 | Saturday, June 11, 2022
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Who is in the right in the dispute between Vancouver’s mayor and one of its longest-serving councillors? | | |  | | | At the end of another marathon Vancouver council meeting, where council failed to finish the business on its agenda, where the city was mocked for tweeting “#VanCityCouncil approves the amendment to the amendment and now debating on the amended amendment”, Kennedy Stewart seemed a bit frustrated.
Specifically, at one person.
“It really is one councillor in particular that’s really dragged us out here today, and that’s councillor De Genova,” said Stewart after the fifth day of meetings over the Broadway Plan concluded.
(For those wondering, a sixth meeting will happen in two weeks, as council is already filled with other meetings required because they couldn’t finish different council business on time.) Melissa De Genova, a two-term councillor, brought up a number of amendments, points of personal privilege, and questions to staff that extended debate. When there was a motion to extend the meeting past 10 p.m., it failed due to De Genova and one other councillor voting against it.
That’s nothing new. What was new was Stewart explicitly criticizing her council conduct — and claiming she did it for nefarious reasons.
“To me, it was deliberate. It was really designed to delay this as long as possible … she was filibustering.”
For her part, De Genova denied the charge she was filibustering and pointed out she was on city-appointed business to attend a prayer breakfast the next day at 6:30 a.m.
“This is a cheap shot from the mayor. Why is he trying to ram through such a contentious issue?” she said.
“The Broadway Plan is a very big deal, many people are concerned and upset, it deserves full and fair and complete debate. That’s why I’m here. I’m not going to be bullied by Kennedy Stewart.”
On one hand, this is just another bun fight between two local politicians.
On the other hand, Stewart put on the record what many councillors have only argued privately or in subtweets: that De Genova slows down council on minor disputes for little benefit. The long-standing annoyance by some is part of the reason she was removed as committee chair by council two years ago.
But it takes two to tango: when Stewart was elected as mayor, he said he could work across party lines and establish a cohesive council. That hasn’t happened, and as chair of council he deserves part of the responsibility.
In four months, there’s a realistic chance that Stewart, De Genova, and the majority of council is re-elected.
One wonders if anything would change if they got a second chance. | | | McCallum vs. Locke vs. Sims vs. ??? | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Last week we outlined that Surrey politics would soon get a shake-up, and that came to fruition on Wednesday with NDP MLA Jinny Sims officially entering the mayoral race against Doug McCallum and current councillor Brenda Locke.
Sims’ entrance was noteworthy both for a lack of immediate policy promises, but also a big launch event with several hundred people in attendance. The backroom help of Stephen Carter, who recently helped Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek get elected, didn’t go unnoticed either. But a bigger shoe will soon fall with the expected entry of Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal into the race. He’s rumoured to be bringing in his federal team to assist with the campaign.
McCallum and Locke have long locked up their key voter bases, which means there will be considerable overlap between Sims and Dhaliwal in their search for a path to victory.
The two battled federally in Newton in 2011 and 2015, with Sims winning the first time and Dhaliwal winning the second.
A rubber match could soon be upon us. | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | | | While council was unable to come to a conclusion on the Broadway Plan, it did pass a number of amendments to the proposal, including moving on a bike lane and providing stronger renter protections. Elsewhere this week, they looked at changing permitting timelines, made an apology to the city’s Italian community for actions taken during the Second World War, and provided $500,000 for business associations to clean up graffiti.
Read more in Vancouver Is Awesome | | |  | | | 2. Victoria | Speaking of councils trying to make extensive changes to their housing policies at the end of their term, Victoria originally voted for more staff-studying of a motion to allow single-family homes to be split into smaller units. But after criticism that they were punting the issue to the next council, they voted to revisit the issue, and will now have a vote.
Read more in CHEK News | | | |  | | | 3. Sunshine Coast | Housing crisis? What housing crisis? There are plenty of local and regional politicians deciding whether or not to seek re-election, but the question of Sunshine Coast Regional District Director Lori Pratt is most symbolic: after getting an eviction notice, she doesn’t know whether she can find affordable pet-friendly housing to stick around. Read more in the Coast Reporter | | | | | |  | | | 4. UBCity | Most cannabis shop debates are pretty routine in communities now, but the one for a small mall next to UBC was of interest, if only because all but one of the people voting on the application lived nowhere near campus. It’s par for the course for the most populated area in Canada without a local government, and the regional director is speaking out.
Read more | | | |  | | | 5. West Vancouver | The election for mayor became more complex this week with councillor Marcus Wong announcing he would challenge incumbent Mary-Ann Booth. That makes two people running against the mayor (former mayor Mark Sager is the other), and raises the spectre of vote-splitting for people that don’t like the current direction the city is heading in. Read more in the North Shore News | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for this week! In the meantime, check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
