A while ago, I wrote a blog post noting  that Premier Gordon Campbell had muscled aside Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson in attracting Olympic-related publicity.

The premier's media handlers have been quick to distribute pictures of the boss to various newspapers.

Now, it appears that the mayor is fighting back. If you go to the city's Web site, you'll find a new page dedicated to the "Green Mayor", as he puts it.

There are also  tons of Olympic-related photos of Robertson.

Robertson's use of city tax dollars to promote himself in this way reminds me of how Campbell rejigged the B.C. government Web site after taking power.

It was  an early  clue that Campbell would try to create a taxpayer-financed  cult of personality around himself. This  carried on through the 2009 election campaign, which was financed by B.C. Liberal donors,  and  into the Olympic torch relay, which was financed by the Royal Bank and Coca-Cola.

However, there's a difference between civic politics, where the mayor has one vote among 11, and provincial politics, where the premier has nearly absolute power.

Somehow, it doesn't seem fair that Robertson should get to glorify himself to such a degree in this way whereas the councillors—who work just as hard and who are paid less than half his salary—don't get their own pages full of photographs  on the city's Web site.

But will any of them have the guts to raise this at the next council meeting? I'm betting the answer is "no".

It's worth noting that Mayor Robertson has a  video on his page on the city's site  about creating a green economy. A former television news reporter, Robin Adair, was hired last year to oversee the city's communications efforts. It's not a stretch to suggest that Adair, who is also a former B.C. Liberal candidate in Saanich South, might have had a say in this video's production values.

Compare it to this more poorly produced video of Chicago mayor Richard Daley, who has expressed a similar desire to create a green economy.

(Vancouver's deputy city manager, Sadhu Johnston was recruited from Chicago's civic government, where he helped Daley enhance his reputation as a greenish politician.)

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.