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Two mayor candidates’ visions of the Downtown Eastside

October 22nd, 2008 · 9 Comments

Another night, another debate. This one got hot a few times, though, thanks to giving mayoral candidates Gregor Robertson and Peter Ladner a chance to argue with each other. As well, there were several good questions from the audience and moderator Gary Mason of the Globe & Mail. The most noteworthy one of the night […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

First attack ad appears in civic race

October 21st, 2008 · 6 Comments

The Non-Partisan Association was first out with the billboards and a pleasant slogan that’s something like “For a greener, safer, more affordable city vote for Peter Ladner and his team.” (I can never quite catch all the words as I’m driving past.) At any rate, I know it’s nice and positive and doesn’t mention EcoDensity […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

Peter Ladner: Strong on crime-fighting or not?

October 19th, 2008 · 6 Comments

When Peter Ladner and the Non-Partisan Association launched the party platform last week, they also kicked off a round of commentary about Ladner’s supposed new emphasis on dealing with crime and boosting police and other security measures. Some saw it as a surprise. I didn’t. I said in a story I wrote in the first […]

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Ladner and Robertson: “Experience” versus “change and leadership”

October 17th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Vancouver mayoral candidates Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson keep emphasizing a theme about their campaign. For Ladner, it’s “experience.” For Robertson, it’s “change and leadership.” I had a story in the Globe Friday that looks at why code words like that get used. As University of Victoria political-science professor Dennis Pilon points out, those kinds […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

The campaign begins: Developers in disarray, Vision peppy, Peter sick

October 16th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Oh yes, another election. Don’t forget. The billboards are starting to go up. (There’s one a half block from my house with Peter Ladner and his smiling team saying something about creating a green and affordable city.) The Visionistas are happily out delivering lawn signs. Yes, it’s time for the main battle. Well, almost, as […]

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London Olympic athletes’ village having its own meltdown

October 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Hey, we’re not the only ones. While people here are wringing their hands over Vancouver’s problems with the Olympic village construction (developer Millennium Developments is facing significant cost overruns and the city, which is legally required to make sure the village is ready on time, is facing some pressure to provide a guarantee for the […]

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The reports on Robertson-Ladner debate Number 2

October 9th, 2008 · Comments Off on The reports on Robertson-Ladner debate Number 2

So the Peter fans really liked Peter and the Gregor fans really liked Gregor, but the middle of the road seemed to be that there weren’t strong or detailed answers from either candidate at this point. See the comments attached to my previous post to get a flavour. Monte Paulsen also has an excellent summary […]

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Ladner: “This is not a slam-dunk election. They smell blood.”

October 8th, 2008 · 6 Comments

It was the Non-Partisan Association’s annual fundraising dinner tonight, even though that fact went unrecorded by all media but me as far as I can tell. Time was it was a routine item for coverage. (Remember three years ago when Sam Sullivan apologized to the banquet crowd for his misjudgment in letting a drug user […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

The advertising battle begins in Vancouver

October 3rd, 2008 · 2 Comments

The city’s civic parties aren’t spending a lot of money on advertising at the moment — not much point when all the noise of the federal election is going on. “We can barely get the attention of the local media,” NPA campaign manager Paul Wilson told me. “There’s a lot of clutter out there. It […]

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Tags: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election

The first civic election debate: Experience versus leadership

October 2nd, 2008 · 17 Comments

It’s hard to believe some people chose to go to a hockey game tonight when they could have been sitting with all of us at the Vancouver Public Library talking about municipal policy. A loss for them of 90 minutes of action-packed excitement, but fun for the 300 or so of us there. Okay, kidding […]

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