Stephen Quinn is the host of On the Coast on CBC Radio One, 690 AM and 88.1 FM in Vancouver.
It turns out that, while the quotation is often attributed to him, Niccolo Machiavelli never actually said, "The end justifies the means." The quote is more likely an interpretation of a phrase in The Heroides by Ovid: Exitus acta probat or "the result justifies the deeds."
This is important to remember when discussing the approval of the City of Vancouver's 2018 operating budget, a budget that included a surprise, last-minute tax increase.
The $1.4-billion budget was passed on Tuesday in a 7-4 vote, with all four Non-Partisan Association councillors voting against. Originally, the budget called for a property-tax increase of 3.9 per cent. That grew to 4.24 per cent following an amendment to include nearly $3-million in new spending on additional social grants, a tactical-response team to review zoning as part of the housing strategy, an action plan to respond to historic discrimination of Chinatown residents and measures to speed up permit approvals.
All worthwhile initiatives perhaps, but NPA councillors took issue with the way the new spending was included just before the vote, with no opportunity for further scrutiny by staff and no notice to the public.
The move led to some tense moments both in and out of council chambers. Before the final vote, reporters were scrumming Vision Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie while NPA councillor George Affleck stood by listening. Eventually, Mr. Affleck had heard enough. He stepped forward, saying: "This is complete B.S. Let's dismantle this. This is 100-per-cent based on trying to strategize for the election in 2018." Then, directing his comments to Mr. Louie, Mr. Affleck said: "You're trying to pinpoint specific categories to use in your attack mode in the next election against Hector [Bremner] or whoever is our mayoral candidate, to specifically say to them, 'Oh, you voted against this,'" he said.
The day after the budget was passed, Mr. Louie tried out the spin on me. On the last-minute addition of $1.1-million for the tactical-response team, Mr. Louie said the money will go toward resourcing additional staff to take action on housing affordability. "Which, by the way, the NPA voted against, which is unfathomable to me given that they say they support creating a more affordable city and yet they won't resource the staff necessary to make that happen," he said. "They've asked us to take action on permitting times and we have resourced it and the NPA has voted against it."
When I pointed out to Mr. Louie that he was doing exactly what Mr. Affleck predicted he would do – that he was in essence proving him right – Mr. Louie responded, "That's right, I'm saying it because it's the truth."
But the statement that broke the spin-o-meter was this: "I think he's trying to politicize this and, in fact, he should set aside the politics."
Mr. Louie cited two instances where NPA councillors have brought forward last-minute amendments during the budget-approval process that would have resulted in cuts or in higher spending. Of course, the point is moot since in both instances the amendments were rejected by the Vision Vancouver majority. Knowing that there was no hope of them passing, my guess is the NPA moved the amendments to make a political point, not because they expected them to pass. So yeah, the NPA does politics too.
Finally, Mr. Louie attacked Mr. Affleck for trying to spin the NPA's decision to vote against the last-minute amendments as an objection to the lack of due process. "Why is it that he is focusing not on an end result but on a process question that he himself has tried to introduce at the last minute in another format?" Mr. Louie asked rhetorically.
Forcing your opponents to vote against motherhood issues because of a lack of process, or because you've buried some toxic attachment deep inside a motion, certainly isn't new. But what we saw this week was an egregiously artless example, made worse by the impatience of a councillor apparently eager to score points before the election.
We can only hope that the next 10 months don't sound like this. But then, these are Machiavellian times.