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NPA gets powerhouse biz guy, BC Lib donor, as chief fundraiser

May 30th, 2011 · 16 Comments

One of the NPA’s better days, as my Sun buddy Jeff Lee noted, with the announcement that Peter Armstrong is heading up the party’s fundraising efforts. (His blog post here.)

I heard from a very good source that the NPA was actually trying to get Armstrong to run as the mayoral candidate, but he just couldn’t take it on for personal reasons. However, having him on board with the campaign has to help with bringing in money from from the money set.

Others who had claimed they were bailing on this year’s NPA campaign have also started coming back on board.

Categories: 2011 Vancouver Civic Election

  • Everyman

    I suspect the possibility that Vision might retain a council majority has finally sunk in, and is summoning people to the barricades.

  • Max

    @ Everyman:

    Fear and loathing are great motivators….:)

  • Richard

    Or win or lose heading up fundraising efforts is a great way to build and strengthen political and business contacts.

  • Adele Chow

    Who? How can someone be a “powerhouse” when no one has ever heard of him? Let’s be serious. Does anyone think this will make any difference whatsoever?

    BTW: I find it interesting that some people here assume that everyone with the same Chinese name is related. Are all Smiths related? No. Are all Campbells related? No.

  • Max

    @ Adele Chow #4

    When ‘no one’ has ever hear of him or when you have never heard of him?

    Don’t paint all of us with the same brush of ignorance. Some of us do leave the house from time to time and well……read.

  • Michael Geller

    Adele Chow…I’m in a bit of a grumpy mood this morning, but you really are bringing down the level of commentary on this blog. How can you possibly say “No one has ever heard of Peter Armstrong”?

    He is one of the most respected business and community leaders in Vancouver, and I would suggest that some people who do not like the NPA would agree that he will bring a lot of credibility to the forthcoming NPA election campaign.

    As I said on CKNW yesterday, I believe his involvement signals a desire from many others in the broader Vancouver business community to see a more balanced and fiscally responsible City Council come November 19th.

  • George

    @ Micheal Geller
    With all due respect, I for one have never heard of him either… sorry if that makes you grumpy, or” if this brings down the level of commentary on this blog”…
    I’m starting to get a very elitist feeling here Micheal…. several days ago you made a negative reference to several other sites and their participants, now this statement.
    I guess I’ll go back over to those lower brow sites… I can’t even finish reading the rest of the comments after that one… Wow..

  • Glissando Remmy

    The Thought of The Day

    “For Adele. The Unauthorized Timeline of Peter Armstrong”

    Peter was born on the 9th of January of 1953.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwv-DxOPhSc

    The Bel-Air Chevrolet was the talk of the Auto shows.
    Queen Elizabeth II crowned queen of England. The unions gained strength.
    Wage and price controls ended and unemployment was at 2.9%.
    Life was good.
    A pound of round steak was 90 cents.
    A color TV was selling for $1,175, and transistor radios start to appear for sale.
    Yes indeed.
    1953 was a good year… for that year.

    While in first grade he learned playing the trumpet from his second cousin Louis Armstrong. He played second trumpet on his uncle last recording “What a Wonderful World” in 1968.

    One year later, his dad Neil, said “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, and yeah, that was broadcast from the Moon, not a biggie.

    And yes, that was the year when his little brother Lance received his first bike, who turned out to be the catalyst for his future seven Tour de France wins.

    Peter always liked trains, from when he was a teen. He always said that one day he will own one.

    His only regret? He never had the time to try to break into radio like Christy Clark or into Stand Up Comedy like Gregor Robertson. Maybe one day, but not today.

    So, there Adele. But please, don’t quote me on any of the above.

    We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.

  • Michael Geller

    “I’m starting to get a very elitist feeling here Micheal…. several days ago you made a negative reference to several other sites and their participants, now this statement.
    I guess I’ll go back over to those lower brow sites… I can’t even finish reading the rest of the comments after that one… Wow..”

    George. What are you talking about?

    I didn’t make any negative references to other sites…I said the ‘anti-vision’ comments on this site were starting to resemble the ‘anti-vision’ comments on CityCaucus and Alex Tsakumis’ sites. Surely there’s nothing negative or elitist about this.

    Now as for you Glissando…Neil Armstrong did not say “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

    What he said was one small step for man, one giant leap for Manny Klein”.

    And if you want to know what that’s all about, you may want to attend the ‘Old Jews Telling Jokes’ fundraiser I am organizing for the Jewish Seniors’ Alliance on July 14th…details to follow!

  • Everyman

    @George 7
    Anyone who follows the Vancouver business scene would know who Peter Armstrong is. And Richard, Armstrong does not need the NPA fundraising duties to develop business or political connections.

  • George

    @Everyman…
    I’m poor so I don’t follow the business scene… 😉

  • George

    Micheal Geller @9

    Sorry Micheal I should have pointed out what was the straw that broke my grumpy back.. first the references to other sites a few days ago… then this..

