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Vancouver’s NPA hires the company that helped Toronto’s Rob Ford to victory

September 1st, 2011 · 25 Comments

The Non-Partisan Association, fighting to come from behind, has hired Campaign Research Inc. to help out with the crucial job of voter ID in this election. My Globe story here, but there is lots of interesting reading from back east about CR and its role in the Rob Ford campaign.

This Maclean’s article (which CR proudly links to on its own site) details the strategies of one of the company’s principals, Nick Kouvalis, in that campaign, including his role in the creation of a fictitious Twitter account that played a part in the campaign. Here’s another, from the Toronto Star, which had quite a fractious relationship with the Ford campaign and Kouvalis.

Sadly, the NPA here assures me that Mr. Kouvalis won’t be playing that kind of role in the local campaign. Too bad — it sounds like he’d inject a lot of life into the local battle, which is so far rather boring.

To this point: A news release a day from the NPA camp denouncing Gregor Robertson, with the same three sins (he’s responsible for the riot, he’s wasting money on growing wheat, he’s hiding things from you) recycled over and over. On the other side, blindingly cheery tweets from the mayor’s office about the kudos for some new initiative on open data or electric cars or green-job creation.

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  • Agustin

    Sadly, the NPA here assures me that Mr. Kouvalis won’t be playing that kind of role in the local campaign. Too bad — it sounds like he’d inject a lot of life into the local battle, which is so far rather boring.

    I’d much rather have a boring campaign than a dirty one, even if it means less traffic for blogs and newspapers.

  • Wendy

    Agreed Agustin!

    I would also like to see Vision offer more vision and the Non-Partisan-Association stop being so partisan and start offering solutions rather than partisan sniping.

  • spartikus

    Would it be boring of me to third the sentiment?

  • Baran

    I forth Agustin’s comment. I would trade a bit of content and debate of real issues for all the high school backyard name-calling and the so-called “political” stance.

  • Gerry McGuire

    Why don’t we let the Mayor speak for himself…

  • Todd Sieling

    Totally agreed, Agustin. Elections aren’t entertainment except to dull minds.

  • Bill

    I thought it was enlightening that Vision views “common sense” as strictly a “neo con” concept.

  • Bill Lee

    I would prefer civic elections every year as they were a few decades ago. vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/election_systems/chapter1.html

    And wards and secession referenda.

    Local issues at the civic level tend to be more important that provincial issues to the average citizen.

    Meanwhile: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2011/08/15/u-k-riots-global-class-war/

  • mezzanine

    Bike lanes!

  • bc bud

    Is it possible the NPA could be wiped out altogether?? With such an underwhelming slate of retreads and resume challenged newbies, a Flip Flopper at the top of the slate, 20 points behind in the polls, carrying the baggage of the last two failed NPA regimes, it could happen ….

  • Mira

    bc bud
    Re. No Vision vancouver…
    rats on a sunken ship will always bunk together ain’t so?
    Your predictions are based on exactly what? Vision Vancouver is by far the biggest disappointment in municipal politics that I’ve seen in my lifetime!
    Corrupt, with no plan, no solution other than a prefab agenda full of green crap. No substance, no care for the public dough just a total complete utter incompetence on the line!
    Spin bc bud, spin!

  • EastVanEd

    Why doesn’t Vision hire Danny Fontaine to coordinate the forthcoming NPA bid for City Hall? Then they would see the NPA wiped out forever.

  • Everyman

    @ Gerry McGuire 5
    Thanks for posting that. Sadly another episode of the Gregor and Penny Gong Show. A total affront to democracy.

  • Bobbie Bees

    Yeah, any company that helped the Ding-Dong Monster get elected in Toronto should be non-welcome out here. Can you imagine someone as pig headed and ignorant as Rob Ford being elected out here in Vancouver? Who’s Margaret Atwood, indeed.

  • brilliant

    Bobbie Bees, isn’t this the point you’re supposed to point out how it was only worthless, sub-human suburbanites that elected Rob Ford and how fortunate we are that Vancouver’s green purity isn’t sullied by such lower life forms?

  • Bobbie Bees

    No Brilliant, the point that I’m trying to make is that Rob Ford on his own couldn’t get elected mayor if he tried. It took a P.R. firm to spin him lack of substance into a “good ol’ boy”. Flipping off a six year old girl because got chastised for yaking on a cellphone while driving. Classy all the way. Telling cyclists that they don’t belong on the road ( who cares what the motor vehicle act says, eh?) and that they should be on the sidewalks (HUH?!?!). Telling cyclists that if they get hit by cars it’s their own damn fault. Excuse me?
    He wants to get rid of car congestion by eliminating street cars, reducing bus service, widening streets and putting more on street parking? Yeah, the guy is a brain storming genius all right. He latches onto pie in the sky fantasies and sells them to commuters knowing that this is the easy way to the cheap vote.

  • IanS

    “Can you imagine someone as pig headed and ignorant as Rob Ford being elected out here in Vancouver? ”

    Yes.

    (or)

    I don’t have to.

  • Max

    @Bobbie Bees #16:

    You forget under the guiding hand of Joel Solomon, Robertson and VV had their own hired gun PR firm to do the exact same thing.

