The Fraser Institute's 'Expose' On Vancouver's Debt-Load...What's It Really All About Alfie?

EvenTheShillophantsCanWorkInMysterious
WaysVille



When I first saw the Fraser Institute's latest bit of 'scholarship' on the city of Vancouver's increased debt-load (and all the accompanying graphical hyperbole) I thought it was, essentially, designed and timed to deflect away from the massive debt-load run-up by the BC Liberal's provincially.

However, the Broadbentish folks over at PressProgress think there is more to this strate(r)gy than meets the short-term deflector spun eye:

Are the Fraser Institute and the Manning Centre doing their bit to campaign for a conservative take over of Vancouver City Hall?

The well-funded organizations champion right-wing ideology and conservative causes from their perches in Vancouver and Calgary, and the newest municipal manoeuvreagainst progressives comes via the Fraser Institute.

Calling out the City of Vancouver this week with a bogus claim of a debt problem to try and derail Mayor Gregor Robertson's re-election bid followed the campaign kick-off of Kirk LaPointe, their conservative candidate of choice. LaPointe is running under the misnamed banner of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) against Vision Vancouver...

{snip}

..Over at the Manning Centre, the organisation tasked with building Canada's conservative movement has been ramping up its municipal organising over the last few years. And the NPA has tapped Dimitri Pantazopoulos, the Project Manager of the centre's Municipal Governance Project, to be their pollster and key strategist for their 2014 muncipal campaign.

Pantazopoulos, a conservative pollster with credentials dating back to the Reform Party, was in the news last fall, when a leaked video of a private meeting of developers surfaced, exposing a plan to train right-wing candidates with pro-developer credentials to take on councillors who weren't conservative enough. (Calgary developer Cal Wenzel was caught on tape boasting about how 11 developers had coughed up $100,000 each to donate $1.1 million to the Manning Centre to train candidates.)...


Of course, the short game (deflector-spin bury of the bad news behind the Snooklandian's budget 'surplus') and the long game (the conning-up municipal elections) objectives of these fine folks are not necessarily mutually exclusive.


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You might want to click through to the PressProgress piece....They've got video and everything.
Oh and, just for the heck of it, lest you think that the fine fellow who heads up the Manning Institute would never cheerlead for a 'liberal' like CClark.....Iron Snowbird!


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