On the move!
Agh! You’re still here? My new site and weblog, ianking.ca is now up and running; new posts are building up over there, never to be mirrored here. Go! What are you waiting for? All the stuff worth keeping has been migrated over to the new server, and I don’t anticipate making any more posts here.
Bloggers and webmasters: Update your links! Simply replace vancouverscrum.blogspot.com with www.ianking.ca in your blogrolls or bookmarks to point to the new site. Old posts will remain on this server for as long as the people at Blogger/Google allow them to remain; unfortunately, I’m not going to bother to come up with any way of converting permalinks on this blog to their corresponding posts on the new site. Yes, I plead laziness. I also realize the irony of switching away from Blogger just it starts to add features that the demanding blog nerds insist upon.
Thanks for reading and linking, and see you over at ianking.ca!
—Ian King, December 13, 2004
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Longtime Vancouver city councillor George Puil has decided to run for another term on Vancouver city council. The 72-year-old Puil has been on council since 1976, and he has been involved in city politics for forty years.
Puil claims that his experience is necessary for council, as three veteran members have already announced that they will not be running in this fall's elections.
In his annoucenment this morning, Puil said that one of his major priorities for the city is a new rapid trasit route to Vancouver International Airport. Puil also confirmed that the expediting of a new YVR-Downtown transit line would mean that a planned extension of SkyTrain to Coquitlam would have to be put on hold.
Early last year, Puil told Vaughn Palmer on the Shaw Cable show Voice of B.C. that he would have preferred that Skytrain's extension would have been forst to coquitlam, and then the nearly complete Lougheed-Broadway line.
When asked about his change of heart, Puil indicated that Coquitlam's lower priority might be related to the city council's refusal to pass new transit levies in 2001.
Here's an example of how hated Puil was during the 2001 Vancouver transit strike. Before the strike, Puil was being assailed by "taxpayer advocates" who were enraged at the idea of a $75 annual levy on vehicles registered in Greater Vancouver to fund roads and transit.
As odd as it may seem, the attacks on Puil will not damage his re-election prospects too badly. Much of the dislike of the failed car levy came from the suburbs, who will have no say in Puil's re-election. Puil has never been popular with transit riders, whose voting turnout has historically not been very high. However, those voters that do turn out on Vancouver's affluent West Side are creatures of habit, and they have been returning George Puil to city governments for decades.
Puil must clearly believe that he is needed on council. He also still has a passion for the job. He doesn't need the hassle or the public harassment -- last year during the transit strike, some protestors dumped a load of manure on his front lawn. Nor does he need the money. At this point, the only reason that he has to carry on is because he honestly believes in what he is doing.
more later...
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