After Vision unveils green platform, Kirk LaPointe claims the mayor is "ashamed of our economy"
In politics, the difference between winning and losing is sometimes measured in how quickly you respond to your opponents.
Today, it took over three hours for NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe to issue a news release in response to Vision Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson's effort to draw attention to his environmental platform.
“Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver's rigid ideology have hamstrung our economy," LaPointe claimed. "He is ashamed of our economy, and that has contributed to Vancouver having the lowest family income growth of major Canadian cities."
In the same release, the NPA declared that it is "proud of Vancouver's history of shipping Canada's goods and services to the world through its port".
LaPointe maintained that if his party wins control over the city government, Vancouver will continue to be an intervenor at the National Energy Board in connection with the proposed tripling of Kinder Morgan's bitumen shipments from Alberta to the Lower Mainland.
If the proposal is approved, it could result in up to 340 additional oil tankers travelling through Burrard Inlet every year.
“The NEB process is in place to review projects such as Kinder Morgan’s," LaPointe said in the news release. "Gregor Robertson has rejected it out of hand yet it has barely begun. That’s typical of his refusal to listen to viewpoints that differ from his own.”
Election donations remain a mystery
The NPA is not required to disclose the identity of its contributors until 120 days after the November 15 election.
This means that voters may never know when they cast ballots about the magnitude of oil-industry money that might be going into LaPointe's campaign.
He could address this, however, by providing full and continuous disclosure of the NPA's donations.
Neither he nor Robertson has taken up the Straight's challenge to do so.
Vision's green plan highlights tankers
Earlier today, Robertson and Vision council candidate Niki Sharma unveiled their plan, which they say "puts leadership against Kinder Morgan as a top priority".
"With 40 days to the election, the NPA are still silent on Kinder Morgan, a project that threatens to wipe out the environmental progress we've made," Robertson charged. "The choice on November 15th is ultimately about leadership and representing Vancouver's values."
Vision noted that this has been "the safest year to date for pedestrians" (notwithstanding a recent cycling accident that killed a pedestrian in Stanley Park).
The governing party has also stated that Vancouver has the lowest greenhouse-gas emissions of any city in North America.
In addition, Vision has promised to plant 150,000 new trees by 2020 and add 1,500 new community-garden plots by 2018.
Robertson's party has also tried to sow doubts about the NPA's commitment to public transit. This is being accomplished by suggesting that Vision's experienced leadership will increase the likelihood that an upcoming transit referendum will be approved, providing greater service to passengers.
Bike storage receives attention
Another of Vision's promises is more new secure bike-storage facilities in high-traffic zones in the downtown core. The governing party also says it will "engage Vancouver's local design community to come up with new and more innovative bike rack designs".
In the past, the Straight has highlighted the lack of secure bike storage downtown. You can read about that issue here.
"Vision needs to look at a bike plan that won't come unscrewed," wrote commenter Charles Dunn after writer Mitchell Kahn revealed how his bike was taken from a rack outside Waterfront Station.
Comments
18 Comments
Dr. Jack
Oct 5, 2014 at 5:17pm
What a cheap shot from Charlie implying that Kirk might have funds from the oil industry, without any proof whatsoever!!
Is he going to also "imply" which wealthy Americans are funding Greg, the darling of the left wings from South of the border??
Will my comment be allowed or be dismissed?
Charlie Smith
Oct 5, 2014 at 5:26pm
Dr. Jack,
This is a wonderful comment, given that the NPA received a $960,000 donation in the 2011 campaign from a single developer without disclosing this until 120 days after the election.
It was the largest disclosed campaign contribution in Canadian history. By far!
Earlier this year, I wrote a column urging both Vision and the NPA to release the identity of contributors on a weekly basis so voters will be better informed when they cast ballots.
So far, both parties have declined to do so.
As long as that remains the case, I will continue to let readers know of the various possibilities that exist.
The onus is on the parties to clear the air if they're truly interested in bringing more transparency to the political process, rather than merely claiming to want to do this.
