1678 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Victoria is an NDP town. It's the folks on the left, aka diehard NDP supporters, who feel Helps has emerged as an activist mayor who has her own agenda and not one that she's been given a mandate to further.

 

Remember, she won by the absolute thinnest of margins. The NDP supporters were split between her and Dean, and since Dean dug his grave with the bridge many threw their protest support behind Helps not knowing that her politics would be a severe departure from those of her predecessor.

[nagel]

She certainly says some stupid stuff, and she has made mistakes like Topaz, but I do not agree that she has been a bad mayor for the city.  In fact I think she's doing a pretty good job.

[Mike K.]

Quiet, you non-voter status Saanichianite.

 

j/k

 

It's not just Topaz, nagel. It's also tent city, it's the way businesses have been treated regarding Biketoria, the comment that criminals are desperate not dangerous, it's the Elsner situation, it's the swearing-in ceremony and the unnecessary drama that stemmed from it, it's the gross mishandling of the marijuana dispensaries, it's the lack of foresight into our downtown parking situation, it's the criminal activity on our streets, and its the general sense that if you don't subscribe to the mayor's point of view, you're not afforded a point of view.

 

That's what has individuals upset with the mayor, not just Topaz.

[Baro]

I think a lot of "die hard ndp" dislike her because she isn't officially one of them and part of the official party apparatus, she has some ties to their local mortal enemy, the Green Party.  She displaced Fortin,  who was very much the blessed appointed NPD mayor.

I don't really care for her that much myself,  she's done and said a lot of things that have at worst upset me, at best made me roll my eyes.  But so far, for me anyways, she hasn't come close to doing anything remotely as bad as Fortin (and his council) did during his reign, or some previous mayors.

Edited by Baro, 27 February 2017 - 02:05 PM.

[Mike K.]

So you agree then that for the most part it's not the triggered right that doesn't like Helps, but the unhappy left that doesn't like Helps?

[AllseeingEye]

/\....on top of which she is a long, long way IMO from being in the upper echelon of useless CoV mayors over the last 25-30 years - David "Moonbeam" Turner and Gretchen Brewin pretty much have that mantle locked up.

 

I remember moving to Vancouver in the second year of the Brewin administration and returning to the Rock less than a year before Turner was pitchforked out of office and thinking "wow - absolutely no new development" of significance had seemingly been built during that time. Especially under Turner; it was like time itself had truly stopped in Victoria.

 

Although LH isn't my ideal cup of tea and has certainly made mistakes, OTOH under her (thus far) downtown development in general seems to be cruising along at a pretty decent clip; she hasn't to my knowledge vetoed or voted against any significant proposal during her tenure and in fact seems to be cheerleading many of the current and proposed developments underway or planned. In fact whether by design, or by accident, or purely by the stars aligning it does seem to me at least that since Helps' ascendency to the mayor's office that the Voice of one Mz. Madoff seems to be unusually mute and her influence at least neutralized if not actually diminished; ditto for the fact that Help's doesn't seem at all fazed by Isitt's very clear and (harder) Left agenda. If nothing else those two trends alone are something to be applauded....

[spanky123]

Victoria is an NDP town. It's the folks on the left, aka diehard NDP supporters, who feel Helps has emerged as an activist mayor who has her own agenda and not one that she's been given a mandate to further.

 

Remember, she won by the absolute thinnest of margins. The NDP supporters were split between her and Dean, and since Dean dug his grave with the bridge many threw their protest support behind Helps not knowing that her politics would be a severe departure from those of her predecessor.

 

I think that people of all stripes don't agree with her activist platform and her random pronouncements.

[nerka]

Lots of people were annoyed with Dean Fortin and some of his decisions, particularly the JSB. That is evidenced by the fact that he didn't win in 2014.  Multiple (three) credible challengers should have favoured the incumbent.  Plus there was no crisis or major ethical breach that sank Dean. Nor was he widely personally disliked.

 

It does seem like the frustration with Dean seemed to be more around fiscal incompetence while the frustration with Lisa seems to be more ideological/personal.

