Well exactly - who really cares about Mr Ego Density?
Saturday » June 14 » 2008
You say Campbell's premier, I say he's mega-mayor
Municipal roles near zero as provincial leader races from project to project
Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, May 31, 2008
You may have noticed we're in civic election season again, time to pick a bunch of new mayors for Metro Vancouver. But, honestly, do we even have to bother?
After all, we already have something better than 21 mayors, all looking after their various fiefdoms. We have the mega-mayor, otherwise known as Gordon Campbell, premier of British Columbia.
Think about it. The premier bestrides our various cities like a colossus. Is there anything he doesn't have his hand in?
Just consider the city of Vancouver. The biggest ideas transforming the city aren't coming from Mayor Sam Sullivan or his opponents. They come straight from the premier's office.
Want a new $400-million Vancouver Art Gallery? Then get the premier to kick in $50 million and it'll get off the ground.
Sullivan wasn't even in the loop on that one.
Will that art gallery be on the edge of False Creek, instead of in an old bus station, as many favoured? The premier liked the waterfront location and so did his representatives at B.C. Pavilion Corp., so a waterfront gallery it shall be.
Saturday » June 14 » 2008
You say Campbell's premier, I say he's mega-mayor
Municipal roles near zero as provincial leader races from project to project
Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, May 31, 2008
You may have noticed we're in civic election season again, time to pick a bunch of new mayors for Metro Vancouver. But, honestly, do we even have to bother?
After all, we already have something better than 21 mayors, all looking after their various fiefdoms. We have the mega-mayor, otherwise known as Gordon Campbell, premier of British Columbia.
Think about it. The premier bestrides our various cities like a colossus. Is there anything he doesn't have his hand in?
Just consider the city of Vancouver. The biggest ideas transforming the city aren't coming from Mayor Sam Sullivan or his opponents. They come straight from the premier's office.
Want a new $400-million Vancouver Art Gallery? Then get the premier to kick in $50 million and it'll get off the ground.
Sullivan wasn't even in the loop on that one.
Will that art gallery be on the edge of False Creek, instead of in an old bus station, as many favoured? The premier liked the waterfront location and so did his representatives at B.C. Pavilion Corp., so a waterfront gallery it shall be.
Need a facelift and social housing for the Downtown Eastside?
Vancouver's mayors have struggled with that one for years, but once the
mega-mayor gets involved, things really start happening.
Campbell opened the purse strings and ordered his housing minister to start buying up old flophouses and fix them up. He's also pushed all of the province's municipal governments to stop with the NIMBYism and fast-track the construction of social housing.
And don't forget those big roofs. The mega-mayor has been spending a lot of time -- and money -- on them of late, too.
His cabinet green-lighted that $200-million retractable roof for BC Place Stadium, essentially recreating a city landmark with no real input from city hall.
Again through the agency overseeing the re-roofing of BC Place, the provincial government has also given the nod to a major development around the old stadium. It amounts to the creation of a mini-downtown that will change the rhythms of this city.
City hall is still waiting to see the provincial plans.
It was also provincial bureaucrats, thinking they were following the premier's command, who dreamed up The Clam, that glass-and-wooden roof for Robson Square. It was an eyesore, but it almost got green-lighted until the Vancouver Sun found out about it and told the public.
Incidentally, it was the provincial government, not the mayor of Vancouver, that deep-sixed it.
Fact is, the municipal role in the conception of these mega-projects is near zero. Mayor Sullivan, and Metro Vancouver's mayors, may get wind that something is up. But they usually don't find out until a few hours before the announcement, usually made by -- you guessed it -- the premier.
Our mega-mayor even decides how we'll get to work. He pushed through the Canada Line, the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and the Sea to Sky Highway upgrade.
