The history of VOICES (the evolution of the growth of a political party)

Last month, I had a quick exchange on FB.

2011 Candidate Amanda Nichol and soon to be 2014 Candidate 85% financed by the CUPE 389 and their parent union. The other 15% was anonymous with no indication that it was self financed.
9 hrs · Edited · Like

From the Voices website "On influencing the decision – we have had some success here and there, getting the city to slow down some of the development growth. We support Councillors not funded by developers and unions." EXCEPT they ran Amanda Nichol as a VOICES candidate and are planning to do so again.
9 hrs · Like
Toni Bolton Your imagination knows no bounds George Pringle . Maybe you should try dealing in facts as a change of pace.

That's really weak Toni.  Why don't you reveal who is on any Voices' Board of Directors?  Perhaps because if VOICES legally registered as an elector organisation, you won't be to hide the activities of VOICES. It's time to rip that mask off since Elections BC is now in charge of any matter to do with any political financing in the upcoming election.
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The information below is being sent to Elections BC in for their consideration when dealing with any application for VOICES to be granted "Third Party Sponsor" status as it is known know with recent changes to the Act.
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FACT:  on the 14th of November, the day before the 2008 election someone (pending Freedom of Information request made to the City) placed an ad in the NS News:

This was illegal, not just by my standards and my "imagination" but by the law of BC and that person should have been charged.  If they had even filed to be a legal "Third Party Advertiser" as the Labour Councils do to donate thousands of dollars to their union candidates in our but there is a legal requirement that they be completely at arm's length to the candidates they promote.  Or the candidate is legally bound to declare that expense. To pretend that they were unaware of that ad and endorsement is illegal. To have a supporter form an organization aimed at bypassing election laws is more than just illegal, it is down right immoral and unethical.

In that 2008 election, two candidates mass mailed the following leaflets (showing the cover only) 

So incumbent Bookham and Leonard were running a mini-slate.  Someone? You guess for yourself, arranged an ad with the key words from their leaflets. Bookham was reelected but Leonard was beaten badly.

In the 2011 campaign, the above mentioned Toni Bolton and close friend of Councillor Bookham legally registered an organization called "Independent Voices".  (There is that term again.)  They collected $616 from 13 anonymous donors to put this ad in the NS News on the 18th of November the day before the election:

City Website Disclosures

Does anyone doubt this two ads were done by same group?  I believe there is a core group of candidates who had illegal pre-knowledge of this ad and others like Don Bell who was placed on this ad as they they were trying to imply that Don was a member of the Independent Voices team and if you support him, you should vote with their candidates.

Again, their takeover attempt failed, electing only the incumbents and of course Don Bell topped the polls.

In the spring of 2012, the North Van City Voices (but they want no one to assume that they had any ties to Independent Voices or that it was just an evolution the old party) organisation announced they had just been founded and were a brand spanking new org with no ties to any existing org.  Most of what we hear from them comes from their website run by no other than Toni Bolton. There are only a few people that have revealed themselves in public. 

Marc Petersen. Fred Dawkins and Gerry Scott have all identified themselves at Council meetings as members of VOICES, with the the frequency the Fred Dawkins  appeared in Chambers speaking for VOICES that he taken on the role of President although Ron Polly has told a reporter that he was the President.

The Outlook did an article in April 2012 which  former union candidate in the 2011 Council race,  Amanda Nichol self-identifies as a Voices spokesperson.  I bet the VOICES' plan is to publish a third ad which includes Amanda Nichol breaking the legal "arm's length" requirement.

The North Shore News did an initial article on Voices in May 2012 which idenifies Ron Polly who was a supporter in one ad but a Mayoral recommendation in the next ad and union candidate 

In December of 2012, during Voices' tussle with Onni, someone got in the secret Voices email list and a few of were leaked some of them through a food blogger.  Voices' membership was revealed as about 20-25 people and one was signed John Watson, another name from the first two election ads.  A Joan (Peters) and Valarie (Cottingham) is mentioned, of course both and on the elections ad.

See it here.

So  8 people of the 20-25 members of Voices are identified in public, add a ninth, Ivan Leonard in as well and as they prepare for the 2014 elections, I am quite sure that they want attempt to repeat their questionable election activities for the upcoming elections.

But it seems that Diogenes' quest is ended its long journey and he has found that one honest man, candidate for council Tony Valente. For a while, while I had given him snippets of some the information above.  He had responded with statements like VOICES is just a small group of active community members.

I presume, that he had been offered an endorsement in advance and I presume his instincts told him there was something wrong with it and he told them that was truly an independent candidate and intended to remain one.  Good for you, Tony!