 

Hard to say how the homeless situation would have played out with Dean. I am convinced that Dean would also be implementing bike lanes had he been re-elected.

[nagel]

We're just seeing the same people line up on the same sides here as we have for months if not a year and I think you should be careful to not assume there is a massive anti-Helps backlash out there.  Our only moderately decent scope into how voters actually feel about her was the 47% opinion poll, which puts her in line with other area mayors, ahead of Vic Council, and ahead of our own premier who most certainly will be re-elected.

 

Tent city unless you believe in a conspiracy theory was out of her jurisdiction.  The business bike lane thing is totally overblown and in my opinion she should not have even apologized because her staff actually went above and beyond.  I know who they are, what they did, and I don't think they could have done anything else.

 

It is an uphill battle to unseat an incumbent.  We don't make it easier in having good candidates when the mayors (and councillors) make what are inappropriately low wages given the scope of the decision making authority.  I would not take it as a given that she will be under significant threat in November 2018.

[Bingo]

  I would not take it as a given that she will be under significant threat in November 2018.

 

Lots of time yet for some more miscues.

[Baro]

People dislike any politician for a variety of reasons.  I don't always agree with her stances or exact methods of tackling issues, but I never feel like she's doing anything unethical or has some sinister "hidden agenda".  I thought she made her politics pretty clear from day one.  A centre-left pro-development mayor with some green party connections and a lot of well rehearsed correct feel-good but ultimately meaningless progressive language.  That what we seem to have gotten.  I didn't like how tent city was handled but "this is how I'll handle an unexpected massive tent city on provincial land involving dozens of overlapping agencies and weird legal loopholes and back room politics" isn't generally a typical policy politicians spell on in their campaign.  I don't know, I'm next door to the new shelter and a block away from where tent city was and I got a bit worked up over the shelter but as of yet neither impacted me in the slightest so I really don't carry much of a grudge.  

 

 We used to have to fight tooth and nail to just get a minor condo like Juliet approved.  Heck VV formed as a result of that on a fairly single issue.  Now we have a mayor approving 18+ story buildings left and right and she's probably the most hated and criticized here so far. 

 

I know a lot of old-guard ultra-partisan NDP types and they're pretty neutral on her but are always suspicious because she's not one of them.  They might agree with all her policies but, but she's not a card carrying NDP member so whats her game?!  The actual socialists I know are pretty neutral too,  she's just another fairly inoffensive centre-left liberal capitalist who talks about job creation and business profits but it's not like a mayor has any power to flip the hidden switch under city hall labeled "full communism now" so who cares.  The real focused hate seems to be from people who want downtown to be a parking lot with smooth flowing auto-traffic at all times.

[nagel]

Amazing how much she get criticized for her abrasive language by the same people who defend Trump to the nth degree!

[RFS]

i would argue that the distrust of helps you see on this forum is actually a fairly good reflection of the general public. many apolitical co-workers/friends of mine have said stuff about her being out to lunch and how bad she has made things downtown re: drug use and crime (in their opinions). people who probably didnt have an opinion about fortin one way or the other. granted some of these people arent COV residents but then neither is Nagel

[On the Level]

Help is polarizing because her decision process is polarizing.  

 

It's true that you can't keep everyone happy, but I don't see Mayor Helps wanting to represent her citizens that may have a different viewpoint than hers.  Bike infrastructure is a benefit to the city, but that doesn't mean you ignore everyone else.  Housing the mentally ill is a noble goal, but that doesn't mean you ignore the safety and well being of members of you community.  She is quite willing to ignore the needs of citizens and write them off if it doesn't speak to her own personal priorities. 

 

I don't think it's all her though.  How many times have we heard "staff recommend..."?  Who are these staff?  They certainly are not elected and don't see to be accountable to anyone;  

 

Recommending to ban glass from recycling.  

