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Peter Ladner spent $150,000 on mayoral campaign, posts donors

November 9th, 2008 · 4 Comments

The Non-Partisan Association’s Peter Ladner has been attacking Vision’s Gregor Robertson for not telling the public who the donors were to his mayoral campaign against Raymond Louie and Allan DeGenova. He’s also said a number of times that Gregor’s campaign is reputed to have cost $400,000. I don’t know if there’s a shred of truth […]

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Independent candidate wins at Last Candidate Standing

November 9th, 2008 · 3 Comments

While controversy over the city’s $100-million loan is raging in the media/blogosphere, the campaign is still winding along on the lower levels for many people. And, at those lower levels, one of the more fun moments of the past week was the Last Candidate Standing event organized Friday night by Vancouver Public Space Network and […]

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Vancouver advance polls show signs of high turnout — the Obama effect?

November 6th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Everyone’s been predicting possible record low turnouts in the B.C. civic elections, with speculation that voters will be just too tired from the recent batches of voting to mark another X. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. I dropped by three of the four advance polls today where everyone was reporting higher turnout […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

The Geller and Ladner kids invite you to a party in the Downtown Eastside

November 4th, 2008 · 11 Comments

This election has to be setting records for wild and wacky things the candidates are willing to try in order to generate noticeably scarce media coverage of the civic election. David Cadman’s YouTube “Vote Beard” video (posted earlier on this blog) is probably the prize-winner so far. David says that the viral success of this […]

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The NPA Burrard Bridge solution

November 4th, 2008 · 6 Comments

I know it’s hard for almost anyone to pay attention to anything but the riveting Gregor Robertson two-zone SkyTrain ticket uproar, but a short station break to let you know that the Non-Partisan Association’s announcement today was that it would support spending $33 million to fix the Burrard Bridge to make it safer for cyclists. […]

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The real civic election — mudslinging and praise — gets underway

November 2nd, 2008 · 20 Comments

Some days, all you can do is watch the river of news go by and observe the patterns you see. And, from the riverbank, it looks like the campaign is entering its final stage, where people solidify their opinions and any nasty stuff one party has on the other gets leaked out. The story of […]

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Split among council candidates on shifting business taxes to residential

October 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Sharper eyes than mine have noted that in the Vancouver Sun survey of council candidates, two of the seven Non-Partisan Association candidates who answered the question said they did not support shifting more of the business share of tax to residential. Michael Geller, a development consultant and expert on how real-estate economics work, is not […]

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Comparing the platforms of Vision and the NPA

October 28th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Here’s my story in today’s Globe that has a succinct overview of the platforms from Vision Vancouver and the Non-Partisan Association. There’s much more to say on both of these, both of which show that we are fully in the grip of policy wonks. (Each platform contains over 50 points and refers to strategies like […]

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Shaughnessy residents grill Ladner and the NPA

October 26th, 2008 · 17 Comments

Finally, some Vancouver council candidates in this year’s election got a chance to tell the public a bit about themselves on Friday when the Shaughnessy Heights Property Owners Association had their local campaign get-together. Three councillors from each party, along with the mayoral candidates, got to have a say, along with one independent who made […]

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More than 1,000 out for Ladner-Robertson homeless debate

October 23rd, 2008 · 17 Comments

The long series of debates between Vancouver’s two mayoral candidates drew the biggest crowd ever tonight, i’m told more than 1,000 were at the event at St. Andrew’s Wesley, as people came out to hear the two talk about what they would do when it comes to solutions for homelessness, affordable housing and mental illness. […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election