Why is it that only a handful of people know who's contributing to Vision Vancouver?
Last October Vision Vancouver invited everyone they knew to attend a major fundraiser held at the Wall Centre in Vancouver. The tickets weren’t cheap, and some folks estimate after all the crumpets and fondue were gobbled up, Vision netted in the six figures. Those funds were apparently used to pay off part of that nasty $240,000 debt carried over from the 2008 civic election campaign. According to media reports, many of the attendees included a who’s who of Vancouver’s business community, including a number of prominent developers. Several of those developers either have projects before City Hall or one in the works.
When the NPA were in power, Vision took every opportunity to slam them for what they considered a lack of disclosure when it came to the fundraising efforts of Mayor Sam Sullivan and the party. I simply won't bore you by regurgitating all the statements made by the various Vision politicians. However, I do recall one council meeting where David Cadman went so far as to publicly reference how brown envelopes might be making their way into the pockets of NPA politicians. Boy, how times have changed now that Vision and COPE are running the government over at Vancouver City Hollyhock. The bombastic Cadman has been silenced now that developer money could well become the key to his re-election success.
How much did those developers donate to Vision Vancouver? Who was it that actually made those donations? Are they continuing to bankroll the party and its elected officials? The answer to all these three questions is...well, we simply don’t know. We contacted the City Clerk a few days ago and she confirms that no supplementary disclosure documents have been filed by Vision Vancouver. This is despite them (and their supporters) making such a big stink about this during the last term. I simply stopped keeping track of all the columnists who picked up on Vision's angst, then wrote about it in their publications.
