Four Vietnam vets, framed for a crime they didn't commit, help the innocent while on the run from the military.
The A-Team slogan sounds a lot more exciting than civic politics.
But on the topic of civic politics, The Electors' Action Movement (TEAM) Burnaby held their one year down/two to go fundraiser this past week. At least part of Burnaby still thinks someone can do a better job than Derek Corrigan and the Burnaby Citizens' Association crowd. For now, it is time to resume waiting for the chance to take charge of City Hall.
But on the topic of civic politics, The Electors' Action Movement (TEAM) Burnaby held their one year down/two to go fundraiser this past week. At least part of Burnaby still thinks someone can do a better job than Derek Corrigan and the Burnaby Citizens' Association crowd. For now, it is time to resume waiting for the chance to take charge of City Hall.
posted by Robert Burnaby at 2:02 PM
14 Comments:
It wasn't a fundraiser as far as real fundraisers go.
The money generated goes to pay off the large debt brought on by excessive spending and a poorly managed campaign.
The money raised doesn't go to Accounts Receivable for the next campaign. It goes to Accounts Payable
from the 2005 campaign.
Hopefully TEAM Burnaby has learned lessons and will spend smartly and campaign smartly next time.
and hopefully they haven't reached the limits of their support base.
but the BCA wasn't as strong in 2005
as they normally are, the BCA was unsually weak, and the BCA know it, so TEAM Burnaby will probably be facing a stronger more sturdier campaign from the BCA.
They probably could have come close to winning with a good mayoralty candidate.
Not sure why the brains running TEAM B didn't realize that the mayor's candidate is the anchor. Instead they stumbled their way along with a candidate with a hairy past.
I thought the TB guys running the show knew what they were doing.
Indeed with the right candidate, Burnaby would have been relieved of Derek The Crab.
The brains running TB simply didn't bother to check as they were starry eyed about the drunk driver with the red toy car.
They indeed stumbled badly. Missed many opportunities. The campaign was badly managed from the start (could have been alot better).
The guys who ran the TB campaign last time certainly didn't know what they were doing.
Hell, even the signs were junk.
Hopefully next time there will be better people running a better campaign and TB hasn't peaked out on support otherwise Burnaby will end up with Derek The Crab again as Mayor and TB will end up being back to what it originally was, a boil on the behind.
Suprised this didn't get reported:
http://www.straight.com/article/city-hall-report-card
Corrigan geta an A- as Mayor. Not too shabby.
The Straight is junior grade.
They obviously don't know Corrigan as Burnaby people do.
Let's complete a vivesection on what the Straight said about Boy Derek:
"The City of Burnaby has consistently led the region in environmental protection and in the quality of its staff reports on regional transportation issues."
Partially true those repoorts are not balanced though.
"Earlier this year, Burnaby was the first municipality to examine the potential impact of peak oil (a term used to describe when global oil production will peak). "
Important, but not exactly civic level
concerns.
"On the downside, Burnaby has dithered on the creation of a homeless shelter after years of discussion and preparations."
Correct. This has more to do with Corrigan's insistance that the City does not contribute to such iniatives,
but Surrey by contrast does provide
funding for community groups to establish and maintain shelters for the homeless.
"On the upside, Mayor Corrigan has been the GVRD’s foremost proponent of preserving a livable region. On September 22, he voted to amend a motion to ensure the GVRD “strongly opposes” the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and the widening of Highway 1 west of the bridge. It narrowly passed. "
He's actually wrong on that on several fronts, since his beloved Livable Region Plan is just that a plan, not a set in granite series of regulations, and plans in order to be effective, must change as the spatial distribution of the populace and lines of transportation movement does.
"Corrigan, a New Democrat, has also been a voice of fiscal sanity on the TransLink board, which too often ignores the concerns of bus riders in favour of gold-plated rapid-transit projects. For example, on July 19 Corrigan was the only TransLink director to vote against allocating up to $3 million (excluding interest) for design changes to the Canada Line’s Broadway station and the Richmond-Brighouse bus loop. Corrigan also voted against TransLink collecting the parking tax this year, which effectively shovels more money at the Canada Line. "
False assumptions. Corrigan was for the Millenium Line.
Corrigan wrongly assumes and the Straight wrongly assumes that rapid transit is gold plated.
