The TEAM Launch

I spent yesterday evening at the Heritage Hall for the 2014 Election launch of the new TEAM party.  It was a fine party with about 135 people there, all talking politics of one kind or another.

Mike Andruff did a great job as Master of Ceremonies.  The evening included a nice piece of theatre as Prof. Paul Tennant, who had been member #1 in the original TEAM party of 1968, became member #1 of the new TEAM and passed the symbolic baton to Jennifer Palma of the new generation.

The keynote speech of the evening was given by Bob Kasting, the lawyer behind the victory over the city in the Hadden Park bike lane case.

So, this is a new party with an old name.  As such, they have no candidates to offer yet, and only a bare-bones set of policy guidelines (though one of them is a serious commitment to neighbourhood control of planning, which I like).  But at least they are out there and hopefully they can fill in the gaps pretty soon.  We’ll have to wait and see where they fit in Vancouver’s crowded field, and what kind of election readiness they can put together.

The after-party was most interesting, as the chattering classes (including me, I guess) circulated with wine and bites.  There were reporters and NPA types, Green folks, neighbourhood activists, and the Chernen brothers from the Cedar Party.  I don’t doubt that Visionistas were in attendance and maybe even COPErs, though I didn’t bump into any.

It is clear that politics is in the air much earlier in an election year than usual.  The truculent attitude of Vision Vancouver can take all the blame (or credit) for that.