Maybe Claude could take a night off from politicking

Gosh, is it possible for a politician not to politick, even once in awhile?

At times, you’d have thought last night’s 4th annual Keystone Awards gala at Sun Peaks was a political convention, thanks to some of the politicians in attendance. The event honours the region’s home builders for outstanding work in their industry. It’s supposed to be about paying respects to the best and about having some fun, not about political speeches.

MLA Claude Richmond was picked as the keynote speaker, probably because he’s stepping down after this term, and because he can tell a pretty good story. Claude cracked a few jokes and in the main had an appreciative audience but, for crying out loud, could he not have left the campaigning at home? Nobody would expect him to stay totally clear of political issues, but surely it’s a little early to hit the hustings.

He found it necessary to spend time blasting the NDP and to urge the re-election of Kevin Krueger in Kamloops South and election of Terry Lake in Kamloops North in the next provincial election, still eight months away. “Let’s not screw it up,” he said of next year’s vote, painting a dire picture of what B.C. was like in the 1990s when the New Democrats were in power.

It was like a mutual admiration society, with Richmond’s praise of Krueger (who wasn’t there) and Lake matched only by Lake’s praise of Richmond and fellow City councillor Peter Milobar. Aside from heaping kudos on Richmond, Lake all but officially endorsed Milobar for mayor.

Milobar, though he had a couple of appearances on-stage as chair of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, tactfully avoided abusing his microphone time with political messaging.

Maybe I’m being overly sensitive here, but there are occasions when I think an audience would appreciate a rest from blatant partisan politicking. Aside from that, I must add that the Keystones were once again a huge success, and the Central Interior branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association deserves a lot of credit for a masterfully organized and enjoyable event.

Next time Campbell says no way, don’t be so sure

Armchair Mayor column published in the Saturday, Sept. 27 edition of The Kamloops Daily News

 

As pleased as I am that tolls are off the Coquihalla, I can’t help but shake my head at the way Gordon Campbell does things. He is like a bear who can’t stop bluffing charges.

He will be absolutely strident, unbending, stubborn on an issue, then bail at his own convenience and pretend he never wanted to do anything else. The Coquihalla is a classic example.

Only a year ago, Campbell’s amiable transportation minister Kevin Falcon was saying tolls would remain on the Coquihalla for the foreseeable future.  What was “foreseeable”? Maybe five years, he said. They would stay there until the cost of constructing the highway had been recovered, he said.

Of course, that was never the deal. The promise by the Bill Bennett government that built the highway was that tolls would be in place only as long as it took to recover the cost of accelerating its completion in time for Expo ‘86. That is a whole lot different than paying for the whole highway. In fact, the cost of acceleration was met eight years ago.

While Campbell and his ministers have tried to talk around the purpose of the tolls, one thing was clear — they were a cash cow, raking in tens of millions of dollars a year for Victoria. Weaning yourself off that is a little like trying to quit smoking.

Just to muddy things a little more, the Liberals brought the issue of maintenance into the picture, citing the high annual costs of keeping the Coquihalla in shape, as further justification for tolls.

As I wrote in an editorial in Feburary of 2006, “Continuation of the toll is a blatant and, in some respects arrogant, money grab to pad the provincial coffers.”

Three years before that, in a column headlined Ten Things the Government Should Stop Saying About the Coquihalla, I challenged a list of Campbell’s claims about the Coq, and urged him to set a target for removal of the tolls.

About a year and a half ago, the Kamloops and Kelowna chambers of commerce teamed up to demand that the toll be removed. Unfortunately, other chambers didn’t back them up.

Everyone will remember, of course, Campbell’s ridiculous plan to privatize the Coquihalla — ie. lease it to a private operator — and allow an immediate 30-per-cent increase in tolls, tolls that would last at least 55 more years.

“Let’s start by deciding whether we want to make decisions based on the best interests of the province and best public policy or are they based on how people feel — popularity,” Campbell said in Clearwater in defending the idea.

Are the media being unkind to Betty?

If you’re a Daily News reader, you will have seen that during the past two days we’ve published stories examining outgoing MP Betty Hinton’s claim to have brought more than $74 million in funding to the Kamloops Thompson Cariboo riding since the Conservatives formed government.

Hinton raised the figure a couple of weeks ago. At first, she declined to release a breakdown of the funding but later provided us with a list. On Wednesday, reporter Michele Young wrote that Hinton’s list included $.6 million for the airport expansion that never materialized, at least in Kamloops.

