I see that my learned friends over at Citycaucus noted that I recently got a list of the expenses related to the inauguration of the new Vision Vancouver city council in December. While they seemed pleased to get the information, they weren’t happy that I got it before them when they had asked for the […]

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On the occasion of Barack Obama’s historic inauguration, I was reminded that I asked the city’s communications department a couple of weeks ago for a total on the inauguration costs for the new Vancouver city council. Various Non-Partisan Association types have been muttering for weeks about the costs, with their estimate of the total going […]

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I’ve put this insert into my recent post about deconstructing the Olympic village and I’m repeating it here to make sure it doesn’t gets missed. Daniel just called me to clarify that he is absolutely not the person who gave in-camera documents and Jeff Lee has posted on his blog that it is not Daniel […]

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A little bird called me today and read out an email from a Vision board member that has somehow escaped to a larger audience than intended. The email, from Marcella Munro, went out this morning to the rest of Vision’s tight communications team, which frequently debates how well they are doing on their message. That […]

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I haven’t bothered posting the last couple of days on the Olympic village because there is now such a raging torrent of media coverage that I decided to stand on the riverbank letting it flow by, while I think about what’s going on. I’m sure many of you are in the same state, as we’ve […]

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The city’s septuagenarian political party, the Non-Partisan Association, will be meeting today to choose a new board of directors — one that will have the difficult task of figuring out where the party, which suffered its second disastrous defeat in six years, will go. Charlie Smith has some perceptive analysis of the NPA’s potential winning […]

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Here’s my early file to the Globe on this. Stay tuned for more.

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And I’ll have a story on the Globe and Mail’s website shortly about my interviews with Gregor Robertson and Judy Rogers. Mayor and Council Members Announce New City Manager Mayor Gregor Robertson today announced that Dr. Penny Ballem will join the City of Vancouver as City Manager, taking over from Judy Rogers, who has served […]

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It came to my attention recently while I was researching another story, that Joel Solomon’s Renewal Partners and Tides Canada have moved into the Flack Block, that beautifully restored heritage building at the corner of Hastings and Cambie. (A Robert Fung project.) Those two groups, which are focused on investing in social-change businesses and non-profits, […]

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The city’s venerable Non-Partisan Association got quite a trouncing in the recent election, even worse, in some ways, than the one it got in 2002. Then, at least it had two councillors elected. This time, only one. As well, then, the NPA knew there was trouble ahead because people throughout the province were reacting to […]

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