Can anyone shed more light on the hierarchy of the provincial NDP and how it relates to Mayor Fortin and councillor Alto?
Allow me to start the ball rolling and then we may need another thread for this topic.
The NDP have been involved in local politics since they called themselves CCF. They have been active in municipal politics, as well as school board politics. The NDP have a dedicated, efficient, and organized team of volunteers that are trained proffesionals at "getting out the vote."
There appears to be a mind set of using these local arenas to advance the skill set of their potential candidates. Elizabeth Cull is a good example of starting out as a School District #61 trustee and ending up as British Columbia's first female finance minister.
There is also a trend of late to promote well known provincial political figures for local government positions. Gregor Robertson the mayor of Vancouver is a good example of this. David Cubberly, a past NDP MLA and past Saanich councilor has announced his bid for mayor of Saanich this November.
This tight knit group of political minds are capable of taking control of whatever piece of democracy they set their sights on, especially when they receive the backing of the Victoria Labour Council.
How else could a relatively unknown candidate from Saanich win out over better known candidates in a Victoria by election?
If I haven't bored you enough as yet, read the article in the link below and make special note of the comment that Fortin makes when he refers to Alto as bringing a "strong independant voice" to the table.
Perhaps someone who belongs to the NDP party could enlighten us as to how this "independant" ideology works in this setting.
http://www.vancouver...1413/story.html