I've heard that Ivan Leonard when hearing of this, responded by exclaiming that: Why was the point of this whole VOICES thing if we don't have an united group (party) against Mussatto's team.

That is what is really wrong with our Council, it's a small pond with little fish trying to keep their pond as small as possible so they can puff up to pretend they're big and important.

That is on small reason why I say amalgamation and why VOICES Councillors oppose it.

How Kerry Morris can get some credibility

In his run against everyone, Kerry has to present an open team.  Not the secretive VOICES team that has a history of violating the election laws and won't register legally with a name on the ballot but actually take the reins of that herd of cats that is VOICES but gather the 50 signatures required for Kerry to found a legal VOICES electoral team with the VOICES name right on the ballot.

Of course, Kerry Morris can join in with whatever illegal activities that VOICES does this time to avoid appearing like an organized group like Vision Vancouver but if he has the ethics and will power to help make our elections a cleaner affair, he can be open and up front and give him some much needed credibility.

Of course, I could just do it and when the public goes to the polls they would see 

Pringle, George   North City Voices

on the ballot since no else has registered that name as an electoral organisation.

Hmm..

Kerry Morris gets first threatened lawsuit

by the City of North Vancouver as he made statements concerning city hall staff.  The lawsuit was dropped when they forced Kerry to apologize.  Who does he think he will work with if lightning struck and he became Mayor?

Who has unofficially declared for Council to date?

Unofficially as one is not an official candidate until nomination papers are accepted by the City's Chief Electoral Officer and they won't be ready for pickup until the 2nd of September.  Unless a potential candidate has made a personal statement stating he or she is intending to run or put up a website stating this, I do not consider them even an unofficial candidate.

Mayor
Morris, Kerry
Pringle, George (Amalgamate North Van) 

Councillor (6 to be elected)
Bell, Bill
Bell, Dorothy
Bookham, Pam
Clark, Matt
Heilman, Joe
Valente, Tony
Sostad, Ron
Although not even officially declared, seriously likely candidates are

Mayor
Mussatto, Darrel

Councillor
Back, Holly
Bell, Don
Buchanan, Linda
Clark, Rod
Foder, Elizabeth
Keating, Craig
Nichol, Amanda

100 Days until the Election!

Although it's 33 days until the nomination packages are due at 4:30 on October 10, it's already over.  Our new Council for 2015 - 2018 will be.

Mayor George Pringle - oops I think I spelled Darrell Mussatto wrong so I'll start again

Mayor Darrell Mussatto

He will be joined by:

Councillor Don Bell (free of the VOICES in his ear for what could be his last term)

Councillor Dorothy Bell (first term proving she is the brains behind the op)

Councillor Bill Bell (for his fifth term interrupted by his exile to Mexico)

Councilor Linda Buchanan (for her third term on School Board)

Councillor Craig Keating (head of the Coalition of BC NDP municipal Councillors)

Councillor Rod Clark (who is again announcing he will be the VOICES candidate for Mayor in 2018)

A lot of sound and fury will be expended to change very little, mostly from the campaign of former energy consultant and now former Mayoral candidate Kerry Morris who managed not to arrested again when he consistently lost his ever absent cool at every town hall and candidates meeting.

The new four year term will mean an extra year prior to the election year where Council can attempt try to take their eyes off the countdown clock of their term of office and the next election. 

The Harper & Tory hating Councillors will expend massive energy in  trying to return Canada to being a socialist paradise whether it be orange or red to no actual effect, a few more Liberal seats but still a Harper government and NDP official opposition.  Trudeau will take a walk in the snow and get lost and the Liberals won't bother to organize a search party.

The Provincial Government's municipal campaign reform will come in and it won't affect anything but Vancouver where all the problems are anyway despite the efforts of the VOICES political party to turn this into an election issue in North Vancouver.  There will be an spending cap with a set amount and an amount per voter.  In our City, let's say it is $20,000 plus a dollar voter for Mayoral candidates and $7,500 and a dollar per voter for Councillor candidates.  No candidate has ever exceeded that level of a spending cap as no one tries to spend their way to a Council seat such as Rob MacDonald's $780,000 donation to the NPA last time just prior to their nomination in 2011 which didn't even result in him being a failed candidate.

Union activist and Rod Clark protege Amanda Nichol will be back for her third strike in 2018 after her platform of increasing CUPE 389 jobs in the Rec Commission fails.  Rod Clark's plan of giving her his Council seat as he ascended to the Mayor's Chair before intemperate anti-Semite comments he made during a public Council meeting surfaced.  (Good thing the media didn't catch the comments Rod Clark made about Mexicans that some may consider racist).  If Amanda changes her name to Bell and actually is elected, she can thank Rod Clark for helping her evict him to the Sharp/Schechter/Fearnley club.