There’s an election coming up for the city of Vancouver, and traditionally that matters to most people about as much as what’s playing on the Lifetime Channel tonight at 2am.

But if you’re a sports fan in this city, politics matter at the local level, and the fact that Nat Bailey Stadium exists, and has been radically transformed of late, is proof of that.

Long-time readers may recall several years back, during the last city elections, Notes From The Nat tried to get each of the candidates running for the Parks Board to answer questions about their view of what should happen to the (at the time) decrepit old Parks Board-controlled Nat Bailey Stadium.

Only one bothered to reply. His name was Spencer Herbert. He was a brash young dude with a bad hat and plenty of good ideas, and he told us that, yes, he foresaw a future for the stadium and would do what he could to make that future a reality, if elected.

Which he was.

Today, Spencer Herbert isn’t just on the Parks Board – he runs the show as Commissioner, and he’s doing a freaking fine job, in my opinion.

In fact, not just in my opinion… the Georgia Straight seems to think so too. 

In fact, just today in The Province there’s a story about how Herbert figured it didn’t make any sense to go turning the thousand or so trees that have to be felled in Vancouver each year into woodchips while woodworkers across the city were desperate to get their hands on the often unique varieties of wood that the city is trying to get rid of.

His solution? Sell it, at cost, to the public. If you want it, come get it. No more trees turned into chimney smoke, no more woodworkers paying through the nose for healthy trees to be cut down elsewhere and shipped to the city while unhealthy or dangerous trees are thrown into the furnace.

It ain’t rocket science, but it’s the sort of sensible solution that you don’t often see in Sam Sullivan’s government, and that’s part of the reason the Vancouver Whitecaps are having such trouble building a stadium with their own money, on land that they’ve paid for, in a part of town that desperately needs developing, while the city is considering spending $60m+ to widen a freaking footpath on the Burrard Bridge.

If Spencer Herbert runs for election again this year, do yourself a favour and go vote for him. And while you’re at it, when Al DeGenova runs for Mayor, you might want to remember that he was Commissioner on the Parks Board when the move to demolish Nat Bailey Stadium was defeated. He was right there alongside the Vancouver Canadians, gunning to save the old dear.

DeGenova and Herbert – they did their part for us. Do yours for them.

Or vote for Gregor Robertson, if you’d rather see more crackhead housing. Either way.