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Vision paints NPA’s LaPointe as inexperienced waffler, he paints Robertson as the guy who can’t deliver on his big promises

September 6th, 2014 · 48 Comments

I have to second the opinion of my colleague Mike Howell at the Vancouver Courier, who concluded his summary of this week’s election shenanigans with the question: Is it time for reporters to take a vacation until this campaign settles down to something reasonable?

Vision’s Gregor Robertson held his first campaign news conference, accusing NPA mayoral guy Kirk LaPointe of not being red-bloodedly 1000 per cent in favour of lobbying for a Broadway subway from the first second he started his campaign. (Strangely, this was the accusation that NPA critics were casting at Robertson a few years ago, when he seemed to be more tepid than previous mayor Sam Sullivan.)

LaPointe, on the other hand, ended up in arguments with various reporters about whether his NPA colleague, George Affleck, had promised back in January to take out the Point Grey bike lane that Vision’s engineering department was in the middle of building. (For the record, the quote that Emily Jackson got at the time from Affleck was: “The NPA has a plan to open this road, yes.”)

I can’t imagine most of the public gives a s**t about this. As a reporter, I’m often baffled, too, as parties try to grab gotcha quotes from the past that aren’t always relevant to what a party or candidate is advocating now. Is there any doubt the NPA will support a Broadway subway? I don’t think so. They’ve always been supporters of these kinds of projects. Has LaPointe modified the NPA’s position on the Point Grey bike lane? Sure. And that’s what you’d expect from a new leader.

What is interesting, from an analytical point of view, is looking at what kinds of messages each party is trying to send to its potential voters — and who it thinks its potential voters are. Vision clearly sees the party’s audience as transit riders (and they are a distinct group) and the majority of people who generally think bike lanes are a good idea.

The NPA, even though a part of its base is rabidly anti-bike-lane, knows that not everyone the party wants to appeal to feels that way, so LaPointe is trying to find a position that appeases one group but doesn’t scare off the other. Especially since, even among bike-lane approvers, there is a strong subset who think that the Point Grey bikeway was poorly handled.

In the meantime, not to ignore the interesting other parties in this race, COPE’s mayoral candidate Meena Wong, apparently the only one, launched her campaign this week, promising to really solve homelessness, build public housing, end renovictions, and much, more more. Awaiting more details on exactly how she will do all that but, in the meantime, here’s her speech.

 

reason for a reporter to book an extended holiday until policy platforms are released and the he-said, he-said stories find a special place in campaign journalism hell. – See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/blogs/12th-and-cambie-1.391144/flipping-and-flopping-with-vision-vancouver-1.1344828#sthash.KdxsGOJo.dpuf
reason for a reporter to book an extended holiday until policy platforms are released and the he-said, he-said stories find a special place in campaign journalism hell. – See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/blogs/12th-and-cambie-1.391144/flipping-and-flopping-with-vision-vancouver-1.1344828#sthash.KdxsGOJo.dpuf
reason for a reporter to book an extended holiday until policy platforms are released and the he-said, he-said stories find a special place in campaign journalism hell. – See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/blogs/12th-and-cambie-1.391144/flipping-and-flopping-with-vision-vancouver-1.1344828#sthash.KdxsGOJo.dpuf
reason for a reporter to book an extended holiday until policy platforms are released and the he-said, he-said stories find a special place in campaign journalism hell. – See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/blogs/12th-and-cambie-1.391144/flipping-and-flopping-with-vision-vancouver-1.1344828#sthash.KdxsGOJo.dpuf
reason for a reporter to book an extended holiday until policy platforms are released and the he-said, he-said stories find a special place in campaign journalism hell. – See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/blogs/12th-and-cambie-1.391144/flipping-and-flopping-with-vision-vancouver-1.1344828#sthash.KdxsGOJo.dpuf

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