One thing I noticed working on, campaign managing and running in elections in Windsor, Saanich, Victoria and North Van the results always sort people in four groups. The plateaus define the groups. In the CNV, last time, there was 19 candidates running for six Council positions. There are couple of "things that should make you go Hmmm.." Amanda Nichol received the most union donations of someone who ran for a councillor seat. In fact, unions covered most of her spending, over 80%. Craig Keating, already been nominated for the provincial NDP campaign didn't receive as much from the unions as Amanda did. Linda Buchanan, an HEU union member didn't get as union money as Amanda did. Hmmm.
Amanda is a dues paying full member of CUPE 389, the city hall union through her employment by the Rec Commission. There is a law that requires that a candidate go on a leave of absence until after the election but the Chief Electoral Officer (the old City Clerk) did not require that of her as she interpreted anyone who worked for an organization like the Rec Commission or the Library as not actually being City employees so not required to take a Leave of Absence. There is no appeal of rulings like this but there will be when Elections BC gains oversight power this spring. If a CUPE 389 member were not required to take a leave, they would not be legally required to resign their employment and thus union membership if elected to Council. That is a very serious matter.
First, there is what I call Category 1 candidates.
Expenses Union Donations Rec'd Developer Donation Rec'd
Don Bell 3901 $13,179.51 0 0
Linda Buchanan 3790 $14,692.76 $1650 $3300
Craig Keating 3642 $15,438.24 $2950 $2650
Rod Clark 3106 $6,208.38 0 0
Pam Bookham 2986 $7,297.26 0 0
Guy Heywood 2792 $9,067.00 0 0
Cheryl Leia 2626 $11,149.53 $2,050 $4050
Bob Fearnley 2397 $6,645.59 0 $1000
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Plateau 1/2 674 votes
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Second, there is the Category 2 candidates.
Juliana Buitenhuis 1885 $10,765.36 $2150 $500
Amanda Nichol 1723 $5,558.82 $4600 0
Yashar Khalighi 1454 $17,626.74 0 0
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Plateau 2/3 504 votes
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Third, there are the Category 3 candidates.
Elizabeth Foder 950 $4,898 0 0
Bill Duncan 805 $2379.75 0 0
Glen Miller 779 $4033.13 0 0
Joe Heilman 754 $1253.94 0 0
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Plateau 3/4 475 votes
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Finally there is the Category 4 candidates.
John Hutchinson 379 $0
Ron Sostad 272 $0
Carson Polly 250 $250
Behgam Rabbini 239 $0
My larger spreadsheet has lines on it as whether they did newspaper ads, did mass mailouts, had leaflets at all candidate's meetings and whether they ran as a slate or were endorsed by one. I want to do a larger piece on slates prior a predication blog as really it is the slates that drive the candidate recruitment.
Look at the money spent and you can see how it influences candidates, it's not just that about $5000 is required for a run, it's if you don't have the level of funding to buy some kind of mailout, ads, you'll end up in Group 3 or 4. Council just passed a policy asking candidates to refuse donations from unions and developers but was this just a political tactic to defund opponents? Voices endorsed Rod Clark in 2008 when he accepted a large union donation and Amanda Nichol (who spoke for the motion at during public input to Council) when she accepted a large union donation in 2011. Since they believe that such donations corrupt members of Council, one wonders why they accepted them in the past. One wonders why they kept it secret until after the election so voters could cast their vote with this knowledge.
Back to the groupings,of course, Elizabeth spent close to $5000 but finished in Group 3, the top of it though. Yashar did get in group 2 but spend more than anything other candidate. Really only the top nine people did newspaper ads and mass mailings. What about the slates? Elizabeth got an endorsement from Voices, spent a decent amount, ran on a serious platform rather the lightweight "show the flag" drivel. Why did she not finish in Group 2 or higher? Let's look at the slates.
Don Bell Voices endorsed and Union endorsed (but no funding)
Linda Buchanan NDP slate and Union slate
Craig Keating NDP slate and Union slate
Rod Clark Voices slate
Pam Bookham Voices slate
Guy Heywood Voices endorsed
Cheryl Leia NDP and Union slate
Bob Fearnley Ind
Juliana Buitenhuis NDP slate
Amanda Nichol Voices slate and Union slate
Yashar Khalighi Ind
Elizabeth Fodor Voices endorsed
I refer to the NDP slate when some in Voices are NDP as well. It could be referred to as official NDP slate or the Mayor's slate. Voices has been around for about 8 years, maybe longer since that's when I moved to NVan and noticed them. Different names but they put an "approved voting" ad in the North Shore News the day before EDay. I like to think of the two groups and Council in parliamentary terms. Mussatto was elected Mayor in 2005 but has had a minority govt so far.
Voices is really the political or electoral arm of Community Associations. Pam was President of the Grand Blvd Assn, Ivan when he ran in 2008 was the head of the Lonsdale Citizen's Assn and Amanda now in the NV South Slope Community Assn now. The Voices brain trust feels that 6 people must be on their list so that votes don't migrate to the other slate so they endorse the loose Federal Liberal slate of Heywood and Bell. Fearnley used to be on the Voices endorsements as part of the Federal Lib group but Voices dropped him and he lost the election.
So why the Voices slate and Voices endorsed distinction? Those on the Voices slate were on it from the start, those endorsed are added in later to fill out the slate and are not even asked. Voices never registered as a political party but at least as a third party electoral group since they spend money and collect donations. Registered in 2011 but in 2008 they were taken to task by the Chief Electoral Officer for violating the electoral law.
In the inside baseball world of the Council Chambers, wannabe candidates are maneuvering on the field to who will be on the ballot in a year. We have the Mayor's NDP slate, the Voices NDP slate perhaps they will include the Federal Liberal sub-slate or perhaps they will be somewhat independent or more focused on their main objective, Andrew Saxton. For the first time in North Van, a legally registered Electoral Organization has emerged with their party name on the ballot. It's safe to say all the next Councillors will come from these groups.
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