    “I’m in a bit of a grumpy mood this morning, but you really are bringing down the level of commentary on this blog. How can you possibly say “No one has ever heard of Peter Armstrong”?”

    Pardon my ignorance Micheal, but I have no idea who Mr. Armstrong is either… so I didn’t want to bring down the level of the commentary of this blog.

  • Adele Chow

    I’m sure that Mr. Armstrong is a talented guy, but let’s not overstate the arrival of any individual to a campaign. I haven’t heard of him, so I find it funny that he’s being puffed up like a peacock by some people.

  • Max

    @ Adele Chow #13:

    I’ve worked in the buinsess community since for the last 25 years and have never heard of Tony Tang, so your point would be?

  • Max

    So, I was brushing up on Vision’s cash cow ‘Joel Solomon’ and from what I see, certain Vancouverites are not the only ones raising the flag about he and his supposed ‘charity’ Tides Canada. (And yet Robertson and Vision suggested the new casino would lead to money laundering in this city…) These exerts have been cut from the original article:

    From the activistcash.com: Well worth reading the entire article.

    When is a foundation not a foundation? When it gives away other foundations’ money.

    Set up in 1976 by California activist Drummond Pike, Tides does two things better than any other foundation or charity in the U.S. today: it routinely obscures the sources of its tax-exempt millions, and makes it difficult (if not impossible) to discern how the funds are actually being used.

    In practice, “Tides” behaves less like a philanthropy than a money-laundering enterprise (apologies to Procter & Gamble), taking money from other foundations and spending it as the donor requires. Called donor-advised giving, this pass-through funding vehicle provides public-relations insulation for the money’s original donors. By using Tides to funnel its capital, a large public charity can indirectly fund a project with which it would prefer not to be directly identified in public. Drummond Pike has reinforced this view, telling The Chronicle of Philanthropy: “Anonymity is very important to most of the people we work with.”

    In order to get an idea of the massive scale on which the Tides Foundation plays its shell game, consider that Tides has collected over $200 million since 1997, most of it from other foundations. The list of grantees who eventually received these funds includes many of the most notorious anti-consumer groups in U.S. history: Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Environmental Media Services, Environmental Working Group, and even fringe groups like the now-defunct Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet (which used actress Meryl Streep to “front” the 1989 Alar-on-apples health scare fraud for NRDC).

    Where the Money Comes From

    The Tides Foundation is quickly becoming the 800-pound gorilla of radical activist funding, and this couldn’t happen without a nine-figure balance sheet. Just about every big name in the world of public grantmaking lists Tides as a major recipient. Anyone who has heard the closing moments of a National Public Radio news broadcast is familiar with these names. In 1999 alone, Tides took in an astounding $42.9 million. It gave out $31.1 million in grants that year, and applied the rest to a balance sheet whose bottom line is over $120 million. Since 1996, one foundation alone (the Pew Charitable Trusts) has poured over $40 million into Tides. And at least 17 others have made grants to Tides in excess of $100,000.

    Black Eye
    Widespread philanthropic support is the best-kept secret of America’s most vocal activist groups, and the people running the foundations will stop at nothing to fund their agendas. By taking advantage of collective-funding pioneers like Tides, even the smallest group can now speak with the weight of an entire activist community. The Tides Foundation exists, in part, to give the Left’s small-fries (and their fringe messages) the collective bullhorn and bankroll necessary to remake society in their image.
    With dozens of wealthy foundations bankrolling radical activist groups, a good deal of public philanthropy has become a shell game. The money flows freely, largely undetected, thanks to Tides’ innovative funding vehicles. The many groups that Tides “incubates” (and which operate under Tides’ umbrella) are smart, fierce, and built to last — their targets in industry are just now beginning to learn the size of this organized opposition and its institutional bankroll.

    In order to keep the gravy train running, Tides has demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in coming up with unusual funding streams in addition to its mainstays in traditional philanthropy. Consider the following:

    When Ben & Jerry’s announced that profits from its popular “Rainforest Crunch” ice cream flavor were earmarked for save-the-earth charities, the mass media swooned. What they didn’t tell you was that 20% of the cut went directly to the Tides Foundation.

    In 1999 the Tides Foundation created “eGrants.org,” the first internet-only foundation funding source. Web-savvy leftists can privately give any amount they like to Tides, and earmark it for specific projects. And it’s all tax-deductible.

    Back in 1985, Drummond Pike and two colleagues started the Working Assets Funding Service, a for-profit company whose family of credit-card, mutual fund, and long-distance telephone services have grown into a $130 million business. Working Assets lures consumers (over 400,000 so far) with promises of “socially responsible” commerce. A two-percent cut of the profits go to activist causes — funneled, of course, through the Tides Foundation.

  • George

    Great post Max… really good research…