Vision Vancouver city councillor Raymond Louie has paid off his mortgage. Have you?
Louie is in his early 40s. He has a wife and 3 kids. He's a working stiff like you and me.
When first elected to council in 2002, he quit his job to dedicate himself to the business of running a government, all for $53,000 a year. His wife went back to work.
What does this tell us? The man's got focus, determination and old-fashioned goals.
These are liabilities? Oh. I forgot. This is a town where the biggest score is spotting Jennifer Aniston eating a pickle. Cooks and condo kings are our most exemplary citizens.
In his two terms in office, Louie has been a director or member of 16 boards, corporations and committees, including three at TransLink.
The knock on Louie is that he always has a stack of reports in front of him at council meetings. God forbid he should be informed!
"I was shocked to learn that some councillors have never cracked a binder," says Louie. "I want to know what I'm voting on."
His critics say he's too dull to be mayor. But where has excitement got us?
After two show-biz mayors, we've gone from being a city with some drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness problems to being the world's poster city for drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness.
Mayor Larry Campbell was the sizzle, no doubt. But Raymond Louie was the steak.
Together, they approved the Woodward's development, which holds the promise of revitalization for the Downtown Eastside, while adding 200 social housing units.
Louie proposed five childcare centres in the new Southeast False Creek development -- the space provided by the builders, the services run by non-profit. The NPA cut it down to three.
He proposed support for the Cambie merchants devastated by the Canada Line in the form of interest-free loans. Voted down.
If the gregarious Larry Campbell was the right mayor for Vancouver six years ago, when the city was vying for the Olympics, then maybe Raymond Louie is the right mayor for this era, when what we need are not bells and whistles, but bills paid.
Louie is smart, decent and hard-working. He knows what makes 12th and
Cambie tick. He believes he has tremendous support from the Chinese and Sikh communities. He and Gregor Robertson, the Vancouver-Fairview NDP MLA whom the Vision Party is courting for a run at the mayor's chair, are involved in a delicate dance of who goes first?
"It's not about the grandeur of the position," says Louie, "it's about the right direction for the city and winning a majority on council."
Louie will decide in a few weeks if he wants to be mayor or take another term as councillor.
Extremism of any kind is not in his gene pool. So he doesn't smile and laugh as much as your favorite bar buddy. Maybe we could stand reasonable and well-managed for three years.
If he runs for mayor, I'll vote for him.