You will recall, of course, that when Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn stood with Hinton at the airport a few months ago to announce funding, he stated the number as $6.6 million. That was later changed to $6 million, with the explanation that the other $600,000 was for administrative purposes. 

In a story today, Young looks further into the funding claims and writes that the total on Hinton’s list is actually several millions too high when some of the ongoing funding is considered.

Hinton has had her disagreements with local media, not to mention City council. Hinton is quoted today as saying if she walked on water, The Daily News would say she can’t swim. Sure, editorially, though The Daily News has been complimentary on occasion, it’s also offered its share of criticism of Hinton’s performance.

Have local media been too tough on Hinton? I don’t think so, but others may think differently. Has she done a good job as MP? Are we nitpicking? I’d be genuinely interested in what people think. Comments welcome and, please remember to provide your name.

Behind Closed Doors — Life At City Hall: Chapter 3

 

This is the third in a series on my experiences as the mayor of Kamloops from 1999 to 2005. I offer it for the interest of anyone who cares about civic politics and our community, and who might be wondering — as we approach a civic election Nov. 15 — what really goes on in City Hall. The series will be archived under the City Hall category.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS — LIFE AT CITY HALL

Chapter 3 — ‘Let’s Unlock the Doors to City Hall’

‘People tell me we need to make decisions at City Hall that reflect the values of our families and neighbourhoods. Let’s unlock the doors to an open, accountable and effective City Government that listens — really listens — to what the community is saying. . . .”

— Brochure, Mel for Mayor Campaign, 1999

 

Barb Duggan is the kind of person who doesn’t like surprises. She’s probably the most organized person I’ve ever known. In short order, after she agreed early in 1999 to be my campaign manager, she created a large file of graphs and flow charts mapping out the campaign. All that was needed was to fill in the blanks of who would do what.

Our campaign committee came together easily — I recruited mostly people I’d known for years and who had expertise that would complement each other’s.

Al McNair had extensive community connections especially in business, Doug Balson’s specialty was research and public-opinion surveying. Brent Humphrey and I went back many years in the media business, and he had morphed that experience into a career in what might be called political maintenance and repair.

I’ve never known anyone who had such a feel for what the public is thinking. He was genuinely excited about working on the campaign, and offered to fit in anywhere we could use him. “Mel,” he said when I asked him to come on board, “I just want to be in the game.”

The times I got into the most trouble as mayor were when I neglected to ask Al McNair or Brent for advice. “Just ask,” Al implored one day after I committed the first of what I call my Three Big Mistakes. “Just ask.”

I’m from Missouri on this one, but at least it’s an idea

For publication in the Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008 edition of The Daily News.

Ideas are good, especially when it comes to candidates for political office. They tell us something about their priorities.

Murphy Kennedy is doing his best to steal the initiative from mayoral opponent Peter Milobar by attacking him and by keeping a reasonable stream of press releases and proposals going out to the public.

Given the fact that Kennedy’s biggest challenge is to become familiar to voters, this is not a bad strategy. As he put it yesterday during our conversation about his latest idea, “I know what I’m up against.”

The strategy won’t work on all counts, and I’ll go into that in more depth on the blog next week, but let’s take a look at Kennedy’s latest proposal.

This week, he released a position paper on something he dubbed KART, for Kamloops Attract and Retain Talent. Clever name for a platform plank on how to make Venture Kamloops more effective in attracting new business.

Several pages long, it’s the kind of detail only policy nuts and newspaper editors would be interested in dissecting.

In part, it’s harmless stuff, focusing on trade shows and career fairs, which aren’t entirely foreign to Venture Kamloops as it now operates. He doesn’t put a price tag on it.

While ideas are friendly, when they come from politicians it’s always fair to ask what it will cost us, and whether they have a snowball’s chance of succeeding.

Kennedy sets out in comprehensive fashion a plan for Kamloops to attract new business, via KART, not only via the marketing angle but by offering tax exemptions. It’s an interesting proposal and, in part, a little dicey. And the parts that are clearly and currently within the jurisdiction of city councils are already being done here.

Behind Closed Doors — Life at City Hall: Chapter 2

This is the second in a series on my experiences as the mayor of Kamloops from 1999 to 2005. I offer it for the interest of anyone who cares about civic politics and our community, and who might be wondering — as we approach a civic election Nov. 15 — what really goes on in City Hall. The series will be archived under the City Hall category.

