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NDP wins put some gas in Vision campaign

October 30th, 2008 · 10 Comments

It’s an all-politics night here in the home nest as we watch CNN on television for the Obama-McCain news, while checking Elections BC’s website for byelection results, after having just come home from umpteenth civic election debate.

The debate in brief: Peter Ladner is more of a street-fighter in every encounter with Gregor Robertson, throwing punch after punch at Gregor’s inexperience. Gregor, on the other hand, is seeming more relaxed and even making the odd joke. More serious details tomorrow.

But the real news of the night was the NDP wins in two Vancouver byelections, with Spencer Herbert winning handily over Liberal candidate Arthur Griffiths by 1,600 votes, while Jenn McGinn is currently up by 600 votes over Margaret McDiarmid. That has to be worrying for the Non-Partisan Association and a champagne moment for Vision Vancouver. Those wins, combined with what appears to be an imminent Barack Obama win to the south, creates a potential mood of “Oh, what the heck, let’s just keep voting out all the oldtimers and go for the new guy.”

The challenge for Peter is whether he can convince voters that he stands for change, which is what he’s trying to do. Or maybe he can hope on that change the voters went for in the federal election where, here in B.C., they were far more inclined to go for the Conservatives than the NDP as they fled from the Liberals.

Categories: 2008 Vancouver Civic Election