"Corrigan is particularly adept at explaining the risks of public-private partnerships and international trade agreements, which makes him a necessary voice at the GVRD and on the TransLink board."
Corrigan does not see The Big Picture.
Corrigan is also lacking in his fundamentals. For instance if a council person makes a motion to council, it is up to the attending council members, not Corrigan to choose whether or not the motion passes.
Corrigan has also had episodes of unparliamentary conduct in council.
Unless Team Burnaby gets off its ass and actually does something right, Burnaby will be stuck with Corrigan once again.
On the issue of the Millenium Line vs. Canada Line, I believe Corrigan was in favour of expanding rapid transit along the Burnaby tri-cities area, since it was a much more appropriate area for urban growth.
Richmond he argued is mostly agricultural preserve and also built on a flood plain. He was questioning the merit of that project vs the potential for expansion of the other route.
And as a result of the expenses of the Canada Line, the Evergreen Line has now been delayed.
"On the issue of the Millenium Line vs. Canada Line, I believe Corrigan was in favour of expanding rapid transit along the Burnaby tri-cities area, since it was a much more appropriate area for urban growth. "
Either he or his NDP friends miscalculated. The M-Line is an example of "not quite finished", the line ideally should have begun in Coquitlam (King Edward). There's very little land available for urban growth along the M-Line in Burnaby since much of the surrounding area has already been developed or is limited because of being confined by wetlands.
Coquitlam Centre region has areas available for growth, but much of Port Moody and Coquitlam along North Road is filled in with houses.
"Richmond he argued is mostly agricultural preserve and also built on a flood plain. He was questioning the merit of that project vs the potential for expansion of the other route."
He should take a look more closely.
the eastern and central portions of Richmond are in the ALR (from about 6 Road east to the Lafarge Plant). The western sections of Richmond are residential south to Steveston Hwy,
with pockets of commercial development
between Steveston Hwy and the river.
"And as a result of the expenses of the Canada Line, the Evergreen Line has now been delayed. "
The two are not equal to each other.
The Canada Line is an important link
and should actually been completed about 10 years ago.
It's a case of the NDP not looking forward. If the NDP (and Derek who was Chair of BC Transit's Board) was smart they would have built the Evergreen Line first from Braid Station to Lougheed then to Port Moody and Coquitlam Centre. People then could travel SkyTrain to Vancouver. They could have saved money by not building those aluminium cans for BC Ferries and used the savings to be credited towards the Tri-Cities project.
The M-Line has had very low ridership
since it does not serve major population centres as yet.
But this is also a case of not keeping up with infrastructure. Once the Surrey extension was being built the final engineering for the Airport line should have started, build that and then complete final engineering for the M-Line/Evergreen line and so on.
while i can't speak with authority on transit issues, i do think the problems with TEAM's lack of success is more in their lineup of councillors. a bunch of old federal Liberals and Reformers who've outlived their usefulness. a lot of TEAM voters must be tired of having to vote for Lee Rankin. we need fresh faces.
There were actually a few BC Liberal types (one was Harry Bloy's campaign person) who didn't live in Burnaby.
Team Burnaby needs an overhaul from the top down. Fresh candidate faces and new faces on the campaign who know what they are doing.
Lee is federal Liberal, but he is also socialist.
What the heck is a Reformer?
There were actually a few BC Liberal types (one was Harry Bloy's campaign person) who didn't live in Burnaby.
Team Burnaby needs an overhaul from the top down. Fresh candidate faces and new faces on the campaign who know what they are doing.
Lee is federal Liberal, but he is also socialist.
What the heck is a Reformer?
Gary Eyre ran for the Reform Party in Burnaby-Douglas in 1997.
he ran for councillor last time. this blog had a post about an unsurprising endorsement for Eyre, coming from Ryan Warawa.
anyway, that was a Reformer.
Hmm must be an extinct species.
Sort of like a blue Liberal.
You read about those, but never got to see a real one.
The Straight corrected pegged Corrigan as opposing the 'gold-plated' rapid transit service.
In fact, Corrigan opposed Glen Clark's desire for SkyTrain along the Lougheed and our mayor argued unsuccessfully for a less-costly ground-level 'light rapid transit system'.
That was interesting since the NDP originally opposed ANY expansion to Skytrain, and advocated a ground level
configuration not an elevated one.
The orginal ground level route was to start at Broadway station and then go out to UBC.
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