 

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS — LIFE AT CITY HALL

Chapter 2 — ‘Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead’

 

“We’ve got to make it easier for people to go about their lives and businesses in Kamloops — we’ve got to clearly define red-tape problems and then do something about them.”

— Guest editorial, radio CHNL, October 1999

 

There’s a big difference between thinking about something, even planning for it, and actually committing to it.

While I’d thought about running for mayor for a long time, until I asked Barb Duggan early in 1999 to be my campaign manager, it was a “what if” proposition with no risk to it.

But when she said yes, I was basically past the point of no return.

Barb never believed in going halfway on anything that was worth doing. When she submitted her report to the Thompson-Nicola Regional District on the issue of setting up a film commission, she entitled it, “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead.”

That was her approach with the campaign from the day we agreed to work together on it. But before I would be ready to make any announcements, or even put a team together, there was a lot of work to be done.

For one thing, I’d have to relinquish my duties at The Daily News. I was prepared to resign, though the prospect of being without work, especially if I lost the election, was not attractive. I was blown away when my boss, publisher Dale Brinn, offered up a leave of absence.

It would work like this: I’d start a leave as soon as I publicly announced I was running. If I lost the election, I could come back to The Daily News right away. If I won, the leave would extend to the end of my first term.

To this day, I’m grateful for that gesture of generosity and community spirit. Giving somebody a three-year leave of absence to go off and get involved in politics is no small thing for a company, but Dale believed what I wanted to do was important. It took a huge weight off my shoulders, I can tell you.

There was another potential hurdle that eventually worked out but that caused me quite a headache for awhile. Back in 1998, Syd and I had applied to the City for a boundary extension to take in our property on Barnhartvale Road.

Why the Downtown Core Should Top the Election Debate

For publication in The Daily News on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008

I worry about our downtown.

I walk it every day, for one reason or another. The other day, as I crossed Fourth Avenue, a man was pushing a shopping cart over the crosswalk on the opposite side. Then he jaywalked through traffic and carried on down the street.

At the corner of Fourth and Victoria Street, I passed by a man and the woman, both shabbily dressed, coming in the opposite direction, talking loudly, she waving her arms wildly.

A little further on down the block on Victoria Street, and another shopping cart full of junk, this time parked by itself. Across the street, a couple more “street people,” just kind of hanging out.

After work, in the early evening, I emerged into the back alley to go to my vehicle. Sitting on the curb, a scruffy, long-haired man and a woman who was scratched up and looked like she’d recently had the crap beat out of her. I thought, “I’m not sure these are the kind of people I want to meet in an alley.”

Behind Closed Doors — Life At City Hall: Chapter 1

This is the first in a series on my experiences as the mayor of Kamloops from 1999 to 2005. I offer it for the interest of anyone who cares about civic politics and our community, and who might be wondering — as we approach a civic election Nov. 15 — what really goes on in City Hall.

 

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS — LIFE AT CITY HALL

Chapter 1 — ‘I’d Like to Be the Mayor of Kamloops’

 

Sometimes, as I’m driving home late at night, I become acutely aware of every building, street light and stripe on the pavement. And I say to myself, “I’m the mayor of Kamloops. This is my city.” And the awe of it comes over me again.

— Personal Journal, April, 2000.

 

There is no feeling in this world that comes close to winning an election for an important public office. It’s not better than your wedding day, or the birth of your children, but it has an intensity and a special sense of jubilation all its own. At the moment of victory, excitement is mixed with contentment, that, right now, at this moment, all is right and everything else that has happened in your life was for this.

For me, it reached its height as my wife Syd and I walked into campaign headquarters the night of Nov. 20, 1999 to the enthusiastic cheering of supporters. As they applauded and hugged us, I spotted our nine-year-old son Jacob, who had spent the day with my brother and sister-in-law.

“Does this mean we won?” he asked above the din.

I nodded, realizing he hadn’t yet been told. “We’re going to be the mayor!” I said.

I’d thought about running for the mayor’s job for a long time. I remember visiting a friend at the Coast many years before, and telling her, “I think I’d like to be the mayor of Kamloops some day.”

Everyone has his or her own reasons for wanting to go into politics — a special cause, ego, a belief things could be done better. Some of those reasons are totally unselfish, others are not.

