Once upon a time, there was a man named Jordan Bateman who decided on a sunny Wednesday to drive from his Langley home into Vancouver.
Four dancing pigs joined him on his journey.
They came to a stop at 18th and Main, where they gazed up at a big white poodle, sitting majestically atop a pedestal. Birds flew overhead, a dog barked in the distance.
Then along came some media types to ruin what could have been the beginning of a trippy fairytale. But hey, it was Bateman who invited us there to explain the significance of the pigs and the poodle.
Bateman, for those not in the know, is the main combatant for the No side in the transit tax plebiscite battle. He’s also a lead vocalist for the B.C. branch of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Sadly, the four pigs weren’t real but gold-coloured and the main feature on a trophy the taxpayers’ federation uses as a prop to spread the word about waste in government and other organizations.
Bateman had some big news to share: This year’s lifetime achievement award for waste went to TransLink, whose questionable spending practices, including the Compass Card debacle, an empty park-and-ride lot in Surrey and having two CEOs on the payroll continue to fuel debate between the No and Yes sides.
The significance of the poodle?
First of all, it is also — sadly — not real.
Apparently, TransLink contributed $30,000 to ensure the pedestal and huge aluminum-cast poodle would get a spot at Main and 18th. Why that spot and why a poodle still puzzles many, including Bateman.
“It’s a weird one,” he said.
So once we got the pig-poodle connection out of the way, I did my best to find out why Bateman and his No TransLink Tax campaign were telling people not to support a 0.5 per cent increase to the provincial sales tax to help pay for the mayors’ $7.5 billion transit plan — one which includes a subway along the Broadway corridor, more buses, more SeaBus and HandyDart service, rapid transit in Surrey and a new Pattullo Bridge, among other upgrades.
I’ve already reported that he believes municipalities could simply fund the plan by using future revenue growth as the region grows, which the mayors have dismissed as not feasible.
But the plan itself, I asked, do you support it?
He gave me several answers.
One: “There are aspects of it that I think are better than others.”
Two: “I don’t know if you can divorce the plan from the tax tool [the 0.5 per cent tax increase request]. The mayors could have done it by allocating future growth.”
Three: “The first thing is always to fix TransLink because no matter where the money comes from, you’ve got to make sure TransLink can be trusted with it.”
Four: “I don’t support TransLink. I would support the plan, if it was funded out of future growth.”
He did a lot more talking, dismissing the mayors’ message that righting the TransLink ship is a fight for another day. He also dismissed the mayors’ promise that every dollar spent under the tax scheme would be accounted for in annual audits.
On he went, and on goes the battle.
It continued Thursday, with Mayor Gregor Robertson and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner announcing that billionaire business tycoon Jimmy Pattison will head up a "public accountability committee" to oversee the funds collected to help pay for the mayors' plan.
Will Pattison's involvememt sway votes?
"I haven't been asked to sway people's votes," Pattison told the Courier Thursday. "I've just been asked would I get involved in an accountability committee, if the Yes side wins. And I said yes I would."
Bateman chimed in on Twitter after he heard the news about Pattison's role.
"Public accountability committee?" he wrote. "Why do we have six TransLink boards of directors and a mayors' council for?"
Voters will begin to receive mail-in ballots for the plebiscite in less than two weeks. They'll have to decide whether they believe the position of Bateman and his group or that of the mayors and the Yes side coalition of businesses, unions, university presidents and environmentalist David Suzuki.
Good luck, everybody.
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