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Ladner and Robertson: “Experience” versus “change and leadership”

October 17th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Vancouver mayoral candidates Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson keep emphasizing a theme about their campaign. For Ladner, it’s “experience.” For Robertson, it’s “change and leadership.” I had a story in the Globe Friday that looks at why code words like that get used. As University of Victoria political-science professor Dennis Pilon points out, those kinds of words don’t really mean anything unless the candidates tell you what they’ve been able to accomplish with their experience or their leadership. (Sorry, link not available for reasons beyond my control.)

Over at my former home, The Vancouver Sun, Miro Cernetig has written a different kind of column about the two mayoral candidates, suggesting that at this point there’s little difference between them.

It’s going to be interesting to see whether the public does view these two candidates as substantially different. I think they are in a fundamental way, which I’ll talk about more later. In the meantime, your comments welcome.

Categories: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election