Please advise! Is green Vancouver an omen for BC?

[Editor’s note: Steve Burgess is an accredited spin doctor with a PhD in Centrifugal Rhetoric from the University of SASE, situated on the lovely campus of PO Box 7650, Cayman Islands. In this space he dispenses PR advice to politicians, the rich and famous, the troubled and well-heeled, the wealthy and gullible.]

Dear Dr. Steve,

That’s one vote down, one to go.

Do the municipal results have any bearing on the provincial vote, Dr. Steve?

Signed

C. Ball

Dear CB,

Two elections, one week apart. It may seem short, but it’s enough time to cycle through several White House press secretaries.

There is a lot to process from the municipal vote. First, Green Pete Fry defeated incumbent ABC candidate Ken Sim for mayor of Vancouver. Vancouver baseball fans: There will be no major league team. Return your season tickets for a partial refund. Even the plan to heat Kits Pool with Bitcoin mining is probably dead in the water.

Worse for Sim, his nemesis, COPE Coun. Sean Orr, received the most votes for the city council. It seems that Vancouver voters have decided that Ken Sim’s enemy is my friend.

So Vancouver has a green mayor. With Ontario Premier Doug Ford busy revitalizing bike lanes, it’s reassuring to see Vancouver voters rejecting ’50s nostalgia. Ford’s next move will likely be to get rid of seat belts and air gauges.

Former BC Premier Mike Harcourt and ex-John Horgan chief of staff Geoff Meggs broke with the progressive field to reject Pete Fry and support Vote Vancouver’s Rebecca Bligh. Bligh received just shy of 8,000 votes. Pete Fry got about 87,700. As Maxwell Smart used to say, “Missed it so much.”

A tip for Mike and Geoff: Avoid sports betting sites. You’d probably pick the Canucks to win it all. On another note, we may have to hold a bake sale for all the unfortunate people who donated so much to the sim. We can only hope they hold back enough to buy themselves some soup.

In a shocking development ABC, the party that wanted to abolish the park board, did not elect anyone to the park board. ABC was also almost removed from the council, retaining only one seat.

And failed mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick, who ran with TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, was featured in a video complaining voters always elect inexperienced mayors, ending with “Vancouver, grow up.”

Or to paraphrase another political veteran: You won’t have Colleen Hardwick to stumble around anymore.

Meanwhile in Surrey, Doug McCallum is back. Hardwick certainly could not complain that the 82-year-old one-time mayor lacks experience. Of course, there’s a difference between a resume and a rap sheet, and to be fair, McCallum was found not guilty of public misconduct in 2022.

But now ex-mayor Brenda Locke seems to be wasting a lot of time with a fight fulfilled fact with the new Surrey Police Service. Finally, the Surrey mayoral race seems to come down to choosing your brand of ridiculous.

A big loser in Surrey: polls. A Canada Pulse Insights poll showed Locke with a comfortable lead and Surrey voters claimed the city was “going in the right direction.” You could say they turned left instead, but it’s hard to tell which direction McCallum represents. Which way to the twilight zone?

What directions did the political arrows point to last weekend? Select a point on the compass. It has swung left in Vancouver with Fry, the Greens and COPE, and right in New Westminster, thanks to the “You Can Call a Party Whatever You Like” Progressive Party. Colleagues were thrown out, managers were re-elected. You can also search for a unified theme in goose poop.

The BC Green tried though. They issued a triumphant press release on Monday with the headline: “Pete Fry Becomes First Green Mayor of a Major City in Canada, Signals a Surge Towards the Greens Ahead of Provincial Election.”

Umm… maybe. To make Vancouver’s civic comparison, the provincial Greens must convince Premier David Eby to step aside and unite the Left. Didn’t happen. There may or may not be a green wave on Saturday, but Fry’s election does not signal that.

One down, one to go. Keep calm, people. Avoid “voter’s elbow.”