Mayor Election Sign Wars - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly & the VERY Tacky

The Sign Wars of 2011 have started and obviously as of midnight last night the three Langley Township Mayor candidates were off and running to garner the choice locations in the dark of the night. When it comes to the best sign of any of the contending Mayors the hands down winner is Mel Kositsky. His name is prominent, his web site is clear & prominent. His picture stands out large and in fact is the only one of the three that

Vancouver Sun B.C. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS 2011 - Candidates Listing

To see a listing of all municipal election candidates go to the special online Van Sun Candidates Listing. When you get there hit the tab with the heading "Langley T'Ship" to view a drop down list of the candidates. You can scroll through candidates names and see their profiles and on each profile you can then select the blue button "VANCOUVERSUN SURVEY" to see the info the candidates provided.


After only a cursory view this Editor noted that Councillor Kim Richter filled it out completely. I did not yet check out the other truly independent candidates' profiles. But Mayor Rick Green and his slate-mates continue to attempt their now well known trademark word weaseling and baffle-gabbing  political sham-scam. On the profile page under each slate-mates name it lists party and each slate-mate shows the Vote Langley Now party. But  in the latter Sun's question: "Are you running with a municipal party or slate? Mayor Rick Green does not answer and his slate-mate Tony Malyk does answer and he says NO! In answer to the very  next question : " If 'Yes', which party or slate?" Mayor Rick Green answers: "A Team of Independents not a slate." and to this same question his slate-mate Tony Malyk's answer is blank. Meanwhile the other slate-mates don't answer anything, anywhere.

Plain and simple they are a slate and a party because they are officially  registered as such. To try to say they are not is simply not true at all in this editor's opinion and here's that magic word again misleading!

Also interesting is that when the Van Sun asks the question: "How much money do you expect to spend on your election campaign?" , Mayor Rick Green says "$50,000.00" and his slate-mate Tony Malyk answers: "N/A". Of course!  It is generally known that the slate-mates are being primarily and largely centrally funded by the behind the scenes REAL MAYOR - Mr. DADDY WARBUCKS!

Rick Green is the Most Expensive Mayor Ever in the History of Langley Township

Not only has Langley Township Mayor Rick Green been the highest paid mayor in Langley Township history, but he has also had the highest expenses ever by any Mayor in Langley Township. See the below Scribd document on "Mayor Remuneration & Expenses - 1997 to 2010" . We also understand that he often has Langley Township (Taxpayers) buy tickets to events he never even showed up for. One of them where he was a no-show was a very recent Gala event that cost Township taxpayers $150 a ticket to which he got 2 tickets for $300. This apparently is not unusual.

When Councillor Richter put a motion forward to roll back the Council's and the Mayor's ~50%  salary increase in this past term, no one seconded her motion including Mayor Green whose own salary increased from the previous Mayor's salary of $64,922 to $93,722. The Mayor's silence on Richter's motion was deafening especially from someone who talks about 0-0-0 tax increases, but doesn't hesitate to

With Sincere Sympathy To Kim and the Edey Family

Langley Free Press's Publisher is Kim Richter. LFP will be taking a temporary hiatus out of respect for the loss of Councillor Kim Richter's mother who suddenly passed away in Ottawa  just after 7 PM tonight. Kim was called away during the Township council meeting and advised of the tragedy.

This Editor can confirm that Kim was extremely close to both her parents and most especially with her Mother Mary since her father passed away  5 years ago in November. Kim has every year spent her summer holidays with her Mother in Ottawa and the attached picture of her with her mother was taken at the end of August this year. This picture was taken  at the Ottawa Airport when Kim was returning to Vancouver and is the last time she saw her Mother. Mary Mabel MacLeod Edey is survived by her sister, her 5 children and seven grand children. She was born in Milestone Saskatchewan on December 1st 1928. She shares the same December 1st birthday with her daughter Kim and Kim's daughter Graecen. We extend our deepest sympathy to the Edey family.
By LFP EDITOR.

