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Christmas break free-for-all: What kind of city was Vancouver, what kind of metro region did we evolve to, in 2012?

December 19th, 2012 · 158 Comments

In case no one guessed, I’m pretty much in full-time baking mode here with occasional forays into the outside world to discover what new commercial enterprises have opened and closed since last Christmas. A few heart-warming stories to come over the holidays but I’m going to go into low gear until after New Year’s Day here.

As always, this is your space now to start whatever conversation you want in our little colloquium of urbanistas.

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  • brilliant

    @Tkiller 93-it wouldn’t surprise me if not upgrading the ramps is part of the anticar brigade’s long term plan. They’d love to see them gone along with north end loops which are already on their hit list. Think of the land they could free up for their developer buddies!

  • Kenji

    Random things I am noticing about how the area is evolving:

    The Granville Entertainment District remake has been a success. The area looks nicely spruced up, and is wall-to-wall packed with scantily clad drunken singles every Friday and Saturday night.

    Bike lanes are a rage-magnet out of all proportion to their cost and impact, I think. As a bike commuter, they are profoundly beneficial to my life and will likely keep me a Vision voter.

    Skytrain on Broadway seems to finally be getting some traction, so I would put that in the positive development category.

    Real estate drives a lot of what happens in and to this region. Vancouver continues to command a premium in accommodation which continues to drive working people farther from the core. But while house prices are still unaffordable for most middle-income couples, the prices went back a tiny bit in 2012 – a blip or a trend?

    Gentrification of the DTES was very noticeable this year. The proliferation of hipster restaurants has removed a lot of the negative stigma from Hastings and its environs. Of course, that stigma is what allowed the locals the lack of attention to form a sense of ownership and community of the area. They are being squeezed big time. It’s interesting to watch. Will they go elsewhere or just compress to a smaller and smaller area?

    I want to say something about the BC Place area but it’s hard to think of what it might mean regionally. I work around there and it is a nice building, ok, and Lions and Whitecaps fans are well served by it, but my subjective impression is that no one really gives much of a shit. I honestly don’t think this is a sports town. Certainly, Joe Fan seemed completely indifferent to whether or not there was a stadium over the railway tracks in Gastown.

    Indo Canadian visibility. I have been seeing the odd Indian movie review in the Georgia Straight and the odd Indian movie in Cineplex theatres over the last couple of years. I’m seeing more politicians, entertainers, and other high profile folks from South Asian backgrounds in our media. Surrey and Richmond are still very much ethnic enclaves but I am seeing quite a bit more mixing of the cultures around town, which to me is the only positive way to go — pretty hard to have race riots when we’ve all got friends and relatives in the various races. Therefore, for ideological reasons, I am disquieted by Idle No More, which is a race-based movement (although I appreciate that the First Nations have different issues based on notions of primacy, treaty, and independence).

  • Roger Kemble

    Kenji @ # 97

    “Skytrain on Broadway seems to finally be getting some traction, so I would put that in the positive development category.” Another bloody fool whose mouth is bigger than his brain . . .

    http://www.thecanadian.org/item/1868-bc-may-be-headed-for-its-own-fiscal-cliff-erik-andersen

    I can see 2013 is going to be a fun year!

  • Boohoo

    Roger,

    No holiday cheer from you, just petty personal insults. Colour me surprised.

  • Threadkiller

    @Kenji #97:
    “The Granville Entertainment District remake has been a success. The area looks nicely spruced up, and is wall-to-wall packed with scantily clad drunken singles every Friday and Saturday night.”

    This is one of the strangest ways of defining “success” I’ve ever heard of. Is this sarcasm? Perhaps you’re a connoisseur of the infinite variety of patterns formed by fresh vomit on downtown sidewalks? Or do you just like to watch drunken yobbos shouting and fighting? How curious.

  • Kenji

    @TK

    It certainly looks like success to me. The area is sparkly and packed with people, which to me seems to be an improvement over being a revolting, embarassing slum of boarded-up windows. To me, it seems that people who visit the GED are being separated from their money. That they are also being separated from their stomach contents (edamame, bellinis, roofies) is of no interest or concern to me.