Charlie Smith
$960, 000?
Oct 5, 2014 at 5:43pm
That is almost otherwordly. Slow clap, NPA. Slow clap.
DMY
Oct 5, 2014 at 5:52pm
(once OMG but someone is using my old nic, while not original are actually initials)
Campaign donations and tanker traffic are lovely issues. Now which f*cking party will pledge to fix the broken and asphalt-patched joke of a sidewalk on W13th Ave where i live? What exactly am i paying taxes for?
Bruce
Oct 5, 2014 at 6:20pm
So another NPA campaign directed by tone-deaf federal conservative strategists. Because it worked so well for them the last time around.
Is the brain trust behind this position even local, or are they Alberta cons like 3 years ago? Based on the rhetoric, I'm betting the latter. BC'rs don't see oil tankers as "their" economy.
tedeastside
Oct 5, 2014 at 7:47pm
Kirk Lapointe talks about being transparent but his actions show he is as secretive as any other party
Over his head
Oct 5, 2014 at 8:10pm
Oil tankers and pipelines = Federal issue
Garbage pick-up and road work = Municipal issue
Only fools think Gregor can affect the energy sector.
There's a bucket load of fools in Vancouver.
How's the Homeless situation Gregor? Deflect much?
Tommy Khang
Oct 6, 2014 at 9:00am
Wait so Gregor waits until 2014, approximately six years after he was elected to do something about the tankers that have been operating out of the Westridge Marine Terminal since 1957?
Sorry but when will the vast majority of the electorate wake up to the fact that Gregor continues to campaign on a platform that he can do very little about. The federal government has jurisdiction of shipping and navigation; meaning that the City of Vancouver can do next to nothing to stop 340 ships from coming into the harbour.
Maybe just maybe (but I doubt it) the NPA are silent on the issue because they realize it is nothing something that they can change.
Reality
Oct 6, 2014 at 11:21am
Why support an expanded Tar Sands pipeline to send unrefined dirty bitumen to mostly Communist China that benefits mostly big Oil corporations in Alberta & Communist China?
- Vancouver & BC get ZERO Royalties from Tar Sands,
- Vancouver & BC get 100% of the RISK for any Oil spill,
- very few additional long term jobs if any at all,
Why would anyone support such a onesided deal benefiting soley Big Oil?
What Vancouver can do.
- Impose Taxes and "Business License" Fees on Oil companies operating here and /or the Tankers, e.g. you park your Tanker here and/or disembark here pay 10% of Oil (not Bitumen) value of the Tanker Oil Volume.
- Attach a Tanker Commercial Toll collection under the Lions Gate Bridge, e.g. 10% of the Oil Value by Volume that the Tanker carries.
- Join with other Municipalities to impose a Royalty structure on Oil companies operating in any lower mainland Municipality, why let big foreign Oil corporations operate here for next to nothing?
There is a lot that any progressive Green Vancouver party can do not just Gregor.
spartikus
Oct 6, 2014 at 11:30am
<i>Wait so Gregor waits until 2014, approximately six years after he was elected to do something about the tankers that have been operating out of the Westridge Marine Terminal since 1957?</i>
While it's true this is ultimately a Federal issue, the Westridge Marine Terminal is in the City of Burnaby. It should be noted Mayor Corrigan also opposes the expansion. As do most of the mayors of the municipalities surrounding Burrard Inlet.
I say "ultimately" because at the end of the day it will likely go through, despite local opposition. But there's also a huge perception that when it comes to the oil & gas sector, the current governments in Ottawa and Victoria have gamed the oversight procedures overwhelmingly in favour of oil companies. While Vancouver has been granted intervenor status, many groups with direct stakes are not even allowed to attend regulatory hearings (while business groups are granted intervenor status in, for example, the education dispute).
So, yes, it's symbolic opposition. But it's a popular one, one people get worked up over. Whether it motivates people to come out and vote remains to be seen.