Now, congratulations are well in order for the Vision
Vancouver/COPE win and the well deserved routing the
NPA took. However, we can't escape the serious problem
that only approximately 26 per cent of voters showed
up to vote in this most important of elections.
I'm sure there are lots of reasons for this, but I don't
really care what excuses people have for not going to
the ballot box. Voter apathy, election burnout, no-one
to vote for, politicians are all the same. Blah, blah,
blah. There are people all over this planet who don't have
the right to vote, people who fight and die to bring that
right to their people and nations. It's time for a serious
re-think of what democracy means to Canadians.
Most of us may not realize it, but when we take things for
granted, they are at the most risk of being taken from us.
Democracy is in many ways on shaky ground here in Canada.
Looking at this election makes that very apparent. Somewhere
around 26% of Vancouver's population voted in our new government.
That means close to 75% did not vote for the new government.
It was the same in the federal election, with similar splits.
Now, I happen to think that 26% voted for the right people
to lead Vancouver into the next 3 years, but that's my bias.
What it always come down to is that one team got the vote
out better than the other.
And, as Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor and now
Senator in Ottawa, mentioned, Vision Vancouver is a party
of the present and future. They got the vote out by using
Web 2.0 technologies in the most effective ways - Facebook,
Twitter, text messaging. It worked to engage a wide range
of voters, including young people, in this election. It's
a lesson all political parties should learn well.
The NPA was hampered by infighting, by the lack of a cohesive
team and has again, self-destructed, like we saw in 2002.
I'm not sure the leadership of the NPA is given to any self-
reflection, but this is the time to engage in some of that.
The party was ripped apart by internal politics, a pattern
they can't seem to get away from.
I feel bad for Peter Ladner, who is certainly not a bad guy,
or leader. He may well be asking "Et Tu Brutus?" this morning.
It's probably the appropriate thing to be asking after
everything that's gone down in the last week, regarding
Millenium. That money trail is still going to be followed
to find out where the pots of Vancouver taxpayer gold have
gone.
I also hope all the NPA folks who ran and lost, especially
those who had the privilege of serving Vancouver, give some
serious thought and analysis to why they were voted out. Some
pretty big mistakes and misjudgments were made about very
basic things, Politics 101. Time for some lessons to be
learned.
Final Results from CBC Election Report
Gregor Robertson - Mayor Elect - 67598
City Council
Raymond Louie of Vision Vancouver - 66226
Heather Deal of Vision Vancouver - 63116
George Chow of Vision Vancouver - 62262
Kerry Jang of Vision Vancouver - 60598
Andrea Reimer of Vision Vancouver - 59148
Tim Stevenson of Vision Vancouver - 58380
David Cadman of COPE - 56665
Suzanne Anton of the NPA - 52941
Geoff Meggs of Vision Vancouver - 49538
Ellen Woodsworth of COPE - 45877
School Board
BACCHUS, Patti (Vision) - 64451
LOMBARDI, Mike (Vision)- 62772
CLEMENT, Ken (Vision)- 62096
GREGSON, Sharon E. (Vision)- 61417
WONG, Allan (COPE) - 56027
BLAKEY, Al (COPE) - 49045
BOUEY, Jane (COPE)- 48227
Ken Denike (NPA)- 46777
GIBSON, Carol (NPA)- 46048
Parks Board
BARNES, Constance (Vision)- 62973
JASPER, Aaron (Vision)- 58343
BLYTH, Sarah (Vision)- 567756 (?)
WOODCOCK, Loretta (COPE)- 49901
HUNDAL, Raj Vision)- 48871
MACKINNON, Stuart (Green) - 48415
ROBERTSON, Ian (NPA) - 44005
Other good news from Metro Vancouver:
Dianne Watts of Surrey wins the mayor chair again,
for a second time. Ms. Watts is the blueprint
of how to make change on a large scale and politicians
and would-be politicians should be looking to her
leadership style and substance for lessons in how to
bring positive change and team building to their
municipalities.
Derrick Corrigan won Burnaby again.
Now, one might hope that the election of a progressive
majority of mayors in Metro Vancouver and other
municipalities around the province signals to the BC
Liberals that the alarm is sounding off for change.
It ain't just Obama's slogan:
It is Time for a Change
And all around BC voters are getting out and delivering
that change for all of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment