Robertson Gaffe Hearkens Back to Reagan

(Aired on July 13, 2010)

You know the old cliche "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?" Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is wishing that statement applied to sessions of Vancouver City Council. Robertson is backtracking like crazy after a live microphone used for city council meetings was left "on" after a recent meeting. It was a long, controversial meeting, and Robertson was a bit ticked. So he proceeded to call down one particular group who had spoken against a controversial rental proposal. He called the group hacks, and other inappropriate names.

Robertson has since apologized, but his squeaky clean image has suffered. Not so much by the swearing - hey, it happens - but more for his attitude towards the people who came to have their opinions heard. They had legitimate concerns about the housing proposal, and were worried that the council was going to just rubber stamp the deal before giving it serious thought. How often have we seen that happen?

No one is, or should be, naive enough not to know that these kinds of rants go on. It happens. In this case, however, the Mayor of Vancouver made some comments that were needless, not to mentioned biased and totally uncalled for, lengthy council meeting or not.

Robertson's comments are reminiscent of those made back in 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. He said: "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."
He was joking around in a voice-level test before broadcast, but it turned out the microphone was switched on.

Reagan never really lived that down, and while I think Robertson will eventually recover, he certainly didn't do himself any favours. We learn early in our business - when there's a microphone around, never assume it's off. Many careers have been saved that way.