Election 2004 Van-East Recap

Underbelly of Vancouver
Downtown Eastside

Hi All!

The election is over and after the nastiness, what's next?

Well since we have a minority government, I'd say the chances are pretty strong that we go to the polls within a year. Why is that you ask - well for starters imagine if you can, a room full of mostly middle age testosterone driven suits as they jostle and nag each other. Ah and since politics mirror life, you can use your imagination on what this might look like. In my humble opinion it won't be pretty, in any event, lets see what unfolds.

In the working class riding of Van-East where I reside, the incumbent Libby Davies fended off her challenger Shirley Chan. The pundits predicted a close race but in the end this didn't materialize. Ms Davies who one couldn't imagine being a Material Girl, chose to run a chippy class warfare campaign. Ms Chan left with no other re-course, in response had to remind voters that Ms Davies is a higher income earner who has a number of times used the political system to her advantage. Ms Davies rose to this challenge and leveled unfounded untrue comments that Ms Chan was homophobic and just like Gordon Campbell. And coupled with the fact that voters in Van-East don't much like Gordon Campbell, unfortunately the various brands of Liberal were like a bondage seminar, inexplicably tied together. Ms Chan valiantly tried to remind voters that the provincial liberals are totally different then the federal Liberals, however in the end Ms Chan just couldn't get out from under the various fixations that Ms Davies had planted in the minds of voters, and as the story goes, policy wasn't debated and pretty much everything stays the same. Or will it? Stay tuned..........

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Jamie Lee Hamilton
(604) 781-3361