The reliable ally of a tsunami of public protest against a government blunder is, well, if you don’t like this one, we’ve got a new one to make you forget it. Or we’ll repackage our plan, shuffle the ingredients, and rebrand it as a New and Improved product.
Never admit bloody-nosed defeat.
Because local government above all can never be defeated. No party system. No councillor has ability to pass an effective motion of lost confidence in the mayor. Mere members of legislatures and parliaments can only dream of – or deplore – such a guaranteed four years of unassailable power.
Thus, West Vancouver Mayor Mary-Ann Booth smoothly issues an update “to clarify some confusion in the community and inaccurate news reports that council voted to stop the B-Line at Park Royal at the March 11 council meeting. … A final decision on where to stop the B-Line in West Vancouver has not been made.”
True, except for what’s left out. Those “inaccurate news reports” accurately described Booth’s astounding lack of leadership, complacency and unpreparedness for the furious community opposition to arrogant TransLink’s lordly imposition of its cockeyed vision – especially its airy idea of limiting motor traffic to single lanes east and west on Marine Drive past Park Royal in favour of bus-dominated lanes, opposed even by Booth loyalist Coun. Craig Cameron.
A recent email, cited by anti-B-Line organizer Nigel Malkin, from Ray Fung, director of engineering and transportation services: “ … Any segment west of Park Royal means that associated street changes necessary could not be implemented in time for the fall launch, practically resulting in a one-year delay to 2020.”
Malkin has no illusions: “We need people to continue to write to mayor and council and I know the public are getting worn out over this. Our mayor knows this.”
• • •
Speaking of moving on from issues tiring the public, I was determined not to add another scathe to scathing criticisms of Justin Trudeau. But the front page of the current Maclean’s magazine was unprecedented.
Emblazoned in mega-type superimposed on a photo of Sunny Ways: “THE IMPOSTER.”
Not The Incompetent, not The Blunderer, not The Beleageured or whatever, but The Imposter – a term that connotes a calculated, cynical (need I add political?) design to deceive.
A damning indictment. And he’ll lead the Liberals to re-election.
• • •
Agent 84p59cq divulged to me months ago that Nina Leemhuis, WV’s chief administrative officer, would retire 18 months hence – now down to about 14 months.
In my imitation of a reporter role, I asked Leemhuis if that was correct. She didn’t reply. Of course not – that would violate town hall’s personnel privacy rules.
Then-mayor Michael Smith warmly announced Leemhuis’s hiring in November 2013, describing her as “an entrepreneur and business woman … a proven leader with a firm grasp of business (and) a deep understanding of the issues affecting West Vancouver.” Smith’s kind of appointment.
Another well-informed agent, Yp5d8s2, claimed that Leemhuis ran WV more than Smith did – the mayor was frequently at his Hawaii home between council meetings.
• • •
No matter what poet T. S. Eliot wrote slamming April, February and March are often the cruelest months. In particular, some retailers who had a lean Christmas go out of business, but for other reasons too.
Such as three adjoining enterprises leaving because of a cracked cement basement beam probably damaged by water – covered-over underground streams are an old West Van story. Kerrisdale Cameras and manager Derek Bell, whose luxury cars have long given swank to the area, have been together in the 1500-block of Marine for years. The shop closes tomorrow with a customer appreciation day. It’s consolidating with an affiliate location on Lonsdale in North Vancouver.
Neighbouring Japanese restaurant Ki-Isu closes at the end of the month but hopes are it will reopen in about five months in WV. Gifts and antique shop At Home, nearly 30 years at its location, is looking for a new locale, preferably in West Van.
Valetor Cleaners on Bellevue has closed, its epitaph a sad sign proclaiming more than 60 years of service. Several West Van restaurant owners and staff have hung up kitchen aprons. But in contrast, Horseshoe Bay’s tiny Flour bakery recently got a bright renovation.
There’s been a big loss for motorists (you remember them, the people hated by some B-Line environmental extremists). The venerable Dundarave Auto Repair at Marine and 25th, an honest, good-value shop that looked so early-20th century it was used for period film shoots, closed this month. Its customers, I for decades among them, will miss Andy, Mo, Graham and others.
With the earlier closure of a station at 22nd, motorists travelling west or north better fuel up at one of West Van’s four remaining Marine Drive gas stations, between 13th and 17th. Crazily, except for a lone station off the Upper Levels, they’re the last before, wait for it, Squamish – 55-odd kilometers away. Unwitting tourists, like those bound for Whistler, beware.
• • •
Praise beyond words for Graham Harrop’s Vancouver Sun cartoon last Friday on WV’s B-Line – a crippling funny and hugely original take on our solemn issue. Worth a trip to the library if you missed it.
Harrop, a shy genius of the pen, recently created a couple of other collectors’ items impishly spoofing Ottawa’s political theatre over SNC-Lavalin.
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