The honeymoon period is officially over for Mayor Wayne Lippert.In a play out of the politician's handbook, Vernon's mayor is blaming the messenger in the wake of flack he is taking for comments he made in a story in The Morning Star. The same mayor who was elected largely because he didn't come across like a politician, apparently is learning the tricks of the trade rather quickly.
In the story he told reporter Richard Rolke his job was to build back trust in city hall after a dark period in Vernon's history that included a disgraced Sean Harvey resigning and being found guilty of breach of trust charges. It's a story we stand behind and curiously it's the first time Lippert has accused this paper of getting anything wrong on his watch. Furthermore, he didn't say anything was wrong with the story until the flack hit the fan several days later. In the story, Lippert was being forthright and candid in his opinion — a trait many residents find refreshing.
Perhaps Lippert should have put more onus on the former mayor and less on the former council in his comments and likely that's what he meant to say, Lippert is the first to admit he's not a smooth politician. Having said that, the former council, this community and, indeed, the media took a huge hit over the Harvey scandal and there are lessons to be learned for all involved. Lessons that have been acted upon. None of us, however, can act self-righteous about what transpired during that period.
However, at the first sign of a complaint from a former councillor, instead of perhaps clarifying his comments or standing behind them, the mayor chose to blame the media. It's a tactic that men of lesser stature than Wayne Lippert have used again and again in the past. We hope it's a political misstep that our mayor chooses to learn from, rather than a tactic that he intends to use on a regular basis in the future. We'll be watching.
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