Who the F#@K is Peter Ladner?

I liked this. A simple, quick FYI.

I wouldn't mind an unbiased rundown on the rest of the notables. :)

Ladner is my favourite NPA councillor. He blogs on his website (but doesn't allow comments) and has fairly good ideas (he's championed bike sharing and lane housing). However, he lost a lot my respect when he flip-flopped and helped kill the bike-lanes on the Burrard Bridge. He's also voted for all the bad NPA ideas over the past 3 years.

This might be a rumour but I've heard me and Pete share an interest.

I've also heard that rumour...

weak.

A thinly veiled attempt to characterize the man based on innuendo about privilege and family background. Seems to me similar hackery was employed, albeit diametrically, using the poor-kid-East-Side-underdog-fought-his-way-up-from-nothing-so-we-should-vote-for-him to sell the city on Sam Sullivan.

I prefer to vote on issues.

I think this is more than fair. This is his background. Now, can you name an issue he has championed for the city in any way, shape, or form in his 6 years on Council? Hmmmm? Or how about any issue he's disagreed with Sullivan about, except, of course, who's the "best man" for the job of leading the NPA?

I don't like to be a hater, but this hardly accounts as anything more than a 5 minute coffee break write-up. Did you consider contacting the man at all? What are his policies? What has he voted for in the past?

Even if we live in the age of attention deficit, I would hardly consider this an acceptable Coles Notes.

For those of you that are interested in the candidates I found some videos on a local video news site. www.vancouveriam.com....
for Peter,
http://www.vancouveriam.com/videos/31c42f97214f and
for Gregor,
http://www.vancouveriam.com/videos/dc148eb0ba17

well, its a cheap shot..

It'd be easy to toss similar innuendos about Gregor, I mean really - wealthy kid from North Shore spent a couple of years sailing around the world and has the money to buy an organic farm in Greater Vancouver by the time he's 25? How's that work??

Frankly - if you wanna break it down :

Ladner has spent two terms on city council, know the issues and how 'it works' and obviously has a pretty good sense of the business community (which like it or not drives our economy)

Robertson has spent 3 1/2 years as an MLA opposition party backbencher before he bailed, leaving taxpayers on the hook for a $500,000 bi-election

For me personally though - its all about fixing the DTES.
Gregor's NDP masters have long championed ghettoizing the DTES - starting with when they dumped all the mentally ill in the DTES in the late nineties. Gregor is NDP and reading his platform - it looks like more of the same .. no thanks.

I think Ladner's is the better plan
http://www.peterladner.ca/peter_vs_sam.php

This is a very good question.

I know him personally.

There's lots that people don't know about him and naturally end up making assumptions. All this silver spoon talk is total BS. Did he grow up in a wealthy establishment family? Yes. But then what? He’s not affected by this circumstance like the silver spoon statement connotes. He and his siblings all sort of rebelled against the establishment in their own little ways. His mother lead the charge on this, her inquisitive nature and creativity encouraged them to find their own way. (There was no nanny at the Ladner home and his mom made most of her own clothes herself). Peter’s more of a hippie than he is a west side snob.

He's a fairly humble and creative guy with firm hand when common sense dictates it. I would suggest that Sam's leadership and vindictive style (see "step on throat") ruled out acting against dear leader in the last term.

Peter's leadership style differs from Sam's. He's more of a collaborator and willing to let other people's good ideas run. He's not a dick, I think people once again assume that because he can be a bit aloof.

That's a pretty rosy summary, but honestly I don't have much bad to say about him. I think he'd a be a good mayor if he can stand up to the partisan politics that has paralyzed council for the last decade.

I'm no BNPA fan, but he has said he'll put the Non-Partisan back in Non-Partisan and I plan to hold him accountable to that.

Peter's interests have always been in Vancouver civic issues (see his CV). Vancouver just recently elected a celebrity mayor. (I had high hopes for Mayor Lar) With the problems that the city is currently facing, the last thing we need right now is someone using the mayor's office as a stepping stone to the Premier's.

Point taken Jerry but don't forget this is the NPA we're dealing with. The eastside's back is full of their knives.
I'll believe they're really concerned with getting things straightened out when they're opening rehab beds/meth clinics/shelters anywhere west of Main and south of Broadway.

scott,

well - these are politicians we are talking about - the ALL thrive on broken promises..

Knives in the back of the East Side?? Let's not forget that Vision had control of the city in the term prior to Sam.. they had their chance - and all we got was further concentration of the Poverty Industry here in the DTES.. complete with sweetheart deals for their buddies, one of the four pillars - oh and the Olympics..

And then there's the NDP, they've had this riding for decades and they done nothing to keep the DTES from ghettoizing. In FACT if you read Libby Davis' forward to PIVOT's "Hope In Shadows" - she actually advocates ghettoizing the DTES and eschews "mixed communities". It was the provincial NDP that emptied Riverview onto the DTES, sure the Liberals haven't fixed it - but Harcourt/Clarks government started it. Business in the DTES withered and died under NDP's watch.

Frankly, I expect the same from Gregor and the NDP ( err... VISION, sorry.. my bad. they're not the same party at all ) Check his platform - there's nothing about revitalizing business in the DTES.

I don't trust any of the politicians, but I sure appreciate Ladner's lip service of at least acknowledging the needs down here beyond SROs and shelter beds and safe injection sites.

theinbetween:

I don't like to be a hater, but this hardly accounts as anything more than a 5 minute coffee break write-up. Did you consider contacting the man at all? What are his policies? What has he voted for in the past?

Even if we live in the age of attention deficit, I would hardly consider this an acceptable Coles Notes.

For those of you that are interested in the candidates I found some videos on a local video news site. www.vancouveriam.com....
for Peter,
http://www.vancouveriam.com/videos/31c42f97214f and
for Gregor,
http://www.vancouveriam.com/videos/dc148eb0ba17

Patience, young padawon. Into deeper issues, I will go later.

I've seen Ladner in action at council more than once over the years and the first and most persistent thing I noticed about him is that he's a nasty sonofabitch. Mean, personal, venal - your classic asshole politician. Think Jim Green, but right-wing.

A great piece by Frances Bula in this month's Vancouver magazine lends excellent balance and insight to Peter and Gregor's backgrounds: http://www.vanmag.com/articles/08sept/Urbanfix.shtml

Here is more about Peter Ladner.

http://ezvancouver.com/2008/11/09/vancouver-city-hall-secretly-lends-100m-of-taxpayer’s-money-to-olympic-developer-with-bad-credit/