me over the summer from Frank Ducote, a former Vancouver planner who now lives in a neighbourhood near the viadcuts, about the proposal to take down them down. As I’ve said on CKNW in the past, this is a trendy idea that has spread from Seoul, Korea, and San […]

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People identified as possible attack tweeters for the NPA are not too pleased about the email that went out recently from NPA campaign organizer Scott Harrison to them, as many of them had not agreed to do anything of the sort. (This just in at 5 pm Wednesday from one on the list, Diamond Isinger: […]

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One of the most persistent myths in Vancouver is that a driver of the high housing costs here is the illegal-drug market. What’s the science on this, I wondered. My story in Vancouver magazine looks at whether the drug industry has the financial clout to wreak any more havoc than any other profitable sector of […]

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Keep candidates out of the mud-slinging, let proxies do it, according to email passed on to Sean Holman at Public Eye. Surely of interest to this crowd.

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The disappointment in the room of reporters who faced John Furlong and Doug Keefe was almost palpable this afternoon when the report turned out to contain no searing indictments of anyone’s favourite target. The big problems, they kept saying over and over, were 1. too much uncontrolled alcohol, which shutting downtown liquor stores did nothing […]

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The Non-Partisan Association, fighting to come from behind, has hired Campaign Research Inc. to help out with the crucial job of voter ID in this election. My Globe story here, but there is lots of interesting reading from back east about CR and its role in the Rob Ford campaign. This Maclean’s article (which CR […]

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Great flapping about the fact that Vancouver has dropped from the No 1 spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s rankings of global cities for the first time in nine years. Follow-up questions to the Economist have revealed that the reason for Vancouver’s .7 lower score is traffic problems on the Malahat Highway. Yes, that one, […]

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The Downtown Eastside has become a traditional battleground in Vancouver’s civic campaigns in recent years. Strategists from both sides know that city residents are deeply ashamed of the unsolved social problems in this part of the city and look to any political leader who appears willing to champion a solution. This year’s round has kicked […]

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Here’s an unexpected bit of praise for Jack — from TransLink (their news release below). More proof of my thesis that you can’t judge politicians by whether you personally find them appealing or not. You should judge them by what they got done for the good of everyone, not just themselves or their party or […]

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As our downtowns turn more and more into places for amusement, tourism, shopping and culture, we have a tendency to think that the whole city has changed. Mnufacturing has vanished to China and all that’s left here are condos, coffee shops, office towers and stadiums. That’s not quite true, as I got to explore a […]

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