Thursday, July 10, 2008

DAVID EBY to ANNOUNCE

Oldtown News
Vancouver, BC



DAVID EBY to ANNOUNCE

It is now confirmed that Pivot staff lawyer David Eby is set to announce his plans to seek a City Council spot this November. Mr Eby will formally announce his intention in front of the Carnegie Centre this morning at 10am.

Just a short while back in March, Mr Eby announced he would not run in this election. He stated this was not the right time for him for personal reasons. Will be interesting to hear his reasoning just a short four months later how that time has suddenly changed and now become the right time to run.

Mr Eby has chosen to seek a Vision nomination and his stated reasons of seeking an endorsement from Vision and not COPE is that Vision will attract more votes from across the city. He further states he wants to be part of a governing party.

It is interesting that Mr Eby participated as a featured speaker in many housing forums COPE hosted so this must feel like a slap across the face to COPE especially coming from someone they believed was supportive of their party and platform.

With this announcement by Mr Eby and with the just recently announced candidates for Vision and with Councillor George Chow claiming he probably will not run in the next election, Vision appears to be heading toward a campaign where potentially most of its slate will be non-ethnic. In other terms a very white group.

This may lead to the perception that Vision is a party of white folks and sends the message that our diverse ethnic populations will not feel comfortable in Vision. It doesn't help that the Vision executive lacks faces from the multi-cultural communities.

It is quite possible that the NPA under Mayor Peter Ladner could be the big-tent umbrella where many citizens from our multi-cultural communities find a home and park their votes.

Jamie Lee Hamilton
tricia_foxx@yahoo.com