Picking Jim. Nitpicking Sam.

In a move that will no doubt have sub-microscopic consequences on the outcome of Saturday's election, this page endorses Jim Green of Vision Vancouver for Mayor of Vancouver.

Although Green turned his back on COPE and stood shoulder to shoulder with Larry Campbell on such unprogressive measures as a P3 RAV Line and expanded casino gambling, he stacks up against the NPA's Sam Sullivan as the far lesser of two evils.

Sullivan's campaign has appealed to no-one but the obnoxious, me-firsters who infect Vancouver who bitch about the growing number of bicycles on city streets and the lack of places their untrained attack dogs can run around and terrorize small children. The only "leadership" principles Sullivan appears to grasp are NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) and TINA (There Is No Alternative).

Voting for Green and the Vision/COPE candidates will equal MOTS (More Of The Same). This would be a City Hall that continues to try and juggle the competing interests of businesses and neighbourhoods while dropping the occasional ball, but at least everyone can watch the show and gets to be heard. MOTS isn't so bad, especially with a celery stick and a little vodka, and it certainly beats the taste of closed-door, pay-for-play politics that led Vancouverites to drive the NPA to near-extinction three years ago.

And Mr. Sullivan: if claiming that buying heroin for an addict doesn't mean you don't respect the law, what does putting NPA campaign signs up on public property (as this page saw along Great Northern Way this morning) in violation of municipal bylaws mean?