This little piggy went to Senate

Larry Campbell proves he is cut out to be a politician afterall

by Andrea Reimer

Being a member of Generation Y has it’s own set of challenges, but being surprised, even mildly so, is not one of them. Iterative, formulaic, pink is the new black—I’m painfully aware that it’s all been done before and probably done better. So it’s a novel experience to admit I’m “astonished” after the strange events of August 2. No, I’m not talking about the miraculous escape of several hundred passengers from that Air France fire ball on the Pearson Airport runway, I’m talking about that other freak of nature: soon-to-be-former-mayor Larry Campbell accepting a Senate appointment.

Sure, rumours have been floating around for months but I remain flabbergasted, flummoxed, bowl me over surprised that a mayor with 80% support in the polls in a city where we eat leaders for breakfast would put himself prematurely out to that most despised of political pastures.

It can’t be the money. Senators only make $3,200 more a year than the Mayor does (hoping someone sent Larry that memo). And that’s in Ottawa dollars which can get eaten up fast when you’re commuting across the country every week, paying first and last month’s rent and sharing champagne with Adrienne Clarkson in Alfonso Gagliano’s favourite haunts.

I guess if Larry had a calculator he might have had done some crass calculations and realized a guaranteed $119,100 a year times 18 years—the amount of time he has left on his set-for-life senate-tence—is not too shabby. But for a guy who couldn’t hack more than three years as mayor it seems a strange bargain.

It was barely a month ago that Larry was telling us he was an “accidental politician,” he’d done what he’d come to do and he wouldn’t be seeking a second term as mayor.

Looking at what he got done, perhaps the Senate makes a lot of sense. Between RAV, the Olympics and the safe injection site he’s done a capital job at convincing us that we really wanted to spend our federal tax dollars exactly where the feds would have us spend them.

Then there’s that thing about Larry becoming a card-carrying member of the federal Liberals after his three-year public love affair with high-profile members of the BC NDP, who by virtue of the way the NDP is structured are also the provincial wing of the federal party. Hard to imagine how he’ll shill Jim Green now. Ironic too, given it seems the only reason Larry signed that card was to get an Honourable in front of his name.

I’m sure the NDP would love to have Larry but not as a Senator. Like most Canadians west of Bay Street, they have a hard time seeing the logic in a body appointed to be a check and balance on the body that appointed it. That’s not to say a Senate itself is bad: most well-functioning parliamentary democracies have one, even some republics like the USA. It’s just that outside of Cambodia, Jordan, Grenada and Canada, citizens usually directly elect them.

Larry, Vancouver likes you. It really, really likes you. You can do right by us by working yourself out of a job and delivering on senate reforms: equal, effective and elected. Without that, your decision provokes words familiar to my generation: cynical, sell-out, sleazy. For an “accidental politician” you may have done well with a pretty skimpy hand but history will assign you to BC’s least favourite dustbin. Senator who?

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