In keeping with my sense that the civic-election campaign has already started, more than a year from the election, here’s some news from the polling front. This poll from Barb Justason confirms that Vision and Gregor Robertson are still riding high with the public. But, in spite of that strength, she says there are signs […]

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Because I clearly have no life, I took the trouble to listen to the whole hour and 40 minutes of the Thursday night meeting about the West End housing controversy that led to the mayor’s much-reported remarks today. It’s worth a listen, in order to puncture some of the little spin bubbles going on.

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Today’s the day that Vancouver holds its special council meeting to hear from various parties about the issue of oil tankers in Burrard Inlet. I had a story in Saturday’s Globe looking at how this ties in with efforts that environmental groups have been making to get public attention around oil tankers in general, along […]

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The announcement is at 10 and here’s what I know so far, which was in the Globe this morning

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Aha, the Visionistas have decided to strategically give out their latest poll on Gregor Robertson’s popularity. The highlights here in the Vancouver Sun. Would have been nice to see all of the questions in the poll — maybe a PDF? I’ll let all of you do the analysis.

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When you cover politics in this province, you inevitably end up covering polling. (Current interesting issue is Mayor Gregor Robertson’s numbers. I’ve been told consistently for the past year that his approval rating is at 70 per cent, which is very respectable in the politician world, but don’t know if that’s taken a hit in […]

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Sam Sullivan used to love to go to Chicago and admired Mayor Richard Daley, perhaps in part because of his imperial powers, but also because of the way he had single-handedly turned Chicago from a rust belt disaster to a thriving urban innovator. But Gregor Robertson’s favourite city, at least this week, is New York. […]

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The city had its day in the media sun Tuesday, with a homeless count that seemed to be proving that having more shelters is keeping people off the street. The housing minister got his day today, with his Colemanesque gentle ultimatum that, if Vancouver wants to open more shelters than the province currently funds, it […]

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The city had its own homeless count, a first, yesterday, which everyone covered. Here’s my version. Interesting to note that the city’s numbers will be out in a couple of weeks — just before the five community emergency shelters are set to close April 30. I await developments on this front.

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This just out from city hall today. Strikes me as a motion created to give the media something to gnaw on on a quiet Sunday besides endless blog circling around the Tsisserev mystery story. Looks like it promotes transparency, without giving away too much. Councillors’ expenses are, for the most part, completely boring and uninteresting. […]

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