He turfed out the pesky municipal pols who used to have a big say in running TransLink, the agency that designs our public transit system. Now a "professional" board, hand-picked by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, is mapping out which municipalities will be favoured with billions of dollars' worth of buses and SkyTrain lines. That board, usually meeting behind closed doors, is also deciding which city corners and corridors it wants to redevelop, anchoring them with big towers to help pay for the expensive new projects.
The mega-mayor even decides where we'll play. It was Campbell, don't forget, who took a chunk of land out of Pacific Spirit Park and gave it to the Musqueam Indian band for real estate development. Metro Vancover was never consulted and when they protested, it changed nothing. Same with the University Golf Course in the UBC Endownment Lands. Campbell's government turned that over to the Musqueam, too, and in a few years the first nation could privatize the public course if they wish.
Frankly, I'm not surprised by any of this. You may remember that Campbell was a Vancouver mayor from 1986 to 1993. He loved the job. And he was good at it, too. Just ask former New Democratic premier and Vancouver mayor (1980-86) Michael Harcourt, who praises Campbell in his book City Making in Paradise.
What I've come to realize is that Campbell never really gave that old job up when he took power as the province's 34th premier in 2001. Instead, without anyone really noticing, he's pretty much fused the old job together with the new one. He's become the most powerful politician since W.A.C. Bennett.
mcernetig@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Campbell opened the purse strings and ordered his housing minister to start buying up old flophouses and fix them up. He's also pushed all of the province's municipal governments to stop with the NIMBYism and fast-track the construction of social housing.
And don't forget those big roofs. The mega-mayor has been spending a lot of time -- and money -- on them of late, too.
His cabinet green-lighted that $200-million retractable roof for BC Place Stadium, essentially recreating a city landmark with no real input from city hall.
Again through the agency overseeing the re-roofing of BC Place, the provincial government has also given the nod to a major development around the old stadium. It amounts to the creation of a mini-downtown that will change the rhythms of this city.
City hall is still waiting to see the provincial plans.
It was also provincial bureaucrats, thinking they were following the premier's command, who dreamed up The Clam, that glass-and-wooden roof for Robson Square. It was an eyesore, but it almost got green-lighted until the Vancouver Sun found out about it and told the public.
Incidentally, it was the provincial government, not the mayor of Vancouver, that deep-sixed it.
Fact is, the municipal role in the conception of these mega-projects is near zero. Mayor Sullivan, and Metro Vancouver's mayors, may get wind that something is up. But they usually don't find out until a few hours before the announcement, usually made by -- you guessed it -- the premier.
Our mega-mayor even decides how we'll get to work. He pushed through the Canada Line, the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and the Sea to Sky Highway upgrade.
He turfed out the pesky municipal pols who used to have a big say in running TransLink, the agency that designs our public transit system. Now a "professional" board, hand-picked by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, is mapping out which municipalities will be favoured with billions of dollars' worth of buses and SkyTrain lines. That board, usually meeting behind closed doors, is also deciding which city corners and corridors it wants to redevelop, anchoring them with big towers to help pay for the expensive new projects.
The mega-mayor even decides where we'll play. It was Campbell, don't forget, who took a chunk of land out of Pacific Spirit Park and gave it to the Musqueam Indian band for real estate development. Metro Vancover was never consulted and when they protested, it changed nothing. Same with the University Golf Course in the UBC Endownment Lands. Campbell's government turned that over to the Musqueam, too, and in a few years the first nation could privatize the public course if they wish.
Frankly, I'm not surprised by any of this. You may remember that Campbell was a Vancouver mayor from 1986 to 1993. He loved the job. And he was good at it, too. Just ask former New Democratic premier and Vancouver mayor (1980-86) Michael Harcourt, who praises Campbell in his book City Making in Paradise.
What I've come to realize is that Campbell never really gave that old job up when he took power as the province's 34th premier in 2001. Instead, without anyone really noticing, he's pretty much fused the old job together with the new one. He's become the most powerful politician since W.A.C. Bennett.
mcernetig@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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