  • Kenji

    @99

    well, consider the source.

  • Roger Kemble

    Yup, consider the sauce Kenji @ #102 . . .

    Don’t expect the hockey playing small town lawyer to come up with anything other than more of the same in February: “ A perfect storm in the global bond market has formed with Europe crippled, Canada and Australia entering their own (long-delayed and spectacular) housing bubble busts” . . .

    http://kunstler.com/blog/2012/12/forecast-2013-contraction-contagion-and-contradiction.html

    I know it’s long for your concentration span but give it a shot.

    Are we ever going to warn Mr. Silvester off our ALR when it hit’s the fan!

    . . . and if you cannot take the truth blog over to Price Tags were the beautiful people frolic!

  • Threadkiller

    Kenji #101:
    Your comments remind me of a gun dealer who, after a client has gone and shot someone, shrugs and says “Hey, I just sell ’em. What they do with ’em afterwards ain’t my concern.” Nice, finely-honed sense of social responsibility you have there.

  • gman

    Roger Kemble@
    Roger your dissenters seem to live in a very small and selfish world,screw the cost and buy the cat another canary.
    This is a talk given at Stanford and these admissions truly are stunning,the pie is only so big and our piece is getting ever smaller.Its well worth a look I think.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOwZwkhFemQ

  • Kenji

    @104

    Hey I never said I was a role model dang it!

    That said, maybe you should hold off going pro as a peddler of useful analogies. Because, unless I am very much mistaken, being 21 and zany/pukey on a Saturday night is not an equivalently serious situation as being shot’n kilt, whaddaya think?

    Are you saying that you preferred Granville Street as it was say three years ago, in all it’s Stone Templeness?

    @103

    Consider the what?

  • Roger Kemble

    “Consider the what?” 106 . . .

    I parodied your pejorative reference Kenji @ # 102 “well, consider the source.“into . . . “Yup, consider the sauce . . .”

    “Said the proof is in the pudding
    The secret’s in the sauce
    I ain’t gotta tell nobody why they call me the boss
    Said the proof is in the pudding
    The secret’s in the sauce
    I ain’t gotta tell nobody why they call me the boss    ”

    http://rapgenius.com/Childish-gambino-im-a-winner-lyrics#note-213304

    I thought you would be hip, yunno slipping and puking on Granville and all that, but I guess not!

  • rico

    Rodger, any chance you can be pleasant or at least not rude in 2013?

  • rico

    Gman, I managed to get most of the way through the utube link you provided before I got too bored. Apart from showing you are a consperacy theorist what point were you trying to make? Population is growing much faster in the third world than here? The information age will make transfer of ideas/resources to the third world easier? Those changes will change the world?

  • gman

    rico@
    Thats classic for you,in one post you accuse Roger of being rude and in the very next post you call me names and at the same time admit you didn’t have the attention span to watch what the former President of the World Bank had to say…..sweet.
    The point is rico if you would have bothered to listen was about the shifting of world incomes.You seem to think its just fine to borrow billions of dollars on the backs of our grandchildren in order to save six or nine minutes on our commute when the wealth of the world is shifting away from us and their ability to pay these debts will mean we will just hand over the infrastructure we owe on to some corporation whose head office will more than likely be in what is now a third world country,but not for long.
    But you keep on spinning and trying to misrepresent what I say just like always.Far be it from you to actually listen to what is said before you come out name calling as though that has anything to do with my credibility,I think it reflects more on you and a sad attempt to label others you think you disagree with,although I don’t know how you would even know that if you haven’t listened to what was said.

  • Roger Kemble

    January 01, 2013.

    Happy New Year . . .

    http://www.theyorkshirelad.ca/5poetry/The%20Boat/boat.html

    . . . good luck.

