The civic election is less than six months away, which means no hiring or appointment or purchase of paper clips goes unscrutinized these days as the Non-Partisan Association fights to get back some ground in this election and Vision Vancouver fights to keep them at bay.
At school board, much kerfuffle about the hiring of former Vision volunteer Kurt Heinrich as the new communications guy, while at city hall, the revelation that John Furlong sits on the board of Rocky Mountaineer, whose chair is the head of the NPA’s fundraising efforts, has been making the rounds.
My story on what people have to say about whether Furlong is in a conflict or not here.
21 responses so far ↓
1 spartikus // Jul 21, 2011 at 11:16 am
Question for historians: Wasn’t Anna Lilly the NPA communications chair before becoming Director of Community Relations under Sullivan?
2 Hypocrisy // Jul 21, 2011 at 11:47 am
So according to the NPA, its a conflict to hire Kurt Heinrich but appointment of John Furlong is not?
Councillor Anton says this about Furlong: “It certainly doesn’t appear to me to be a conflict. So many people are friends and colleagues in this city. If you started excluding people because they’re friends with somebody or they’ve gone to something with somebody, you’d run out of people.”
Perhaps her NPA school board candidates should listen to wise councillor.
3 Mainly // Jul 21, 2011 at 12:27 pm
COPE’s actions (or more appropriately inactions) on the riot file have been very disappointing. It is almost as if they expect their core constituency to be uninterested in law and order. The COPE of yore would have at least questioned city funds spent glorifying a private enterprise like the Canucks. Since they’re now Vision’s trained seal, I guess that kind of independent thought is off the table.
4 spartikus // Jul 21, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Ah, I see in a Jan 11 2006, V.Sun. article (by a certain Frances Bula) that “Director of Community Relations” is considered “political staff”.
5 Mira // Jul 21, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Frances.
Vancouver’s Stories are as follows:
(not necessarily in this order)
1. Kurt Heinrich Vision hack, Vision tweeting bitch, undeserving VSB new hire is wiping off his fingerprints from the merchandise.
2.Who is the City Election Officer, why did Vision AGAIN sacked one to replace with another, behind closed doors. Marg Coulson is a good woman but not flexible enough for Ballem’s hit jobs.
3. The Green City Plan … which in my opinion is a written request/ template for a city wide License to Steal, and for a very small and select number of permit applicants, for Friends of Vision/ Solomon, a very profitable proposition.
4. The Stanley Cup Riot (which you’ve missed) report, and the way this ‘inquiry’ it’s been handled or mishandled.
Be a journalist once in awhile woman!
I know they pay you to write in the G&M, but if you pretend to carry this blog on your shoulders, in which you don’t say much BTW, at least do something with it, instead of carrying Vision’s bedside flask.
Not that I believe you’ll have the guts. Rome is still fresh in memory…
6 spartikus // Jul 21, 2011 at 1:30 pm
The NPA continues to lay out it’s inspiring vision for Vancouver of picking on mid-level staffers and threatening journalists on their own blog.
Political genius!
7 Frances Bula // Jul 21, 2011 at 1:38 pm
@Mira. This may be the remnants of my more relaxed holiday frame of mind speaking but … why do you have to be such an unpleasant person? What has made you so unhappy in your life that you always have to write about people in such a nasty way?
8 Mira // Jul 21, 2011 at 1:39 pm
spartikus,
are you talking to me, because I think you are talking to me…
Marg is or was not a mid level staffer, her job was very important… to ensuring a democratic process, something that you and your Vision cronies have hijacked.
Threats? Are you out of your mind. Where?
By whom? You are such a clown spartikus.
And I am in no way affiliated with the NPA, I am only a citizen of Vancouver sick to my stomach of Vision’s and this administration and Mayor’s way of conducting business and treating the people of this city.
9 Mira // Jul 21, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Frances #7
Fair enough. Nothing personal. I do apologize if I came across as a bad ass, I am trying hard to copy Ballem at the City Hall. I feel hurt when I se the MSM and the rest of the media playing oblivious to what this ‘gang’ of Vision are doing to this city. Ta ta
Again, I’m sorry. (not to you spartikus!)
10 Chris Keam // Jul 21, 2011 at 2:33 pm
“I do apologize if I came across as a bad ass”
What a crock. If you’re going to write it… own it. Mock surprise that personally insulting posts might impact people is, frankly, taking your audience for idiots. We’re not.
http://sivers.org/real
11 Mainly // Jul 21, 2011 at 3:27 pm
@Hypocrisy 7
There’s a big difference between hiring someone who has been in essence a political operative, for a job that the previous holders had been told was being abolsihed for budgetary reasons, and appointing Furlong .
The fact that you would assume Furlong’s aquaintance with Armstrong is a problem suggests there is something the mayor has to hide in regards to the inquiry.
12 mezzanine // Jul 21, 2011 at 3:38 pm
what chris keam @10 said!
13 Michelle // Jul 21, 2011 at 4:04 pm
@Mira #5,
You were just right to say that Mira, about these ‘non partisan bloggers’ . Hypocrisy for Frances and others like Chris Keam goes a long way. Of course , you shake the former working bee nest that was City Hall and all the replacing wasps are out for trouble. They don’t like to be disturbed see? They are building a wasp nest.
Pathetic journalism and cover up of facts.
14 Chris Keam // Jul 21, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Anonymous poster cries ‘cover up’. Too funny. Own up Dude.
15 Everyman // Jul 21, 2011 at 11:44 pm
I can only see this being a conflict if the NPA had called the inquiry. But they didn’t.
16 David Hadaway // Jul 22, 2011 at 11:02 am
@everyman
A very neat point, and I say that as someone who rolled their eyes at the appointment.
Mira, you made some fair points too, but why in that way? Frances doesn’t suppress facts or present falsehoods, she simply has a viewpoint which is her right and no secret. This is a blog for their expression, where counter arguments can be and are expressed. Maybe sometimes one or two of us even have our opinions modified as a result!
Consider Aesop’s fable of the Sun and the North Wind.
17 Mainly // Jul 22, 2011 at 5:00 pm
@Chris Keam 14
Dude? Please tell me you’re not over 21!
18 spartikus // Jul 22, 2011 at 6:49 pm
If only they knew Stumpy.
I can only see this being a conflict if the NPA had called the inquiry. But they didn’t.
Right. Because there’s no ties’s b/w the NPA and the BC Liberals. Christy Clark didn’t try to seekt the nomination for Mayor of Vancouver with the NPA, Mike Klassen didn’t manage Colin Hansen’s campaign, and NPA fundraiser Peter Armstrong isn’t also a substantial BC Liberal Donor.
And so on and so forth….
Nevertheless…I think someone named “Keefe”, not “Furlong”, will be driving the show.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the nature of the review is up for scruting and criticism, just not from the angle most are pursuing.
19 spartikus // Jul 22, 2011 at 7:00 pm
seekt = seek
scruting = scrutiny
Editor, where are you?
20 Adele Chow // Jul 22, 2011 at 7:58 pm
What does Furlong know about riots? His public musings about what may or may not have prevented the riots showed that he’s just not up to the job.
21 Roger Kemble // Jul 23, 2011 at 10:10 am
Vancouver = corporate = riot = whitewash = Furlong = burnt umber proboscis . . . don’t leave home without it . . .