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Entries from January 2016

Endorsements: Left, right, union, business and a very personal one for Tony Tang

November 18th, 2011 · 4 Comments

For those of you still looking for guidance in how to vote, here’s a round-up of endorsements and/or information bulletins that I’ve been sent by various groups or that I’ve run across. (Please feel free to add your own in the comments.) Fair Tax Coalition: Sent out a message to its members noting who was […]

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Who should you vote for? A guide to the attack dogs, workaholics, and more of Vancouver city council

November 17th, 2011 · 34 Comments

Everyone uses a different value system and set of criteria to decide who they want to vote for. I wouldn’t presume to give people a list of “best” candidates, because my best will never match your best. I’m not endorsing anyone either. Some people are going to vote straight Non-Partisan Association or straight Vision/COPE slate […]

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Tags: 2011 Vancouver Civic Election

Two one-time business partners take opposite sides in Robertson-Anton race

November 17th, 2011 · 4 Comments

Peter Wall and Rob Macdonald are distinctive figures in this city, far-sighted developers and land-buyers who don’t hesitate to speak their mind. They’ve done business together. Now they’re backing different candidates.

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The election poll in the Fabula world

November 17th, 2011 · 11 Comments

Political reporters live in the bubble, along with the politicians, bureacrats and campaigners they cover. As well, we’re hampered by our tendency to hang around in our personal world with people who have similar political convictions. So any sentient journalist likes to check out what the real people are thinking, outside those circles. Here’s the […]

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Vision, NPA both demonstrate need for remedial math as they issue scare stories about out-of-control spending

November 15th, 2011 · 29 Comments

Teaching statistics, math and polls to my journalism students this week, so I’ve got a wealth of material on my hands to use in class as examples of vague claims, misleading statistics, deceptive graphics, and other magical acts with numbers that the two major parties are performing. Both parties have contributed. Vision started with a news […]

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The history of a long, strange campaign that got Occupied

November 14th, 2011 · 65 Comments

My weekend story about the history of this campaign, that started with casinos and chickens. And a side story with thumbnail sketches of the issues being ignored.

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New day, new polls: Gregor “intelligent”; Suzanne “strong”

November 14th, 2011 · 43 Comments

And we thought this election would be boring. We’re down to the last nasty week now, with calls pouring in to newsrooms about how awful this or that party/candidate has been. And more polls. There’s the Forum poll out this morning, which many of us on this blog were robo-called on, suggesting that Robertson and […]

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Civic election reporting mistakes to avoid

November 12th, 2011 · 23 Comments

Heading into the last crazy week of this strange election, I am being reminded by various tweets, blogs and news reports of the inaccurate perceptions that are often perpetrated in civic-election reporting. In the spirit of contributing to better reporting all around, here’s my list of stories/analyses/assumptions we should all avoid. 1. “A large turnout […]

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Tags: 2011 Vancouver Civic Election

The sign wars: An informal survey shows 114 VV/COPE; 90 NPA; 10 Other

November 12th, 2011 · 26 Comments

Bogus alert: This is a pretty unscientific assessment of the signs, but it’s one rigorous step up from just by impressions or guesses. And it gave me something to do besides clean my house on Saturday. I thought about doing this a couple of weeks ago because I’ve been noticing a lot of NPA signs […]

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NPA gives out internal poll numbers week before election: What do they mean?

November 11th, 2011 · 49 Comments

Poll stories are tricky, especially when those polls are coming from political parties rather than pollsters operating completely independently. So what to think about the NPA poll splashed across the front page of the Sun today that says the NPA’s Suzanne Anton is closing the gap between her and Vision’s Gregor Robertson? Here are my […]

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