  • Threadkiller

    @Kenji 106:
    “Stone Templeness”? “Three years ago”?! Oh Lord, you young folks. I do suspect you’re far too young to remember the Granville Street I immeasurably preferred: The Granville Street that was once known, in its middle age, as Theatre Row; that had, at one time or another, ten movie theatres that I can personally remember (not counting the Strand, that was located just off Granville, where the Scotiabank tower is now); back when the Capitol 6–itself already a faded memory– was just the “Capitol” and had but a single enormous screen (hell, I’m old enough to remember Saturday matinees at the Orpheum– yes, there really were, once upon a time, movie theatres that big); the street that was lined with mature leafy trees, all cut down in a single, criminal act of vandalism by the City a few years ago to accommodate widening of the street, leaving it denuded and hideously ugly; the Granville that was a place where families would and could bring their children to the movies, even on Friday and Saturday nights; the Granville that was lined with diverse and genteel shops, and pleasant cafes where one could meet with friends, like the Bon Ton, Rubin’s, and Scott’s… all this and much more. This is the Granville I miss. Not the pustulent sewer into which our beloved City fathers and mothers transformed it when they designated it as the “Entertainment District”. Three years ago or now, I see no difference. Granville used to have charm; it was our downtown main street, a street the whole city was happy to come to, and show off to visitors. Now it has gonorrhea. You like Granville the way it is now? You can bloody well have it, kiddo.

  • Everyman

    @Threadkiller 112
    While I agree with your preference for the heyday of Theatre Row on Granville Street vs. the Binge Drinking Pit, the trees arrived much later, at the time the street was converted to a mall by TEAM.

    No trees during its neon heyday:
    http://www3.vpl.ca/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.vpl.ca%2Fspe%2Fhistphotos%2F&TN=PHOTOS&SN=AUTO2318&SE=8785&RN=708&MR=20&TR=10000&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=briefweb&EF=&DF=Full+Photo&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=2&ID=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=16534&NR=0&NB=35&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1

  • Victor

    Re Granville Bridge loops.
    @ threadkiller
    Maybe they are not getting attention because the plan is to remove them. See future planning for the huge tower to be on the current storage site. (cnr Beach and Granville)

    The options for Westenders to get into and out of there homes is becoming even more limited.

    Burrard Bridge is also falling down, chunks dropping off underneath it and the balusrades on the deck have lost chunks of concrete, the rebar is exposed and rusting. What was a beautiful bridge has become an eyesore and a reminder of Vision’s failure to “stick to their knitting” and to stop wasting money on their pet projects while neglecting maintanence of important infrastructure.

    It beats me why it gets so little attention cause if i falls down, and the Granville Bridge loops are gone, how will services get in and out to the Downtown during a crises? There will be one huge rush to get on the Cambie Bridge or to exit the City on Hastings. Reassure me that I am wrong.

  • Lee L.

    Psst…Victor…

    THEY DONT CARE.

  • boohoo

    Lee L,

    Exactly. What they want is a disaster after they’ve done all this. They want thousands to die, bridges to crumble and emergency services to choke on the few remaining routes into town. If they’re lucky maybe it will be a large earthquake and some buildings will collapse as well, that will take some more ghg’s out of the atmosphere and kill off some more people so win win.

    Then they can take over the empty land and sell off the prime pieces to their american overlords for million dollar condos and then take over the remaining roads for community gardens and more bike lanes.

    You’re totally onto something here. Really.

  • David

    I’d agree with Threadkiller, except for the street width and trees… 1967 http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/4/0/405558/76e970c2-009b-4585-a375-dcc2a4e3f32a-A58835.jpg

  • Kenji

    @112

    I seem to have aroused your personal ire, and that was not intended.

    Also, not that it matters what I or any commentor am like personally, I don’t endorse binge drinking, and I am way old, settled, married, and early-rising to be a paying patron of this area as now constituted.

    I vaguely remember the Capitol being the large, glamourous cinema in town as well. The Man Who Would Be King in 70mm! But to me it was an adult (which is to say, immature hoser) area. I do not remember frolicksome family times, children skipping and so forth. I do remember playing rock gigs in bars up and down the street throughout the 80s and 90s. Your memory may be longer, but hasn’t that always been the peeler bar section of downtown?

