John Jensen

Yesterday, I attended the Canadian government's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's California BootCamp at SFU's Segal Centre in downtown Vancouver.  A few venture capitalists from California had been seduced into town to watch some of Vancouver's local startups pitch their business plans.  While the event's overall design could have been better communicated, overall I enjoyed it. At the following evening reception, Vancouver's new mayor Gregor Robertson made an appearance, and I actually had the opportunity to have a longish discussion with him that included some pet issues of mine, notably improved civic engagement, campaign finance reform, and performance-based public sector  management. While his political pedigree is, in B.C. terms, from the left side of the spectrum -- he was elected as an NDP member of the provincial legislature in 2005 -- from looking more closely at his record and the current platform of his Vision Vancouver party it is clear that he is not a traditional public sector union socialist.  It appears that his personal background and beliefs are focused around individualist, almost populist themes, with a technocratic, non-ideological belief in governance.  About the only thing he seems to be dogmatic about it is his