In my case, my interest in politics and City Hall in particular was driven by some 25 years of covering City councils here. At one point, prior to the forced amalgamation of 1973, I covered the councils of Kamloops, Brocklehurst, Dufferin and Valleyview, all at once, which literally kept me on the run.

You don’t spend a few thousand hours sitting in council chambers and talking to municipal leaders on a daily basis without becoming a student of local government.

In 1998 and 1999, when I began thinking seriously of finally running for mayor, my ideas of what local government should look like were being severely tested. City Hall was not an open place. Too much business was being done behind closed doors — in fact, once a month, council brazenly went into secret session for its entire regular meeting. One meeting out of four — 25 per cent. Those meetings were supposed to be held in the open. There were many other in-camera meetings, too, and no system of accountability for them was in place.

To add insult to injury, they had a habit of trucking off to out-of-town resorts for “strategy” sessions. In secret, of course.

Green candidate welcome at Kamloops election forum

Three of the four mainstream parties have really stepped in it by refusing Elizabeth May a seat in the leaders’ debates. Technically, the decision is that of the TV networks, but it’s based on opposition from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe.

Stephane Dion of the Liberals is alone in welcoming May to the debates.

The rationale for excluding May is that the Green Party she leads has never elected an MP but it can be argued the Greens have greater national legitimacy than the Bloc. While the latter, of course, is a Quebec-centred party, the Greens are running candidates in all but two of 308 federal ridings, and have been growing their support to a respectable percentage.

While playing the gender card on May’s exclusion is going a step too far, there’s no question the Greens deserve a chance to be heard via their leader at the debates.

I think I can speak for the other sponsoring local media in guaranteeing that local Green candidate Donovan Cavers — possibly the second least-known local politician after Cathy McLeod — will be welcome at the all-candidates election forum tentatively scheduled for the TRU Grand Hall on Oct. 8. (That forum, by the way, will be jointly hosted by The Daily News, TV7 and Kamloops This Week.)

And if May or any other national leader wants to drop in as well, I’m pretty sure we’d give them a spot at the mike.

Comments on the exclusion of May from the debates, or on any other issue, are welcome.

Who the heck is this Cathy McLeod person?

It’s not Cathy McLeod’s fault nobody knows who she is.

As of Saturday, she is officially the Conservative candidate in the riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo but, other than that, she’s a bit of of a non-entity in the community life of this city. There’s nothing wrong with that, though previous credentials in civic leadership are helpful in providing voters with a sense of a candidate’s commitment to the community.

Maybe, between now and Oct. 14 people around here will get to know her well enough to consider voting for her. That could make all the difference to the outcome, since otherwise people will have only the party and the party leader to persuade them.

McLeod’s appointment is a bizarre ending to many months of intrigue around who the local Tories would pick — turns out the candidate was picked for them by the national party. The official line of the constituency association was that there was no rush and, in due course, an excellent candidate would be named.

On the street, the unofficial line promoted by those within the association was that a high-profile candidate was in the offing, somebody who couldn’t announce quite yet due to other commitments. There were rumours of Roger Barnsley, Nancy Greene Raine, Bud Smith, even Vic Poleschuk. And, of course, the most interesting rumour of all, David Emerson.

Evidence seems to suggest that the local party frittered away more opportunities than a 649 winner on a Las Vegas spending spree.

It started when MP Hinton announced some months ago she would not run again, for health reasons. That was good news for the local Tories, since the increasingly unpopular MP was shown heading for a reckoning. A Mustel Group poll conducted for The Daily News and TV7 last year showed her trailing Liberal Ken Sommerfeld in support, with the NDP’s Michael Crawford bringing up third.

A fresh candidate held the promise of the Tories being able to hold the riding. But months went by, so did rumours, and nothing, but nothing, happened. One story was that the party didn’t want to name a candidate while Hinton was still a sitting MP.

More likely is that they just couldn’t find anybody. A few applications trickled in, including one from Fred Bosman, who had lost to Hinton by a whisker in the original nomination. Overtures were made to “name” candidates, and there were simply no takers.

That scenario is more flattering to the constituency association than the alternative, which is that it simply dropped the ball in stupendously inept fashion.

So, we have a Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo “race” with two candidates who’ve had months to become familiar to voters, and one candidate nobody has a clue about. If the Tories fail to hold this riding, they shouldn’t have much problem figuring out why.

Comments on this or any other post are welcome.