    I’m talking improvement in relative terms. No, it’s not an organic dairy pasture lined with lollipops. However, having suffered through the No Fun City era, I find it excellent that the city has got a place to concentrate the Roxy-ish vibe and behaviour in one, shiny, revenue-generating, easy-to-police-cordon strip of the city, at the very meagre cost of removing the gross slum that it was.

  • Kenji

    @ 111

    Happy New Year Roger, and all the fine folk of francesbula.com, especially Frances Bula!

    I checked out your site, your drawings are beautiful.

  • teririch

    The only redeeming factor on Granville Street is the Commodore – everything else is shite.

    It caters to one group and one group only – there is nothing ‘cultural’ about it.

    The so called Granville St. entertainment district is cold and souless and it look it.

  • teririch

    @gman #110:

    Any chance you watched the doc on CTV last night – Labour’s Pains?

    A true eyeopener to learn how public sector union benefits work hard to screw every taxpayer – even a union laywer had a hard time defending the various plans or schemes.

    To know that public sector unions (currently) have $606 B sitting in retirement funds for their members while everybody else gets to share $153 B (CPP) is just mind boggling…and yet they tell us they need more.

    Truly leaves a disgusting taste in your mouth.

  • jolson

    Good bye 2012 and thanks to the earth and sun for one more successful planetary orbit.
    As for 2013 may you all have many circular adventures.

  • waltyss

    Ah, teririch @121, it’s only the 2nd day of 2013, and you are spreading misinformation already. Now your post demonstrates your hatred of unions or at least public sector unions; that of course is your prerogative and is neither here nor there.
    You say: “public sector unions (currently) have $606 B sitting in retirement funds for their members” Well, no they don’t and while CTV probably didn’t say that, if they did, they were wrong.
    While they vary from province to province and the federal government, public sector pension funds are administered by independent pension corporations. In BC, for example, the BC Pension Corporation which is a crown corporation is set up by provincial statute to administer the pension funds for employees of the province, municipalities, schools, hospitals, colleges and universities, some crown corporations and WorkSafe BC.
    In round numbers an employee contributes about 8% and the employer about 10% of an employee’s salary to the plan, who invests the money and from that money provides pensions for approximately 500, 000 people in this province. There is no maximum on the contributions. They are designed to be self sufficient like CPP but unlike OPP. All of this is determined by statute most of it in this province by Social Credit or Liberal governments.
    By way fo contrast, CPP involves contributions of just short of 5% by each of the employee and the employer to the plan with a maximum contribution salary in 2012 of $50,100
    The Unions have no say and in the public sector are prohibited by section 12 of the Public Service Staff Relations Act from collective bargaining about “all matters included under the Public Service Pension Plan, continued under the Public Sector Pension Plans Act and th epension plan rules made under that plan.
    Both contributions and benefits are determned by that legislation. The legislation applies to both unionized and non union members of those services. A Deputy Minister is non-union but is covered.

    I know of nowhere in Canada where the public sector unions control the public sector pension plans.

    The benefits in BC usually are 2% of average of best 5 years of salary per completed year of service. For example, an employee who earned $50000 for their last 5 years of employment and was employed for 30 years would receive a pension of about $30000 per annum. The maximum CPP is short of $11,000 and most people receive less than the maximum.
    So, teririch:
    -the public sector unions do not cotrol these funds
    -since they do not control them, it is difficult to see how they are through their non control screwing the taxpayer.
    -the benefits are not limited to their members
    -CPP is not comparable since it is based on a much lower contribution and benefit rate. The NDP and federal Liberals have been pressing to increase the contribution and benefit rates for CPP but the Harperites resist.
    What really leaves a disgusting taste in my mouth is ignorance. Since we are in New Years resolution time, might I respectfully suggest that 2013 be a year of getting sound information before sounding off.
    Happy New Year, teri!

  • Threadkiller

    @Waltyss 123:
    Thanks for saying it both more eloquently and more politely than I would have.

  • Maude

    While will this city not throw a good, adult-oriented public NYE party where we can all drink champagne together and celebrate what is to come?

