Lotuslandia
I don't know about you but I'm ecstatic about this newly announced "Political Power Trio" that extends from the center all the way out to the far left fringes of Vancouver civic politics.
What the heckfire am I talking about?
Well, it's a power/ticket sharing agreement in which the centrist Vision party gets big play on council and parks board, while leftist COPE gets a majority of schoolboard nominations, and the Greens get in on the action too.
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Why am I so happy about this?
Well here are my top five reasons (amongst many):
1) It ensures that the center/left vote will not be split.
2) It gives Vision a chance to really use it's big tent approach to help others get elected or, at the very least, get noticed so that they get a shot next time around.
3) Vision's big reach (ie. massive membership sign-ups) might even help them raise money the Obama way - ie. one dollar at a time, but in total amounts way larger than than COPE alone ever could garner.
4) It shows that Vision Mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson can get things done and really bring people together (even if it was really the team around him that made it happen).
5) And this is the biggest one - I hope it means that somebody like Andrea Reimer, somebody who did a fantastic job and arguably was the most effective progressive school board member we've had in a longtime, will never lose an election again just because they are not on a big money, backroom boy-driven ticket.
And besides, it kind of smells like 'Ward Spirit' to me.
Except these wards aren't geographical.
Instead, they represent different, but fundamentally like-minded, constituencies that, by working together, have a shot at affecting change all over town.
Am I gushing too much?
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Frances Bula has the fair and balanced version in the Globe (and no longer Empire), but not over at her place, which is new and unusual (due to the start of a clampdown on freebies?).
However, over at the site that is Absolutely Fabulous, the proprietress, b/w the work of Monte Paulsen over at the Tyee's SuperGroupElectionBlog, does have a report up about how Tim Louis is making noises about how he wants to blow it all up ......Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggggghhhhhh! This reminds me of a pretty good conversation I had with The I Ching King not long ago in which he convinced me that one of the reasons Jim (not James) Green was abandoned last time around by just enough folks on the left fringes to make a difference was because he was willing to go the pragmatic route to actually get things done.
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