I’m flattered! According to the newspaper 24 Hours I’m No. 10 on the list causing grief and discomfort to Vision’s rulers at City Hall.
And according to 24 Hours reporter Bob Mackin (who is a mere No. 12) Vision’s insiders have decided they “need to do something about” the 15 of us on what the newspaper called Vision’s media ”hit list”
Stalin would be so proud!
But I have to confess: I’ve been on much bigger loathed lists than Vision’s!
Let’s see … in 35 years of reporting… there was, of course, Lucien Bouchard, who tried to slide, skate and slip away from some tough questions from this BRITISH Columbian, and finally, in exasperation, demanded a question in French from the scrum …so I asked the same questions: en francais. I’m sure I made it on his list … but it wasn’t for Christmas greetings..
When I worked on the Hill in Ottawa, I also got the last “Fuddle Duddle” from Pierre Trudeau before he left office … after a story in which I quoted him was raised in the Commons by NDP MP Ian Waddell. And Trudeau was furious. (But when we met a few years later in First Class on a flight from Asia (I was on points! 
he was friendly and we reminisced … even spending time together in an otherwise empty departure lounge away from the crowds on a refueling/passenger stop in Hong Kong).
As for the NDP, I’ve also had the affable (ha!) Jack Layton walk away from me when I apparently pressed him too hard. And I hear some of my blogs on the provincial NDP’s election campaigning, leader, policies etc also haven’t gone over too well. (No Order of BC for me when they get in!
And Mulroney used to hate it when … after he often pretended not to hear my pointed questions on why his government had so much funding so often for Quebec and so little so seldom for B.C … so I’d simply ask ”Have you got a moment for Western Canadians, Sir?” as he strolled by deafly … and I’d use that on air… along with my own signature on camera ending:” I guess not!” Grrrr!
“Harvey, I like you better without the microphone,” Mulroney wrote on a PMO picture snapped of me trying to question him on the Hill. But I was never audited by Canada Revenue … thanks Brian!
And then there’s Gordon Campbell: known him since the early 70s, when he was assistant to Mayor Art Phillips and I covered City Hall for the Vancouver Sun … right through to my retirement in 2006. When I called his Press Secretary Mike Morton to inform him in advance of the pending announcement, he told me the Premier would be calling me. Still waiting! Must have been on some list of his too!
And even amongst my media colleagues, I have asked such tough questions and written such critical articles on this blog, trying to defend the craft from deterioration, I was called “Judas” by my old Assignment Editor and am no longer invited to station retirement parties etc.
After a couple of years of blogging, I was also dropped by the Jack Webster Awards as a judge. And no Lifetime Achievement Award for me, despite all my previous winnings, and journalistic accomplishments! I guess I wasn’t corporate enough … those who fund the thing. But I believe Jack, who was instrumental in getting me to join BCTV, would still really be proud of me .. and this blog, especially my media critiques.
As you can see, I was … and believe I still am …an equally motivated sh*t disturber …. asking tough questions of all those in power …. and not just being satisfied with “a c lip” … any clip. The readers and viewers deserve real answers to real questions.
What too many politicians never seem to grasp is that when they are IN POWER, the real journalist … who was so sympathetic to them in opposition or on the fringe … has a whole new role to play.
We should ask tough questions; we must expose the flaws in their plans; we do enjoy using their own old quotes against them when they, now in power, change positions; and it’s our job to ferret out clips where they call citizens hacks, to expose any waste of public funds, to report rewards to their friends or turn into dictators, pushing their agendas, without accommodation or care or concern for those they hurt in the process.
So Im proud to still be in the Top 10 … thanks to this little blog.
And Vision should consider themselves lucky! After all … I’m retired! If still working, I would try even harder, to be Number One!
Harv Oberfeld