    Will the anti-social, no-fun crowd and regulators continue to dictate the pace of things in 2013?

  • waltyss

    @terrich: to continue with your education:
    First I was wrong, the maximum CPP benefit in 2012 was $11,840 (up to $12,150 in 2013. The average CPP pension is $528.49. Thank your buddy Stephen for not raising it to a decent amount, teri.
    Oh, and with CPP, you do not make contributions on the first $3500.
    Hope its not too many facts to absorb. And, this is just a suggestion, save your disgust for the Harper Tories who are doing precisely nothing to improve the lives of our seniors by enhancing pensions for too many of our old people who do not have adequate pensions rather than feeling disgusted by those who do.

  • spartikus

    Teririch is also forgetting that many private employers offer pension plans. In fact, there is (currently!) $314 billion held in trusted private sector pension fund. This in addition to the $153 billion held by the CPP (which is a form of social insurance) that everyone contributes to and the $740 billion held in Individual Registered Saving Plans that everyone can participate in.

    But I’m sure these too are every bit as mind boggling and disgusting.

  • brilliant

    @waltsyss-I thought you weren’t a union member? Funny, but I’ve yet to hear of anybody who is not intimately involved with the beast to defend the poor public sector unions.

  • waltyss

    @brilliant not. I have decided to be nicer in 2013, even to you. However, there are limits.
    I am not defending the public sector unions; they can take care of themselves. I am defending fact, the truth, if you will. I appreciate it is an alien concept to you and some others. All I can suggest is perseverance and you may get the hang of it.

  • gman

    teririch@
    HNY,I missed the program you refer to but I will say that public sector unions seem oblivious to whats going on in the world.If the shift in world GDP is as was said in the link I posted,going from 80/20 in our favor to 35/65,it will be a grim reality that most of what the unions think they have won over the years will evaporate.As industry shrinks and private sector workers lose income and jobs it will be impossible to make good on all the perks and pensions.We are witnessing this right now in Greece.
    Governments and public sector unions produce no wealth they gain what they do through taxes.We are at a point now where these members incomes and pensions exceed what the average taxpayer gets and the taxpayers are held hostage to pay up by Governments who accept union donations in order to be elected.When this reality sets in Im afraid these people are in for a very rude awakening.
    PS: Im currently looking for a placer claim,Im hoping it will be a satisfying way to spend the rest of my retirement,what the hell I like camping and digging in the dirt anyway.LOL

  • Richard

    @gman

    I suggest watching your video again then doing about two minutes of research.

    The main point it is making is that the GDP of other countries is increasing. It doesn’t seem to be implying that ours will decrease. For Europe and the US, it claims the per capita GDP will be between $90,000 and $100,000 per year. Ours would likely be similar. It currently is around $40,000 per year. A large increase, not a decrease.

    Big difference.

  • waltyss

    @gman. Isn’t the internet grand, you can find whatever online conspiracy theory you want as well as friends to share your biases with.
    Let’s see, Liberals in power since 2001 and legislation on public sector has not changed. Can you point me to any public sector union donations to the BC Liberals? Just asking.
    Federally, Conservatives in power since 2008? and federal Liberals before them. NDP never. I am confident you will not see any union donations to the Harperites. Maybe a few to the Liberals, mostly to the NDP who have never been in power federally.
    However, gman, I am not writing this for you; I am not stupid and realize that you consider facts vastly overrated. This is for those with a(n open) mind.
    Thank you Richard, but as I said……

  • gman

    Richard 136,
    I understand your point but if you take account of cost of living,loss of manufacturing and good paying blue collar jobs, an already shrinking middle class, the inevitable inflation due to the printing of money in the west and on top of these things the loss of 45% of world GDP and an increase in population,although not as great as in the developing countries I find it difficult to be optimistic.
    Now the question is after centuries of exploiting the third world for their resources have the tables turned and now we are to be the exploited….mmmmm.

    Waltys,these are neither a conspiracy nor a theory they are simple facts and if you think unions have no sway with the Government whether by contribution or lobby you are living on another planet.

