If there was any doubt over the last three years whether Vancouverites accepted Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s plans for the city, they evaporated in that tense 90 minutes after the polls closed Saturday. There had been much made of Non-Partisan Association’s Suzanne Anton running for mayor; would she lead a rebirth of the once-venerable party, capitalizing on apparent voter discontent with Robertson’s aggressive social change agenda? Well, we now know that was, for the most part, a campaign full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. She led an intensely negative campaign and found out the hard way that’s not the way people like to be courted. More correctly, she also found out that’s not the way voters feel about Robertson and his team. We have seen in this election the emergence of a polished full-time political machine that has successfully carved out a middle ground in between the polarized parties of the NPA and Coalition of Progressive Electors. That every one of the candidates running for Vision got elected — and for the most part at the top of council, park board and school board — shows that the 34.5 per cent of voters who got off their duff and cast ballots think Vision is taking the city in the right direction. There can be no doubt about that, even with the low voter turnout. People appeared satisfied to let Vision continue to control the levers. Staying home is as much that message. Vision executive director Ian Baillie told me Saturday night his party had as many as 1,600 volunteers out on election day. They broke the city up into 40 zones and used the well-established union machinery to help mobilize voters. Some of my colleagues at work were called three and four times by Vision volunteers. So if 65 per cent of the city didn’t get out and vote, it’s not for lack of trying. If you have any doubts about whether Robertson has a clear mandate across the city, consider the following little nugget we dug out of the Excel spreadsheet poll-by-poll results on the city’s website:
In 47 of the 135 city polls, Robertson won by 60 per cent or more. Anton conversely won only 12 polls by that margin. On the other hand, in 36 polls Anton had less than 30 per cent of the vote. Robertson received less than 30 per cent in only five polls.
Unlike some of my colleagues, I refuse to publicly endorse any candidates. At The Vancouver Sun we also repeated our view of not endorsing candidates but rather issued a call to action to vote, particularly as Occupy Vancouver continued to resonate with people. As a reporter I find it dangerous to be putting myself out there suggesting who people should support. It stems from a long, long view that journalists should be reporting from the neutral zone rather than being embedded with anyone. Notwithstanding the fact we ran an NPA internal poll on the front page of the newspaper, leading some partisans to think we were somehow plumping for the party. That is a preposterous piece of pap. No one here said “Hey, we’ve got to get Candidate A elected over Candidate B.” Nor would that acceptable to me, as the author. I’ve said it before that I frankly don’t care who gets elected. It’s my job to cover what happens as dispassionately as I can. I happily subscribe to the well-worn journalistic nut of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable”. But what I also care about is seeing a vote that is decisive and offers clear direction. Too often we see governments that lack a clear mandate or are weakened by infighting, resulting in the inability to get work done. In Vancouver’s case there is no question Vision has the mandate and should be able to get its work done. Now, for the fun part. While I never endorsed anyone, I mused publicly and privately in recent weeks that I thought Vision was heading for a reduced majority. I thought the NPA would gain three, possibly four seats, with the Green’s Adriane Carr and possibly COPE’S Ellen Woodsworth making up the balance. I was only partly right. Vision retained its eight-person advantage. The NPA took two seats. Carr was elected, and Woodsworth lost to her by a mere 91 votes. These results also bode well for the marital bliss of Michael Geller. He rashly made an on-video bet with Baillie that Vision wouldn’t completely sweep council. He bet his house. Had COPE got its candidates elected Geller would have been looking for new digs. And probably a new wife. Lastly, I am taking a few days off. I will try to post blogs as warranted, but I’ve got a lot of home projects that were put on hold for the election.
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