| Commentary |
| Commentary |
| A clear majority of respondents in the city of Vancouver approve of and support Vancouver’s newly crafted mayor of the new Millenium—Gregor Robertson—whose massive challenges in particular relating to his push for an emergency sitting of the BC Legislature to essentially change the legal relationship between the province and the cities—and to secure financing for the Olympic athletes village. |
| A clear majority are backing Vancouver’s mayor—in this historical and unprecedented setting where practical necessity and part desperation may be forcing political actors to make such bold moves. |
| With Prime Minister Stephen Harper and BC Premier Gordon Campbell looking spry and skippy over some fairly enormous developments---the excitement of these photo-ops and grand plans is tainted by the lack of vigour behind the commencement dates. Show me don’t tell me is what I am saying. |
| In this ROBBINS poll a far interesting political drama is being skirted. The provincial Liberals need to get past the gutter embarrassment of this Olympic debacle, the absolute (and as these respondents are saying in chorus even after they answered “Yes”) ---is that either “they expected this was coming” or worse “I never wanted those damn Olympics in the first place.” |
| There was however a steady stream of men and women who simply answered “Yes”—this group behind Gregor Robertson’s nouveau policy of Libertarian democratic ideas is rubbing off- better yet--emblazoned on a solid chunk of positive support behind |
| Vancouver’s new and exciting phenom---Gregor Robertson—or “Juice” as (I think Jon Ferry said it—but I can’t find it in my notes—apologies or congrat’s) who understands the realities of the circumstance. “We are in this thing---it’s going to get done—so let’s get on with doing it the best way possible—but let’s move forward.” |
| Women are 10% less likely to support Gregor Robertson’s proposal (raw numbers—Men (58.5%) “Yes”; Women (51.7%)). |
| It is anecdotal based on my personal interviews with 71 Vancouver residents (my outcomes was just within orthodox margins of error of 2.5%----there is a certain predilection (that’s for Shaw) -- on my part to believe that the (07%) respondents under designation (Can’t Answer/Abrupt) were likely negative—but against what I can’t be sure---but I would divvy up these respondents in the following ‘rather unscientific’ way. |
| Some say “Yes” to taking the poll-and subsequently hearing the meat on the ROBBINS bone (if you will) backed away. Some respondents who agreed to take the poll were selected based on intervals were told in advance that the question was ‘loaded’ and the responses were “Yes” or “No”—these respondents (21) tended to reflect a subset of respondents more likely to answer “Yes” (59-40---based on decided and rounded). This is only speculation however---if these respondents were voters it is unlikely that they would vote for any party associated with the Olympics. There is also a reasonable chance they don’t vote—if they are indeed eligible—or registered—we don’t know. |
| There is also a chance these respondents are more used to easy survey questions and back away from more plebiscite or referendum type questions----something of serious political import in the province involving a seldom used political mechanism—an emergency sitting of the BC Legislature---with a government who generally doesn’t like to have any meetings in the BC Legislature—conventional or otherwise---// but now—to seriously consider a change to the legal relationship between province and city—with other legal entities to follow----don’t chop this up with one time deal for extenuating circumstances—the people will hang you for this. Do the hard work—if there’s money for silly Charter challenges like Bountiful—there must certainly Charter for municipalities and cities.
Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson has inoculated himself against the loathing and complete hatred of the Vancouver Olympics by a decent portion of the electorate—I would estimate that 30-40% are so sick and tired of anything to do with the Olympics in Vancouver that they could puke. I would estimate that 20-30% are firm backers of the Olympics under any condition---I would say the remainder are a little stunned by the enormity of the news—news ROBBINS called cold----like a mortician coming to your home. Four billion to ten billion in total cost overruns for the Olympics. |
| We do know they were contacted at Vancouver telephone numbers from the White Pages—and that they “were old enough to vote”. We did not ask gender (and about one in 50 respondents—in my estimate—is a difficult voice to designate either male or female. However we market each respondent by the gender callers believed them to be—if they were comfortable to use the words ‘sir’ or ‘madam’. |
| The 10% advantage Gregor Robertson enjoys-- in a very negative political environment-- is likely one per cent less in reality in our estimates or (09%). |
| Obviously questions 1 and 2 are in play and dynamic—the recent Campbell Harper announcement may affect the overall spin---but this is English theatre were presenting here—and it better be damn well covered well---factual—interesting---and free votes. |
