SUMMER OFFENSIVE
It's July, right?
Which means, if I do the math, we're five months away from the civic election.
But when you're Suzanne Anton, and you're the only NPAer on council, and you're running for mayor, and you're trying to gain some momentum against Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Visionistas, well.you fill my email inbox when I'm away for a week.
The NPA media machine is apparently not taking a summer holiday.
Which actually means Michael Davis of Reputations Corp., whose name and number is at the bottom of every news release, is not taking a holiday. Davis, as faithful readers will recall, was at one time the president of the NPA and provided advice to former NPA mayor Sam Sullivan.
So what is Anton and her group of candidates on about?
In no particular order, they are not big fans of wheat, are upset about truck traffic on Nanaimo Street, want civic status for the Pride Parade, "smell taxpayer waste" in Vision's Greenest City 2020 Action Plan and say the city's internal review on the Stanley Cup riot "must demonstrate independence or risk being labeled a sham."
Whoa. On Vision's wheat project, here's NPA park board candidate Dave Pasin: "It is ridiculous that Mayor Robertson and his Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»councillors can find money to encourage people to grow wheat on their front lawn but they didn't budget enough money to cut the grass in our parks and on our streets."
On getting civic status for the Pride Parade, here's NPA council candidate Sean Bickerton: "The Pride Parade is one of the major tourism draws for our city. The city should acknowledge the millions of dollars in economic benefits for local businesses and cover minimal servicing costs for police and sanitation."
On reducing Port Metro Vancouver-bound truck traffic on Nanaimo Street, here's NPA council candidate Joe Carangi, who ac-cuses the Vision/COPE axis of a lack of action on reducing the congestion: "The city needs to enforce its own bylaws and step up police enforcement of traffic violations."
On the 162-page Greenest City 2020 Action Plan and alleged taxpayer waste, here's Anton: "Take one look at this report that has been generated behind closed doors and you see whole new layers of city bureaucracy, more wacky green projects and more taxpayer-funded consultants."
(Note to politicians: The word "wacky" is underused and I encourage all of you to drop it more frequently in interviews, scrums and council meetings. And please stop using "sustainable" because I don't know what it means.)
On pressing the mayor for more information on the city's internal review into the Stanley Cup riot, here again is Anton: "The fan zones were run by the city-out of the mayor's office-and it is up to the mayor to give the public confidence this is a full, independent review to determine what went wrong and how to prevent riots in the future."
So what does Vision have to say about all this?
Apparently, their media machine is taking a holiday. It's a privilege to do so when you're in power and up in the polls.
Expect a wacky fall campaign.
Twitter: @Howellings
