Not quite as visceral as the letters asking you for money to prevent wild animals from getting caught in leghold traps, but almost.
This is the pitch to the faithful from NPA fundraising chair Rob Macdonald for the party’s planned $2.4-million campaign.
RE: Gregor’s Teflon Coating and Strange Leadership Style is Wearing Very Thin
I have never witnessed a civic government quite like the one we have now in the City of Vancouver. When one looks at the record of Gregor Robertson and the Vision/Cope alliance, the litany of poor governance is quite shocking:
· Complete mismanagement of the Olympic Village file where we now have the most expensive social housing in North America at $600,000 per door, coupled with a staggering loss of taxpayer’s money, in the $100 million range, due in good part to things said directly by Gregor Robertson that damaged the value of the property;
· The backyard chicken coop economic strategy;
· Horribly designed, multi-million dollar “temporary” bike lanes that have created substantial harm to the downtown business community that were literally rammed into place without honest consultation. This was followed by an impact study that city staff proceeded to tamper with and delay;
· A new “housing strategy” that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, all so you can pay someone else’s rent;
· Out-of-control property taxes on small business, that are crushing people out of business and throwing people out of work;
· Lack of accountability over the Stanley Cup riot where Gregor, as chief cheerleader of large downtown view sites, invited over 150,000 people downtown and then forgot to increase the police budget;
· A half-baked, radical green-agenda that lacks environmental good sense;
· Parks and City boulevards that are going unkempt and uncut while we fund various goofy social engineering projects like taxpayer funded wheat fields;
· Ignoring the basic and important work of local government while civic employee morale drops to an all-time low;
· And the list goes on, and on, and on.
In our quest for a progressive and vibrant Vancouver, we cannot afford or sustain this kind if ineptitude.
Enough is enough.
Like a growing number of Vancouverites, I believe it’s time for a change that puts common sense back into our local government. It’s the reason I have decided to help raise money for this year’s civic election campaign in support of the NPA Party.
The NPA Team is being led by my long-time friend Suzanne Anton who, as both a former Crown Prosecutor and an expert in plain old mathematics, will bring both integrity and financial responsibility back to City Hall. You can review the whole NPA Team of candidates on the website www.npavancouver.ca. As a group, the NPA Team of business-like individuals offers a highly credible alternative to the existing City Council who have really let the citizens of Vancouver down.
As someone involved in the development business, you will be asked and expected to give a donation to the Vision party. What I would like you to carefully consider before you do that, is to take into account Vision’s support for activities taking place in the planning department that are horribly misguided. Attacking private property rights and effectively charging income taxes on the development community, when statutorily prohibited from doing so, is wrong. Strong arming money from people and then having them sign a “voluntary contribution agreement” is wrong. Playing favourites and threatening your livelihood if you don’t “play ball” is wrong. If we support this kind of behaviour with a political donation to the Vision party, basically out of fear of reprisal, then what does that say about us? Supporting the political process is one thing, but supporting plainly bad government, that does not understand the difference between right and wrong is another. Our democracy and our City deserve better.
The NPA has assembled an incredible team of professionals to run the election campaign and we have a $2.4 million budget for the campaign operations. As the NPA Campaign Fundraising Chairman, I really hope I can count on you for financial support. Cheques should be made payable to “Vancouver NPA 2011 CAMPAIGN” and may be sent in care of myself at [business address].
I would be happy to get together with you personally to discuss the campaign as your support is integral to restoring common sense government to the City of Vancouver, and you can call me anytime at [personal cell number]. In addition, I would appreciate it if you would forward this correspondence on to any of your friends and particularly your professional advisors and contractors who you think might support a much needed change at City Hall.
At the end of the day, if we do not have good government, we have nothing.
Yours sincerely,
Robert J. Macdonald
Fundraising Chair
NPA 2011 Campaign