Christmas is not cancelled in the City of North Vancouver.
The foes of holly seemed to win a skirmish over the season to be jolly when the Lower Lonsdale Business Association bowed out of organizing the Christmas Festival at the shipyards. However, less than two weeks later, Twilight Markets, known for organizing summer night markets, stepped into the void.
"It will be a lot more elaborate and it'll be over a whole weekend," said Twilight Markets market manager Ingrid Doerr.
The venue for the festival may also move, she said.
"While I was all depressed, I thought it was done, it turns out staff was able to work with (Twilight Markets)," said Mayor Darrell Mussatto.
Twilight Markets is also slated to replace summer music festival Party at the Pier with free entertainment Saturdays during July and August.
Despite organizing the Christmas festival for the last two years and the Party at the Pier since 2008, the LLBA stepped back from both events recently - citing a strained working relationship with City of North Vancouver council.
"Those festivals, which the city had designated as its two annual signature civic events, are now dead," said Doug Ausman, director of the LLBA.
Both events generally draw about 12,000 revellers to the shipyards.
The association decided to drop out of both festivals following a January council meeting that ended with plans for a Lower Lonsdale Business Improvement Area being scuttled by council. That scuttling was spearheaded by mayoralty candidate and frequent council-watcher Kerry Morris, who blasted the BIA as taxation without representation.
Morris produced a petition bearing the signatures of 142 Lower Lonsdale merchants opposed to the BIA.
"They say 'Party at the Pier? Our place is like a morgue. You could shoot a gun through here and you'd only kill business owners,'" he said.
That assertion is false, according to Ausman, who said area restaurants were busy and the quay food court was packed during Party at the Pier.
"One of the quay merchants - not located in the food court - (said) that he had his busiest day ever. Again, the speaker got it wrong," Ausman said.
Morris' petition of 142 names is insignificant when measured against the 850 merchants and commercial property owners who operate in Lower Lonsdale, according to Ausman.
"Their math defies my logic as a professional accountant," he said.
Ausman noted at least one of the merchants on the petition stated he was pressured to sign by his landlord.
The vast majority of business owners and operators willingly signed the petition, according to Morris. "He suggests in his presentation that people were forced or coerced or misled in order to acquire signatures. .. nothing could be further from the truth," Morris said.
Calling Ausman's presentation "disingenuous," Morris suggested there may have been an ulterior motive. "They went there to stick me with the blame," he said.
