You’ve been far more patient and supportive of our virgin-mayor than I have been and possibly can be.

Although some think I am nothing more than a whining partisan crybaby, I would like nothing more than to have been proven wrong on Gregor and his merry band of councillors.

Unfortunately time and again they keep validating what I have thought since he entered politics and then 30 months later jumped in the VV hottub with the Meggslomaniac.

And I still think you’re being soft when you suggest Gregor MAY not have learned. From his increased spending on his inauguration, to Penny Ballum’s hire, and now to the CFO’s package, I just don’t see how this gets any better from here. In fact the price tag just keeps increasing.

Sure that extra $50K may have been worth getting the scotch stains off, as you wrote in one post, but it sure was a sign of things to come!

One rule in life that seems to be as certain as gravity, is that if it walks like a chicken, talks like a chicken, and shits like a chicken, then certainly it stinks like a chicken.

You’re right. No question. Gregor has shown that he is just as disingenuous as Sam.

However, to Gregor’s credit, there have been flashes of good policy, but few and far between the flakey-bakey nothingness of faux greenness and inappropriate hirings.

Sam cost us HUGE dollars. And this is a lesson I fear Gregor may not have learned.

Hiring a CFO and giving her a ridiculous package agreed upon by most of the commenters here.

I could go on, and on, but everyone gets the picture.

Merry band of flakes, absolutely. In 4 monthes they’ve shown what people can expect from them for the next 32. Anyone who cares about our city should be concerned, very concerned.

The basis for recalling a politician shouldn’t have to be criminal activity either. Why set the bar so high?

Landslide or no landslide, copmparitively I’m pretty sure Spartikus wasn’t too happy with the arrogance from the Liberals when they demolished the NDP in 2001, leaving loud and louder (not a compliment) on their own.

Funny, other than a few early on, we haven’t seen the tit for tat of partisan recalls since then now have we?

Going back a year or two, I’d even bet that IF recalls were possible that you would have been first in line to sign the petition to recall Sam.

I sincerely view Vision as a merry band of flakes. Why all of the Gregor and co.s of the world don’t find a Gulf Island and set up their own little commune and let the rest of us live our lives I’ll never understand.
However, they were elected by a strong majority (NPA’s own fault), and so far have only pulled the type of stunts that their platform pretty much suggested the would.

It’s not a basis for recall until Gregor’s mistress is caught driving a non-hybrid Hummer.

To my recollection no one here has made a substantive allegation of criminality. Vancouver is not imminently about to descend into anarchy, though we’ll see what happens after the Canucks game tonight.

You strongly disagree with some of the decisions made, and some decry “tone”. Fair enough. But reasonable people can look at the same thing and hold very different opinions about it.

This government is 4 months old. They won a landslide. Deal with it.

Although there was some extremism in my comment about throwing them out on their collective asses, er chickens…..I don’t necessarily agree with your summation that it would be a never-ending circus of recalls.

Prior to the past three councils (this one included), which have been extremely disfunctional, dillusional or both, the city functioned rather well for a period.

Despite my disdain for Gregor and VV since the beginning, the majority of people we’re willing to give them a free-ride – make that bus pass, on their transgressions until most recently. Even AGT says he overlooked many decisions he disagreed with, trying to give Gregor the benefit of the doubt.

What I saw early on and complained about regularly, was the beginning of a pattern that now others are becoming tired of. A bad or tough decision can be reluctantly accepted, but combining that with bad messaging from the start, was a huge sign (scratch that – billboard to me).

All of their terrible decisions aside, it is their arrogance and lack of understanding that they govern an entire city, and not just special-interest groups, that is most troubling.

I wasn’t a fan of recall legislation before, however perhaps what is needed to restore faith in our elected representitives – is a way to hold them accountable more often, than just every few years at the election booth.

There are mayors in cities across this land that have served their citys’ for decades. They do so with approval ratings a Vancouver mayor hasn’t seen in years.

Why is that we can’t seem to find one of those folks for our city?

And why should we have to wait three years to fire them, if they misrepresented themselves to get elected in the first place?

Regarding vacation, just the mere idea of someone being granted 10 weeks holiday is absurd, especially for an Officer. Maximum 6 and it would be ‘use it or lose it’.
With the number of qualified public sector applicants, 5 weeks holiday should have been the maximium. You are right, normally one is not kicked back to 2 weeks if one is in a senior position. 10 weeks though, is utterly ridiculous.
If she has time for 10 weeks off, surely they don’t need someone at the top of the pay scale range.
Otherwise, they should have granted her 5 weeks and payed her an extra $30k rather than trying to bury it in the details.

You NEVER receive such a lucrative deal when new hand–EVER, unless you are some kind of storied, hired gun. Impey is not. And that position should not necessarily need someone like that anyway.

Geller is right on.

As for Vision, and specifically the Mayor, I am sick and tired of listening the, now, glaringly sanctimonious horse shit about how the NPA were so incompetent, because thus far all I can see is: A bad turn to the hard left by the Mayor; a vicious political move to stab his former colleagues in Victoria by spit-swapping with a charlatan Premier (and then pretending he was “over-exuberant”); Meggs’ uncontainable idiocy ranging from his pinheaded public comments to his inappropriate involvement in other layers of govt (support for the ridiculous coalition) and his further inappropriate public endorsements of board slates for banks, specifically VanCity (regardless of whether his wife is on said slate or not). The real problem is he is so arrogant that he is actually incapable of understanding that such moves are plainly wrong.

What amazes me about this Vision lot is that they actually act as if there will not be an election in three years and that they are doing nothing wrong.

Chickens and community gardens and other idiocy could have waited after they had proved themselves. Instead, these are now defining policies.

I was willing to give them a pass up until just after the Ballem hiring, even though, again, the Mayor was most disingenuous by saying the city was “lucky she was sitting around”. Who believes such crap?

These guys are in for a rude awakening if the center actually organizes properly this time, without Col. Klink in stockings, thank you….

Then again, it’s a little (just a little) early to say…

Meanwhile, over at Team Sominex, Suzanne continues to manoeuvre, to set up the nightmare scenario where she could actually be mayoral candidate for anyone.

I tell you, the salaries that should be raised are those at the council level. Put them at 150K per year and watch efficiencies get realized and young, bright committed people coming to council without political agendas first.

What happened to reaching across the political divided? What happened to doing business differently from Sam?!?!? What happened to any kind of fairness in executing policy?

It was all a pack of lies.