Vancouver's own Rudy Giuliani writ small is trying to get re-elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, from the Vancouver-Burrard riding (that's what they called legislative districts up there). Lorne Mayencourt is the openly gay, openly tatooed incumbent Liberal conservative, as the Vancouver Courier explains in this lengthy and quite entertaining campaign trail profile.

Mayencourt's platform might be capsulized as social-services-focused, but with a "hand-up, not a hand-out;" plus safe streets and communities. He sponsored the Safe Streets Act in the legislature. It became law, successfully targeting aggressive panhandling by the homeless and squegee-wielding youth who - unsolicited - clean windows of cars stopped in traffic, and then aggressively demand payment. Apparently, this measure was tantamount to facism for some Vancouver "progressives," including his opponent Tim Stevenson, the New Democratic Party (NDP) MLA (member of the legislative assembly) he defeated in 2001. Stevenson is also openly gay, and currently a city council member.

Mayencourt also earns my respect for opposing Vancouver's "safe injection site" for heroin addicts, another pet cause in a town increasingly known for government-funded enabling of heroin addiction.

You get a further sense of the local politics from the answers of the various candidates for Mayencourt's seat to this question posed by the Vancouver Westender: "How would you help create an urban sanctuary?" Mayencourt and Stevenson both give pretty good answers. The Green Party candidate wants a a $12 daily "congestion fee" charged to single-occupant cars going into the urban core; and the BC Sex Party candidate John Ince, says:

The Sex Party would favour a series of public spaces in Vancouver Burrard dedicated exclusively to nudists. If you enjoy the sensual pleasures of full-body suntanning on a summer's day in Vancouver, you have only one place to go: Wreck Beach. That is way too far away for the thousands of office workers and residents in Vancouver-Burrard who enjoy naked recreation.

To which my reply would be: "Go Lorne!"

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 13, 2005 09:15 AM