  • gman

    Waltys@
    I personally would give a hats off to the student who had the where with all to record and post a lecture by one of the most powerful and influential persons in the world,where else would you be able to access these opinions? Certainly not on the MSM.But you seem to equate anything on the internet with some kind of conspiracy.I don’t know about you Waltys but I’m thankful of this medium and being able to access other opinions and truths that will never be on the six o’clock news. By the way Waltys your on the internut now.

  • Mark

    The old farts and bitter hearts can and will moan and groan, predicting our imminent doom and bemoaning the loss of the good old days (that were just maybe not quite so good as memory recalls). But little by little so many are working in their own ways to make our city a better place to live, for all of us.

    Progress is often lurching and slow, fits and starts, and occasionally we slip back, but if you look at the big picture and the long term, things are actually getting better.

    This is a good city in a good country, and I’d just like to extend my gratitude and best wishes to those who are working to make things even better for all of us.

    Happy New Year to all, and best of luck in the days ahead.

    And to the doomsayers and perpetual naysayers, I’d like to leave you the words of a wise fellow, said near the end of his long life:

    “I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008

  • Roger Kemble

    “The old farts, (that’s me),and bitter hearts, (not me: it’s bin fun all the way), can and will moan and groan, predicting our imminent doom and bemoaning the loss of the good old days . . . “ So say Mark @ #140

    Another bloody fool with his head stuffed so far up his fundamental aperture he can’t hear the bells toll for a waterlogged sinking ship full of denialists hoping for the best while the sharks troll.

    I am sure Butler’s Erewhoners felt the same way on their way to nowhere . . . .

  • teririch

    @gman #135:

    Nice to hear back from the person my comment was posted to.

    Took zero time for the ususal suspects to put in their two cents worth.

    The program is well worth watching and it is current – part of a series by Paul Martineau (sp?)

    It was (sadly) interesting to learn about defined benefits, underfunded pensions etc. and well, the costs to the tax payer.

    I’ve ordered the book that was mentioned during the show: ‘Pension Ponzi: How Public Sector Unions are Bankrupting Canada’s Health Care, Education and Your Retirement’.

    As for waltyss assertion that the information is incorrect – I suggest he/she take it up with CTV, and the various economosits (both private and labour involved) that they interviewed through out the doc.

    Placer claims…. looking in Canada or the US? 😀 (I know of a few just up – in both.)

    Now, onto my next little tidbit… an interesting op ended up in my inbox….along with a pic showing Thomas Mulcair and David Eby doing a private gig at ….Joel Solomon’s house….. which beggs the question…. Why are those that are supposedly all about the ‘working people’- hobb knobbing with billionaires – that ‘nasty’ 1% many protested against?

  • Boohoo

    @142

    I know! Because they don’t really care about the little man and are just out to bilk hard working people out of their money so they can ship it offshore or to some American conglomerate who’ll use it to buy up land in Vancouver thereby increasing rents on everyone so gregor can claim we need more housing which of course is just a ruse to have million dollar condos built with some kickbacks for green washing it with wheat fields.

    Am I close? I love these passive aggresive, baseless, insinuation without fact or context questions!

  • waltyss

    @teririch: You just can’t help yourself, can you. I didn’t assert that the information on the CTV show was incorrect. I wrote: ”
    You say: “public sector unions (currently) have $606 B sitting in retirement funds for their members” Well, no they don’t and while CTV probably didn’t say that, if they did, they were wrong.”
    What you again demonstrate and thereby prove my point is that you are an incredibly poor historian of what you hear. In other words, what was said and your interpretation of it are usually universes apart. This is just one more example.
    Anyway, your biases are also known. Certainly, we can guess what the thesis is of “Pension Ponzi: How Public Sector Unions are Bankrupting Canada’s Health Care, Education and Your Retirement”. That may be one case where you don’t actually have to misinterpret to get its drift. Hell, you only have to read the title to get its drift.
    And as for Thomas Mulcair and David Eby meeting with Joel Solomon, I guess Solomon is so sneaky with his wealth that you are the only one that has realized he is a billionaire. Forbes and others seem to have missed this as they never seem to list him on their list of billionaires. Either Solomon cleverly hides his billionaire status or………….it’s just another example of a teririchism: definition: an assertion of facts that are fiction.
    Teririch. I not only wish you a happy new year but here is a respectful suggestion for 2013. Save your money on “Pension Ponzi: How Public Sector Unions are Bankrupting Canada’s Health Care, Education and Your Retirement”. I can give you the bottom line for free: “them public sector unions are f__cking ya big time, yessiree bob.” Now that I have told you how it ends, take the money you have saved and take a course on separating fact from fiction. Your life (and ours) will be immeasurably improved.

