Jim Green just got lucky. Labour heavies on the COPE executive have managed to manipulate the 36 year-old civic organization into avoiding a mayoral showdown with the self-declared candidate.
Of course, luck may have less to do with it than Green’s adherence to the centuries old advice of Chinese militarist Sun Tzu, outlined in
The Art of War. This text is pretty trendy reading by all the Howe Street warriors, but it was one of Jim’s philosophical cornerstones long before it was picked up by MBA’s. If you’d like to peruse it yourself, you can get it free at Project Gutenberg (
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/132/132.txt). It ranks regularly in the top five down-loads at the website.
Jim Green’s recent split with COPE followed Sun Tzu’s advice almost perfectly.
The personal and political style differences between Mayor Larry Campbell and the long time COPE activists and councillors (sometimes called the “classics”) was apparent almost immediately after the 2002 election. Some were surprised that Jim Green quickly took sides with the Mayor, although those who have known and worked with Green were not shocked at all. According to Sun Tzu, generals need kings to give them power.
Green didn’t want to run for Mayor in 2002 unless it was a sure thing, which it wasn’t for him. He had tasted defeat twice—once as COPE’s Mayoral candidate in 1990, and once as an NDP legislative candidate against Gordon Campbell in 1996. He didn’t like it.
Instead, he helped recruit Larry Campbell, even though Campbell was a political neophyte whose life experience in the police force was antithetical to democratic decision-making. But that’s the kind of leader Sun Tzu would appreciate. Campbell’s motto is “An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of brains.” At least, that’s what he says when praising loyal councillor Raymond Louie and condemning adversary Tim Louis.
After Campbell’s successful election (which was accomplished in part because of Campbell’s freshness, partly because of COPE’s organizing and fundraising, and majorly because the NPA exploded), Green immediately ensured that people who were his confidantes received top posts in the Mayor’s office. Geoff Meggs and Steven Leary, long-time Green associates, were the two first political hires.
As several contentious issues split the COPE caucus, Green and his political henchmen started to formulate a plan. Things came to a head in March of 2004, after the third (and actually final) RAV vote, when Vancouver and District Labour Council’s Bill Saunders moved to censure and expel four COPE councillors from the party for their vote on RAV. Never mind the fact that their “no” vote came a lot closer to COPE’s policy than the Mayor’s bloc’s “yes”. This attempted expulsion followed another of Sun Tzu’s directives: he suggests beheading disobedient officers.
While the expulsion was deferred, a deep schism opened in COPE.
A group supporting COPE’s policies formed to run a slate for the executive. An alternate group, supporting Green and the Mayor, formed to run an opposing slate. A battle looked imminent…and certainly if a battle had happened at that point, Green would have lost. However, he wisely clutched Sun Tzu’s advice close, and worked to avoid a fight when his side was weak. Instead, weeks of interminable negotiations ensued. An executive was picked which was a compromise, five from each slate and one neutral person. Cleverly, again with Sun Tzu’s suggestions coming to fruition, of the five Green loyalists on the executive, one would actually do work in COPE’s interest, one would do nothing and resign within a few months, and three would actively work with the Mayor and Green in setting up a separate organization, while sitting at the COPE executive table resisting every move forward.
The long time COPE members on the executive developed a naïvely slavish adherence to the 50/50 representation in the group. In August, the Mayor sent out trial balloons indicating his possible run as an independent. In September, the staff of COPE (Neil Moncton’s Chaos Consulting) announced their resignation, while promising to complete work on what became a disastrous WARDS campaign. By December, disorder was whirling around…exactly the conditions Sun Tzu suggests keeping the enemy in. A delegation from the COPE executive met with the Mayor to discuss his plans, but half of delegation were covertly helping to set up “The Friends of Larry Campbell”.
In February, a disastrous COPE meeting ensued. Councillor Fred Bass made his widely misreported call for Campbell and Green to work within the party, referring to Campbell as a “Trojan horse”. The COPE executive was stale-mated: few wanted to censure Bass, but only a single executive member supported his comments. This incident was used effectively by Campbell to spurn COPE and walk out, although the Friends of Larry Campbell had actually been set up in early December and, again, following Sun Tzu, they were only waiting for an opportunity to roll out their campaign plan.
By this time, the remaining COPE executive was a bedraggled lot. Three of the “classic” members were completely distracted and politically neutralized by their runs for NDP nominations. The internal chair, Donna Morgan, was exhausted and ineffectual. They managed to hire staff and conduct a new election just prior to the call for a provincial election. The new executive, however, was peopled by recruits from the trade union movement. As the intervening months have shown, their number one motivation has been the backroom murmuring of the union “bosses”, and the survival and development of COPE has ranked low. During this time, Campbell stepped down, and Green and company took over. They particularly focussed on wooing and threatening COPE’s school and parks officials. To quote from Sun Tzu, “When the enemy's men were united, they managed to keep them in disorder.”
The splinter group had stated in December that they had no intention of running school or parks candidates, but they now used the threat of splitting votes. Despite the fact that they showed minimal interest in either of the junior boards, they cast aspersions on the “classic” councillors as not caring about school or parks. This is quite ironic, given that the classics include a former Commissioner and a former school Trustee. It did, however, unsettle the COPE incumbents. Sun Tzu advises to keep your opponents focussing on your every move, but focus yourself only on your own moves.
In July, when COPE’s executive suggested a formal alliance with Green’s group, now officially called Vision Vancouver, the COPE membership voted it down. This was despite some stacking of the meeting with the likes of resigned former staff and executive members who had excoriated COPE. The executive was advised to go back and negotiate, but this was fruitless: Sun Tzu tells Green, “One mark of a great soldier is that he fights on his own terms or fights not at all.” And that’s exactly what Green did. Vision withdrew publicly from negotiations with COPE (as if there had actually been negotiations—really COPE was given only an ultimatum).
Green’s strength and tactics, combined with his ability to woo developers (passed over to him by Campbell, but who knows how long they’ll stay once the NPA settles down), put fear into the VDLC. The unions told COPE: support the deal, or you won’t get a single dollar. This, of course, is Sun Tzu’s favourite tactic: control the resources of the opposing army, and you have won. On September 10, COPE capitulated, the executive put virtually the same “deal” on the table, refused to take amendments, and pushed through the agreement by heavy financial pressure on all incumbents. The pressure pushed even Anne Roberts and Tim Louis to support the deal, disappointing many of their supporters. Score another victory for Sun Tzu: “Reduce the hostile chiefs by inflicting damage on them.” Only Councillor Fred Bass spoke against the deal, and who could understand what he said?
By a 2/3 majority, COPE surrendered to Jim Green. Sun Tzu’s magic working more than two millennia since he set his ideas down on paper.
There is one piece of Sun Tzu’s advice that Jim Green would do well to remember, however. During this process, the arrogance of the Vision Vancouver folks has made some bitter enemies. And as the great Chinese warrior says, “If bees and scorpions carry poison, how much more will a hostile state! Even a puny opponent, then, should not be treated with contempt."
Keep your guard up, boys.
