Daniel Fontaine and Mike Klassen retire City Caucus blog

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      For three-and-a-half years, Daniel Fontaine and Mike Klassen, along with the occasional contributor, cranked out nearly 2,400 posts on the City Caucus website.

      But today, the two backers of former NPA mayor Sam Sullivan have decided to give it a rest.

      They've announced that their blog—which regularly skewered Vision Vancouver politicians—is being "retired", which means it won't be updated.

      "It's part of a larger trend involving Sean Holman's Public Eye Online and Vivian Krause's site," Klassen told the Straight, referring to two other public-issues-oriented blogs that were discontinued after a few years. "It's difficult to try to carry these things through. I sort of agonized with Daniel a little bit over it. We just both agreed that it was best to kind of leave on a high note."

      As an NPA council candidate in 2011, Klassen came 13th in the race for 10 seats. He was 779 votes behind Green candidate Adriane Carr, who came 10th.

      Klassen added that he enjoys writing and hopes to continue commenting on public issues in the future. "If there will be editors that will have me and Daniel, we'll continue to show our faces," he said.

      Fontaine was formerly Sullivan's chief of staff in the mayor's office. Klassen was a vice chair of the Vancouver City Planning Commission when the NPA last controlled city council.

      When asked about his favourite stories, Klassen paused before saying: "I must admit, getting our hands on some interesting FOIs and even occasionally getting a brown envelope dropped off at the front door unmarked was always kind of a thrill. I remember when we got the report about the internal polling done about management at the City of Vancouver. Their morale going into the dumper became front-page news."

      He also suggested that the City Caucus blog played a positive role in shedding light on municipal campaign financing.

      Fontaine, a resident of New Westminster, wrote his posts while maintaining a full-time job. Klassen, a consultant, said that he had planned to make changes regardless of the outcome of the 2011 election.

      "Obviously, I'm really interested in public policy and so hopefully, I can put myself to use somewhere," he stated.


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

      Comments

      7 Comments

      trixie

      Jul 3, 2012 at 8:45am

      Shouting to an audience that was shrinking into oblivion . . .

      Perdido

      Jul 3, 2012 at 9:49am

      That’s too bad, as I like to read a variety of different viewpoints on municipal affairs.

      Steven Forth

      Jul 3, 2012 at 10:04am

      I disagree with Mike and Daniel on many issues but think City Caucus was a real service to the city and a place where many different voices were heard. Vancouver needs places (physical and virtual) like this. Thank you to Danial and Mike for the years of hard work.

      LOL

      Jul 3, 2012 at 10:26am

      Good riddance!

      Stephen

      Jul 3, 2012 at 12:39pm

      It's pretty rich of Klassen to put his blog in the same league as Public Eye Online. It's like comparing Sun Media or Fox News with a legitimate news organization. The closure of Public Eye Online was a real loss to political journalism in BC. City Caucus, in contrast, will not be missed.

      sad

      Jul 3, 2012 at 2:24pm

      now where will we get our right-wing (working class shouldn't be living in Vancouver) articles

      Save Vancouver

      Jul 3, 2012 at 11:35pm

      sad - Yeah cause Mayor Moonbeam has done such a great job creating affordable housing during his reign.