Recommending pot shops sell edible products and where they should be allowed

Recommending a 10 cent bag levy

Recommend killing rail on the bridge

Recommend a storage facility for the homeless

Recommend tent cities established at parks for up to 50 homeless per park 

[Baro]

It comes down to who would run against her.   If it's another official NDP candidate like Fortin we'd probably see that political machine rally behind them but I don't see anyone on that horizon.  If it's a right wing (for victoria's standards) or "pro-business" candidate I don't think they'd stand a chance unless the "left" vote was split between helps and an ndp candidate.  She'd have to do something really bad or scandalous between now and then to get outright voted out.

 

Most of the hate and gnashing of teeth about how horrible things are seem to come from non-victoria residents who depend on their cars to come into town, but those people can't vote for Victoria's mayor.  Most of us also probably have slightly politically filtered social or work circles and listen to different grapevines.  So to some people there's clearly this huge silent majority who are sick of this extreme pro-criminal anti-mobility radical out of city hall, while to other people she clearly has fairly broad support and it's just a little vocal minority of car-addicts and homeless-haters who are worked up against her.

 

What's interesting is how much of a non-issue her total support of seemingly any and all development is.  Pam made her whole political career on it, and it was often the most talked about threat facing the city.  Tall buildings!!  Non-historic architecture!  Human scale!!  Greedy developers!! Those were the hot-button issues and buzzwords.  

[Nparker]

...How many times have we heard "staff recommend..."?  Who are these staff?  They certainly are not elected and don't see to be accountable to anyone...

I suspect staff generally only recommend what their masters want to hear.

[Nparker]

...Tent city - unless you believe in a conspiracy theory - was out of her jurisdiction...

And yet there was this:

[spanky123]

It comes down to who would run against her.   If it's another official NDP candidate like Fortin we'd probably see that political machine rally behind them but I don't see anyone on that horizon.  If it's a right wing (for victoria's standards) or "pro-business" candidate I don't think they'd stand a chance unless the "left" vote was split between helps and an ndp candidate.  She'd have to do something really bad or scandalous between now and then to get outright voted out.

 

Most of the hate and gnashing of teeth about how horrible things are seem to come from non-victoria residents who depend on their cars to come into town, but those people can't vote for Victoria's mayor.  Most of us also probably have slightly politically filtered social or work circles and listen to different grapevines.  So to some people there's clearly this huge silent majority who are sick of this extreme pro-criminal anti-mobility radical out of city hall, while to other people she clearly has fairly broad support and it's just a little vocal minority of car-addicts and homeless-haters who are worked up against her.

 

What's interesting is how much of a non-issue her total support of seemingly any and all development is.  Pam made her whole political career on it, and it was often the most talked about threat facing the city.  Tall buildings!!  Non-historic architecture!  Human scale!!  Greedy developers!! Those were the hot-button issues and buzzwords.  

 

I don't think that Helps has any intention of running again. This is just a stepping stone for her. Her brashness and lack of compromise is just leverage for her next role.

[Nparker]

I don't think that Helps has any intention of running again...

From your lips to her ears...unless of course this emboldens an even scarier element on Council to consider running for mayor, in which case I may make a personal plea to Ms. Helps to run for another term.

[Greg]

For me the jury is still out on Helps.

 

I didn't like the way Tent City was handled. I'd like to see better enforcement of bylaws in the core. I'd like to see more accountability for the money being invested to battle homelessness, addiction and mental illness. But I think it is probably not completely fair to lay all of that at her feet. Some of Tent City was outside of her purview. People on here have suggested that she has guided the police department to not enforce bylaws, but that is mostly speculation. And homelessness is such an intractable problem, that a little grading on the curve is probably required.

 

Bike lanes are an issue that cause some people to get very worked up, but I just don't see how they are that big a deal. I also think the approach to pot shops is wrong, but again, I don't think it is actually destroying the city. Comparing those two issue to the bridge fiasco makes them seem pretty minor.

 

Helps is not inherently anti-business, in the sense that maybe Islitt and Loveday are. She is definitely not anti-development in the manner that say Madoff is. I don't think she has actually been a disaster for the business community or the city's tax revenue coffers.

 

She rubs some people the wrong way. But we could do well worse. We very well might in the next election. 

Edited by Greg, 27 February 2017 - 04:03 PM.