    One of the more interesting differences is how monies flowed through to VV and Robertson: From the National Post, Nov, 2010:

    …’Mr. Solomon, the man with the plan to use his skills in a way that would leverage business and politics toward the “common good” was, by reported accounts, influential in persuading Mr. Robertson to enter politics, first as an NDP MLA and later, in 2008, to run for the leadership of the newly formed Vision Vancouver party. Some of the biggest donors to both Vision Vancouver and Mr. Robertson have come from Mr. Solomon’s circle. Michael Magee’s Convergence Communications, which consults to both Tides and Renewal, sent $28,000 to Vision Vancouver to help it pay off its $350,000 debt prior to the 2008 election; Mr. Solomon’s Renewal sent $10,000; and Strategic Communications, one of Renewal Partner’s investment recipients, sent $48,000 (Strategic Communications’ founder, Bob Penner, has also been brought on as an advisor to the mayor). A Vancouver Sun analysis found that in the lead-up to the 2008 election, won by Mr. Robertson, more than $330,000 of the $1.4 million raised by Vision came from people and organizations affiliated directly with Mr. Solomon or his businesses.

    And aside from the developers and unions being heavy donators to Robertson’s campaign :

    The single biggest donor across Metro Vancouver was the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which, through various locals, made 104 contributions totalling nearly $700,000. CUPE, which represents many people who work for city government, accounts for nearly one in ten dollars given to municipal candidates.

    The most generous developers and construction companies include BFW Developments and Progressive Construction (which have common ownership) at nearly $82,000, Concord Pacific at more than $77,000, and Burke Mountain and Wesbild at almost $44,000.

    (STIR payback anyone?)

    ****************

    – there were MANY rich Aemricans and again friend’s of Solomon’s:

    In all, Vision spent nearly $2 million on its campaign, a record expenditure for the city of Vancouver, official population 600,000. Several donors to Mr. Robertson’s own nomination campaign were Americans, including Oprah’s “healthy living” expert Dr. Andrew Weil (an acquaintance of Mr. Solomon’s and a favourite Hollyhock speaker) who gave between $1,000 and $1,999, according to Vision Vancouver’s election filings; heirs to Roy A. Hunt’s Alcoa fortune (the Hunt-Badiners gave between $500 and $999); Richard Perl, a New York recycling executive and advisor to Renewal ($500 and $999); Mark Deutschmann, head of a Tennessee realty company backed by Renewal money (between $1,000 and $1,999); and organic yogurt magnate Gary Hirshberg, a Hollyhock regular (he gave between $2,000 and $4,999), who told the Sun he believed a Robertson-led Vancouver was an ideal “incubator” for conservation concepts that could eventually be spread to other cities.

  • Adele Chow

    This is proof of the NPA`s right-wing agenda to destroy progressive and sustainable civic politics that make a city liveable. Shame on them for involving these outsiders in our civic election.

  • brilliant

    Oh Adele, you’re a caution! Would those be the same kind of outsiders as every Visionista’s favourite sugardaddy, American Joel Solomon?

    Best stick to helping George steal Gabriel Yiu’s nomination. Mr. Yiu got a lot of valuable exposure in the anti-HST victory after all.

  • Adele Chow

    Brilliant, you like Rob Ford’s policies? NPA will do the same here.

  • Max

    @brilliant #20:

    Adele Chow is not capable nor willing of doing any research on the tentacles of Vision/Robertson/Solomon/Renewal/Endswell & TIDES

    Here I will help you, take two minutes and read up on what and who you are supporting:

    http://newstalkcanada.com/tides-foundation/

    George Chow has already jumped ship – perhaps he sees the writing on the wall come Novembers.

    There are ‘whispers’ that Visionistas, see it too.

  • Bobbie Bees

    I wonder how city council will look after the election with absolutely no NPA members. The city won’t soon forget Sam’s strike, or Sam the crack buyin’ man. I can’t think of anything lower than a serving mayor actually buying drugs for someone and then watching them smoke it “for research purposes”. That’s what the NPA party will always mean to me.

  • Max

    @Bobbie Bees #23

    If anyone gets wiped clean this term – I am guessing COPE – the Greens will take care of that. Too bad the BCTF came and boosted up failing numbers. Now you have those people that did not vote for the Vision/COPE alliance along with the Greens that totally denounced it, and I suspect others that felt ‘no choice’ will go to the Greens as well.

    As for the NPA, you hang tight on to under estimating them. There are a lot of Vision 2008 supporters that will not be supporting certain council members or Vision this go around. Vision – dust off your resumes – no one is exempt. (But I have a personal list of who I think will not make this go around) Chow was one, but he saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship early.

    One more, I am sad to see the Mayor hang the VPD out to dry on on the riot issue….more disenfranchised voters…. and that ‘group’ is growing.

    Remind me of how many WEN Group signed the now STIR petition that the Mayor and council railroaded over????

    What was that number? 10 – 11 thousand???

  • Bobbie Bees

    Yeah, but it’s just too bad Max that everyone I know of who’s just as pissed off at Vision/Cope are sure as hell not going to vote for NPA under any circumstance.
    Sam, the drug buying mayor, James Green, Sam’s Strike, etc….. They’re all still to fresh in our minds.
    So as much as I’d love to toss Gregor to the curb and throw Jasper into English bay, under no circumstance will I vote for NPA.