ONE of the special delights of delivering the news by writing it down on paper and trucking it around the city the following day is that occasionally stuff happens in between the writing and the trucking.
Stuff like elections. I'm in the slightly awkward spot of writing about a civic vote that hasn't happened as I write this, but will have happened by the time these papers arrive at your doorstep. So I honestly don't know who'll win the election, but you do.
Still, I can't exactly ignore it. What I can say is that a campaign many expected to be a snoozer actually turned out to be a pretty engaging contest.
This was helped no end by the fact that both North Vancouver mayors actually had to compete. I try not to stray across the Capilano River too often in this column, but it continues to amaze me that not a single person in West Vancouver was willing to have a go. You'd think in a community with no shortage of affluent, educated folks dissatisfied about their taxes, someone would step up and make it a race.
It was also interesting that none of the North Van challengers were sitting councillors, the usual springboard to the mayoralty. This definitely isn't a hard-and-fast rule, but you'd think it does help to have some idea about the workings of council, and of the government machine as a whole, before you step up to the big chair.
While all but one North Vancouver councillor did seek reelection, it was good to see a wide range of other hopefuls, including nurses, actors, students, and plenty of first-timers. Particularly in the city, the huge field was heartening for democrats, if a little unwieldy at all-candidates meetings. Hats off in particular to the Grand Boulevard Ridgeway Residents Association for pulling off another great debate under trying circumstances.
I had the privilege of comoderating an all-candidates mayoralty debate at the Pinnacle Hotel last week, and as it got rolling, I realized we were actually having a debate.
District candidate Margie Goodman, who exhorted North Shore News readers not to vote for her, was surprisingly well prepared. She isn't the polished speaker that Richard Walton is, but she did have answers to questions. I'm guessing her "I only bought some Post-it Notes" campaign boast might have won her a handful of votes.
On the city side, I thought Chris Nichols and George Pringle, who struggled a bit in earlier debates, were both quite effective. Pringle made the interesting choice to directly criticize Darrell Mussatto, accusing him of running on the "myth" of strong leadership and being a nice guy. Mussatto wouldn't take the bait.
Candidate Ron Polly has taken this newspaper to task - rightly - for a careless line in an editorial that said there weren't any "credible" challengers in the city. That evening proved Polly correct. Pringle, to his credit, did go out on a limb to separate himself from the pack, with his unabashed support for amalgamation and his ludicrous suggestion that every official community plan amendment should trigger a referendum. Those old Reformers, they love their direct democracy.
I was impressed by Polly. I think running for mayor was probably a bit of a reach, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in some kind of public office in the coming years. At a basic level, the man can speak well on his feet, which is kind of a core skill in a politician. He's got ideas and principles and he sure wasn't afraid to pass them on to the North Shore News. His son Carson also ran for council and while I thought the father/son thing was a bit gimmicky at first, I actually thought Polly the Younger acquitted himself quite well at the debates. We do need more young people in politics and hey, here they are.
Amalgamation continues to be the topic on everyone's lips. Perhaps this is the term the two councils move on it. But I'm sure I could find the same sage observation from a North Shore News columnist decades ago. We'll see.
So we've got a couple of new councils, facing pressing issues like density and taxation - and maybe they'll get round to amalgamation too. But one thing I do know today is that we'll have at least one new face in the city. It's a shame Mary Trentadue didn't try for re-election, as I thought she did bring something different to the table and was really finding her feet in the last year of her term.
Hopefully a new, or newish, city council will reset the tone in chambers and heal some election wounds.
The last three city council meetings I've been to have ended with raised voices and some nasty accusations. It's been a divided council from the get-go, but hopefully a new mandate will calm everyone down a little.
