Former BC Premier Mike Harcourt was in good form Thursday night at a dinner celebrating the political career of Darlene Marzari, the ex-cabinet minister and Vancouver city councilor.
Harcourt told a full house at Accents restaurant in Kitsilano about his long involvement in politics with Marzari, from working together to stop the Chinatown freeway in the 1970s to their time in cabinet in the NDP government of 1991.
But it was Harcourt's comments about some former premiers that brought roars from the crowd of mostly - but not all - longtime New Democrats.
"I'm one of the former NDP premiers who still holds a membership card," Harcourt quipped to howls of laughter. Take that Ujjal Dosanjh! Pow to you, Bob Rae!
Hosted by a very funny Joy MacPhail, other speakers included former MP Margaret Mitchell, veteran human and womens' rights activist Shelagh Day, Marzari's daughter Francesca and of course Marzari herself.
The audience included former Yukon Premier Tony Penikett, Vision Vancouver councilors George Chow and Tim Stevenson, former Non-Partisan Association Vancouver councilor Jonathan Baker, former Harcourt NDP cabinet minister Tom Perry, Alex MacDonald, the former Attorney-General in the Dave Barrett NDP government, Blair Redlin, former Deputy Minister of Transportation and VanCity Credit Union directorship candidate, Vancouver Quadra NDP candidate Becca Coad
7 comments:
Wow, not many new faces on the left.
The left is really becoming the party of the old and retired.
Astonishing, Bill old boy, that you would spend any of your most appreciated and valued life with such "exalted" company. Nice tie, by the by, Mark James yet again???
Mike Harcourt almost sank this city with his committee-for-everything mentality. He was against everything before he was for it, and then against, and then for it again...he is the most over-rated poltician in the history of this City, save and except, maybe, for Tim 'Guevera' Louis, who favors putting the picture of a mass murderer on the back on his wheelchair. Perhaps he'll one day explain why...then again, who gives a fuck what Timmy thinks.
More to the point, Harcourt, and Marzari, to a somewhat lesser extent, were ignorant of what Vancouver needed, bereft of vision, militant and inflexible and generally arrogant...
Damn, it just occurred to me...so that's who Sam is trying to emulate...
A. G. Tsakumis said...
Sort of a load of BS from the fellow. Harcourt included the folks who under the usual top down system of doing things would never be heard. As citizens of Vancouver we set aside those council meeting evenings to actually watch the council doing things. Tim Lois was also a target, yet somehow Tim keeps getting elected so others may quite like him. Seems the fallow decided that Harcourt and Masari were ignorant of what Vancouver wnated. That is simply untrue. Harcout managed a very divided council and togehter they did good work. Even when"The Kid" got on council. dl
As for the comment by anon about the party of the old, may I mention that we have four grandchildren who vote NDP. They have a least one univerity degree each and none are over 27. They were all in the House the day Harcourt invited folks to come to"Their house" Two of the three were along with other kids, to sit in the cabinet room as Mike said. "This is a room for everyone. "
Alex, Alex, Alex. You've got more spin going on than a new Maytag tuned up by Barry Bonds trainer!
Mike Harcourt was a great Vancouver mayor an a welcome and huge improvement over the sad series of Non-Partisan Association mayors before him.
Maybe you sadly look fondly back at the days of Tom Campbell and Jack Volrich but you would be in a tiny minority.
After Mike we had to wait until Larry Campbell came along before we had another great mayor, after Gordon Campbell and Philip Owen put Vancouver in the decidedly No-Fun category.
But I can understand your frustration - your former guy - Sam Sullivan - is making some of those NPA dinosaurs look dynamic!
It's gotta hurt but consider some political counselling to get the anger out of your system - picking on Mike Harcourt just won't fix it for you!
Thanks as always for the comment.
Gosh, is it just me ... or do other people feel as if they can relax and enjoy the photos and story of some terrific public figures here.
No cardboard smiles, no glib promises while the vacant eyes hide the math involved in selling out another public asset ...
It's great to see Mikey's smile again and to hear that Joy is still funny, still dynamic. I just wish we could get a few of these reassuring figures back in public office. Best wishes to them all.
Thanks for a happy story, Bill.
Hey Bill
Tanks for reminding us about that ex Mayor we all called "Sieco Jack" after he gave a official gift to some family member. Mike Harcourt and Larry Campbell were such refressing figures after many of the NPA's guys. dl
Alex has a point. Tim Louis did wear a shirt with Chi Guevera on the back. I once offered to make a T shirt for Tim that had a portrait of Meyer Lansky on the front. (For the young'ns out there Meyer was the gangster who helped Batista operate Cuba before Castro.)
I thought fairness required that Tim's T shirts tell both sides of the story.
Tim assured me that if I made him such a T shirt he would gladly give equal time to Lansky. (Actually I think Tim was to young to remember Meyer). Ultimately, Tim did not get re-elected and my attention was diverted to other things.
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