Mayor Robertson has begun to "question how worthwhile democracy is"

The Province newspaper began today's editorial by calling Mayor Gregor Robertson, Gregor "Robinson". But after that stumble, they quoted Robertson admitting on his trip to China that he finds democracy frustrating:

"You can be critical of lots of regimes around the world and you can question how worthwhile democracy is in a lot of countries right now which frankly are ignoring the biggest crisis in the history of our species with climate."

Robertson commended the Chinese government for taking "dramatic action" on the environment", unlike "Western governments right now, democratically elected, because they're afraid."

This is not the first time Robertson has revealed that the messiness of democracy does not appeal to him. Earlier this year, we heard him dismiss citizens turning out to a City Council meeting to provide input as "hacks". And we are still waiting for him to lift the barring of democratically-elected Board member William Simpson from Carnegie Centre. Simpson has served a three year sentence. What does the Mayor feel would be an adequate sentence for daring to get elected? And we're still waiting for the Mayor to fire Ethel Whitty for abusing civil liberties and then covering her tracks with misinformation.

Mayor Robertson is afraid.