Langley Township Municipal Election Candidates (Mayor/Council & Trustees) List in Ballot Order

Langley Township Election Candidates Ballot Order

Initial curious comments are that Steve Burton is not running for re-election for School Board and that a Mr Douglas Smuland is the only candidate that says he lives outside of Langley, in the City of Surrey.

27 Council candidates running for 8 seats - 3 Mayor candidates running for a single seat - 11 School Trustee candidates running for 5 seats. Let the games begin!

Go to this link to see all the candidates actual nomination papers to see who they got to nominate them.

Langley City Mayor, Council & Trustees can be seen here and the Ballot order is in alphabetical order.

by LFP EDITOR

The Last 2008 Langley's Municipal Election Results in Retrospect F.Y.I.

Langley Township Councillor - Votes

Jordan Bateman - 9273     
Charlie Fox - 7956            
Kim Richter - 7906
Bev Dornan - 7663
Bob Long - 7433
Steve Ferguson - 7155
Mel Kositsky - 6935
Grant Ward - 6402
Sonya Paterson - 5934
Dan Sheel - 5331
Glen Tomblin - 4701
Murray Jones - 2908
Janet Megahy - 2759
Sukhi Dhami - 2746


Langley Township Mayor - Votes

Aren’t you fed up yet with word weaselling & baffle-gab politics by Mayor Green & His Slate-Mates?

The key item of importance at this past Monday night’s Council meeting was how Mayor Rick Green was once again busy word weaselling and baffle-gabbing his way out, as only he can, of his July 2011 decision to support a proposed Translink 2 cents per litre gas tax increase. One has to ask: Just how much more of Rick Green’s political weasel words can this community afford and believe? And what exactly will be the total tax cost to us, the Langley Township taxpayers, if Green and his slate get elected?  A 2 cent a litre gas tax for starters unless he changes his mind on Friday at the Translink meeting which this Editor predicts he will most likely flip-flop on and vote against. Quite frankly we hope he does. But he could just as easily flip-flop on this again given any opportunity after the November election!

Just to show you Green’s baffle-gab politics in action, we have 2 videos for you to watch. The first is from Monday night’s Council meeting (October 3, 2011) and the second is from the July 25, 2011 Council meeting.

The first video is a classic politics 101 primer in the slick US-style political technique of back-tracking and butt-covering. In just under 1 minute, Mayor Green delivers an amazing line of political BS reversing his July 25, 2011 stance on the 2 cents per litre gas tax hike all the while managing to keep a straight face. He loses points though because his level of concern is not delivered genuinely ad lib but is instead read verbatim. It makes one wonder if he really believes what he’s reading! 

As usual, Mayor Green tries to fool Township taxpaying voters by constantly blaming others for his own lack of good judgement.  In July 2011, Green voted with the

Green and his Slate-Mates have not only moved into Township Hall – They are now picking their seats!

Following up on LFP’s  previous editorial  and  today’s Langley Times article on the Mayor’s slate signing their nomination papers in Township’s Council chambers first thing this morning, this editor can only state the obvious. The Rick Green slate has clearly moved from choosing wallpaper last week to choosing their preferred chairs in Council chambers this week.

Too bad neither of the mayor challengers, Jack Froese nor Mel Kositsky, had the opportunity to beat Mayor Green’s slate to the punch of using the Council Chambers for their political gain.  We understand Jack Froese also handed his papers in today but obviously he didn’t have the advantage of early-bird timing, exclusive favourable slate media coverage, or of reserving Council chambers for his supporters like the current Mayor did.  Or maybe Jack just thought, like this Editor thinks, it would have been as tacky and presumptuous as holding regular campaign meetings in

Mayor Green Moves His Slate-Mates into Township Hall BEFORE the Election

Wednesday evening Councillor Kim Richter was attending a regular Township monthly commission meeting on the 4th floor of the Langley Township municipal Hall building when she was surprised to hear the Mayor's loud voice addressing a group of people in the Murray Creek meeting room.

This was not especially interesting until she noticed that he was addressing all of his election slate-mates candidates, his election campaign team/organizers, his