I always enjoy a good chuckle when people tell me they're not trying to do or say a certain thing while in the same breath doing or saying that very same thing.
"It's not that I'm a NIMBY," one North Vancouver man told me recently, "I just don't want this thing next to my house."
He was completely serious. District councillor Mike Little sounded equally serious the other day when he assured me he didn't want to embarrass Jane Thornthwaite or the B.C. Liberal party, right after having done exactly that.
It's fairly widely known now that Little covets the Liberal nomination in North Vancouver-Seymour, a seat Thornthwaite inconveniently already holds for the Liberals. Perhaps Little really doesn't think it's embarrassing to have a colleague - his word - say you're doing a lousy enough job to warrant replacement.
Of course Thornthwaite is no stranger to embarrassment. As we all know, she was stopped at an RCMP roadblock while on her way home from an Olympic tipple and later charged with impaired driving. The rookie MLA publicly prostrated herself the next day, and vowed to "take full responsibility" for her "inexcusable" actions.
But like anyone with the money for a halfway decent lawyer, full responsibility meant getting the charges knocked down to "driving without due care and attention" and walking away with a slap on the wrist.
An inexcusable lack of attention, apparently.
This isn't necessarily a crushing political blow - right ambassador Campbell? - but it's a burdensome thing to carry around through an election campaign, particularly when your one term as an MLA is - let's be honest here - pretty forgettable.
When we spoke, Thornthwaite questioned whether Liberal rules even allow for a nomination challenge. Well, they do, according to the folks at her party's headquarters. I was a bit surprised Thornthwaite apparently hadn't made that phone call herself. Nevertheless, she told me she had every intention of running again.
Politicians do change their minds, like anyone else. They also sometimes have their minds changed for them by the folks in the proverbial smoke-filled back rooms. Readers may recall that Thornthwaite was a last-minute candidate for the Seymour Liberals after veteran MLA Dan Jarvis bowed out for health reasons. So it's tough to say how much loyalty the riding association will feel towards her.
If she isn't quietly shown the door - and who doesn't want to spend more time with their family? - I'll be interested to see if Little musters the gumption to follow through and challenge her. Party apparatchiks may also tell Little to hold his tongue and wait his turn.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with contesting incumbents for their party's nomination. I for one think it's a sign of a healthy process. In the U.S., primaries are a routine and prominent part of the election cycle, particularly for safe party seats. But it can be a bruising, embarrassing experience, rarely seen in Canadian politics, and I doubt the Liberal faithful will want to see it happen in North Vancouver.
Some more rummaging through my Ambitious Councillors file leads me to Craig Keating, a four-term City of North Vancouver bylawmaker. Keating had no qualms about telling me he would vie for the NDP nod in North Vancouver-Lonsdale if the provincial election was called before the civic one. He also seemed blithely confident he would get it. Local New Democrats could do a lot worse than Keating to carry their orange banner, but if he did get the chance to run and somehow managed to pull out a win, the big loser would be city Mayor Darrell Mussatto.
I expect Mussatto will still be mayor come Christmastime, but a Keating departure would deprive him of an articulate and forceful ally. To be honest, in the years I've watched city council, I'd say Keating argues for the mayor's agenda a good bit better than the mayor himself. Another may step into that role on council, but Keating is also Mussatto's righthand man on several important Metro committees. Metro chairwoman Lois Jackson puts a premium on experience, so she may well look to a longtime Mussatto rival like Rod Clark or Bob Fearnley or to another council entirely when the time comes to fill those seats. Keep in mind Metro is going to spend a ton of your money in the coming years. Losing a seasoned Metro delegate will quiet the city's voice on these issues.
. . .
The city's wrangling over random ballot order ended with a surprise twist. At the very end of the last council meeting before the summer, the random-ordered ballot bylaw, which would have done away with traditional alphabetized ballots in the name of fairness, was on the agenda for final adoption - almost always a formality. But the early-lettered councillors - Pam Bookham, Rod Clark, Bob Fearnley and Guy Heywood - combined to force adjournment and let the bylaw die, meaning it won't be in effect in time for November. True, it was something like halfpast midnight, but the vote would have taken no more than a few seconds. Note that Clark and Bookham twice declared a conflict of interest on random-ordered ballots, but saw no problem with voting it down through a procedural gimmick. Mussatto went so far as to try and call a special council meeting to get it done, but the alphabetalist conspirators refused to show up for it.
balldritt@nsnews.com
