Say what you want about social media and the impact it had on the Stanley Cup riot and even the Occupy movement. The phenomenon may have been the "newsmaker of the year." But on the municipal election, which was the year's major political story in this neck of the woods, all that racket in cyber space had little effect.
That said, the election results were historic for a number of reasons.
The win by Gregor Robertson and Vision represented the first time in a quarter century that the Non Partisan Association has failed to win a majority in two successive council elections. This would lead you to think Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is no longer an NPA town.
But that wasn't the only noteworthy election result. This is also the first time in 15 years that COPE failed to elect a single person to council. Except for that one three-year glitch in the mid1990s, the venerable left-of-centre party has had a councillor at city hall ever since Harry Rankin was first elected in 1966.
Both COPE and the NPA have some serious thinking to do before the next election to figure out what the heck happened.
We will all be greatly helped in answering that question if we can get our hands on the results of a Stratcom poll that was conducted last week. (I got my call Dec. 22 and you probably got one, too.) Stratcom is Vision's pollster and is run by Bob Penner.
There were seven questions analyzing how people voted. Those included: who you supported for mayor; what your first and second party choices were on the ballot; your gender and age; and whether your voting preferences will spill over to the provincial election.
While we wait for that, consider the other significant political events of the past year.
A couple were a long time coming: The Supreme Court of Canada victory for Vancouver's supervised injection site, Insite, over the Harper government's attempt to shut it down was sweet indeed. Whether this will lead to other similar sites in Canada or elsewhere in North America remains to be seen. But it did put an end to an expensive bit of federal silliness at least for now.
The appointment of Richard Rosenthal as the first head of civilian oversight of police in B.C. came 13 years after the death of Frank Paul. It was the inquiry into Paul's death that significantly led to a recommendation for such oversight. We have, finally, seen the end of po-lice investigating themselves in criminal matters although it will be some months before Rosenthal's crew is up and running.
We have also seen the end of the HST, although it will take some time to revert back to the GST/PST system. In spite of provincial Liberal government propaganda supporting the tax that was passed off as impartial information, the majority of voters in B.C. turned the province down. Incidentally, that vote also convinced Vancouver's newest MLA, Premier Christy Clark, to delay calling a provincial election. Since her squeaker by-election win in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Point Grey and the HST vote, however, her fortunes have continued to decline.
A late rally by citizens gave the support council was seeking to block the expansion of a casino planned as part of the B.C. Place renovation. Although that victory didn't translate into electoral success a few months later for two of the movement's leaders-Sandy Garossino (independent) and Sean Bickerton (NPA)-seeking seats on city council.
Another couple of good news stories: The number of street homeless is down. There is also Imouto House, an island of sanity for young addicted sex trade workers on the Downtown Eastside.
And in the final days of the year, much to the relief of many, the festering problems with the First United Church shelter at Gore and Hastings led to the departure of Rev. Ric Matthews and a few fellow travellers.
It was quite a year indeed. [email protected]