  • gman

    teririch#142,
    You say (I know of a few just up – in both.)…arrrg…you didnt fill in the blanks LOL.
    Im a rookie at this and thought it would make for a good hobby or maybe more.Im looking in Canada for now and am searching the caribou on the MTO sight,just trying to get my bearings,wish me luck.
    As far as old king Joel meeting with Eby-Jeeby I would have liked to be a fly on the wall at that little shindig.Makes one wonder how Solomon an ex-pat trust fund baby has so much sway in our politics.What is even more disturbing is how people blindly defend these guys,how could anybody not question whats going on is amazing.

  • waltyss

    gman@145.
    It’s still the new year and so I am confident that you and/or your buddy teri the rich can give me an explanation of what you see as so “disturbing” about Joel Solomon inviting Thomas Muldcair and David Eby to his house.;
    Given the way our political system is structured, political parties need to raise money to run a campaign. The Americans provide an obscene example, ours is more modest but based on the same principal.
    In that process, politicians meet with like minded people to hear their views and solicit money. While despite teri the riches assertions, Solomon is not a billionaire, he has money. His views from what I can gather would be more in line with those of the federal or provincial NDP that with the federal Conservatives or Liberals and certainly the provincial Liberals.
    This goes on all the time. Do you have a problem when Peter Brown, the slimey foul mouthed Chair of Canarim Investments meets witth Christy Clark or Stephen Harper or has them over to his palatial home to meet like minded people and hit them up for money. I can assure you that it goes on all the time.
    So, what is your or teri the rich’s problem? I know you don’t like Joel Solomon’s (or for that matter, Thomas Mulcair or David Eby’s) politics. And that is fair enough and obviously your right.
    But if such a meeting is disturbing, why is it more disturbing than a meeting between Clark or Harper and wealthy business people on the right? Just because your views or teri the rich’s are in line with the right wingers? Hate to tell you that is not a reason.

  • Higgins

    ROTFLMAO!
    Waltyss post at #146, by far the most comical post of 2013!
    Americans, “Charity” money exchangers holding political gatherings in their Canadian homes, and inviting future tools of government for drinks and ideas LOL… nothing wrong with that, right?
    They do that (including future $$$ contributions) from the bottom of their “charitable” hearts.
    People-Are-Not-That-Stupid 🙂

  • Boohoo

    Totally higgins this is all just a ploy to screw over all of Vancouver and its citizens so that multi national American companies can make billions while smoking cigars and laughing.

    Totally.I just love this new energy for 2013.

  • gman

    Waltyss#146,
    Thats deflection on your part Waltyss,the post referred to three specific people and questions what the motives could be.I personally have a problem with this kind of thing no matter who the party is.You try to deflect by inferring because someone else does it its somehow acceptable.But that is neither here nor there,it just shows that you are willing to defend them even though its wrong and you agree its wrong by referring to equally bad behavior by others.
    But you fail to recognize Soloman and his ties to foreign monies and groups that are having an effect on our elections.I would suggest the two are very different. Perhaps you could show us what Solomon has contributed to this country,is he creating any kind of significant employment or is he simply promoting an agenda for foreign NGOs.There is plenty of information available on this subject available but if you refuse to look at it with an open mind you will never understand it.

  • gman

    Waltyss@
    You seem to use the word rich as though its somehow a bad thing.Its what we all want to be, its what we all want for our families,so whats your problem?

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