While it appeared that Mayor Wayne Wright was broadening his online horizons, it turns out a troll was acting on his behalf.
The reddit.com Vancouver website included an Ask Me Anything! session on May 21 under the caption: "Hello. I am Mayor Wayne Wright of New Westminster. Ask me anything!"
The questions that followed included: Is New West the "Brooklyn" of Vancouver? What do you think of all the car-dependent cheapskates skipping the Port Mann and clogging your fair city? What's your vision for fixing that (Bailey Bridge) area, or are you committed to the status quo of a single alternating traffic bridge, especially now that there is so much more traffic going through the area and down Brunette with the tolling of the Port Mann? What is your position on the replacement of the Pattullo Bridge and will it be completed in your lifetime?
It turns out the responses weren't those of the mayor, but an online troll.
"Guys, due to the fact that every reply is some form of ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art I'm going to go out on a limb and propose that this may not be the real New West mayor," said the final of 89 comments.
Wright told The Record that his so-called Ask Me Anything discussion occurred on a day where he was on the go all day long and ended his workday with a police board meeting. He had never heard of reddit, and laughed when he learned people were supposedly posing questions to him online.
"It's not a concern," he said. "I hope people would look into it and see that it's not real."
Local lifeguard saves cyclist
A New Westminster lifeguard has been awarded the B.C. Ambulance Vital Link award for helping to save a cyclist.
Michelle Lin, a lifeguard at Canada Games Pool was on her way to work from Burnaby last July when she saw a man collapsed at the side of the road.
"The man appeared to have fallen off his bike. When she went to check on him, she discovered that he had no pulse. She immediately got help, started CPR and ultimately, the ambulance service is crediting her with saving his life," Nancy Barberie, instructional supervisor at Canada Games Pool, wrote in an email to The Record. "As it turns out, this fellow, Pat, is also one of our customers."
On May 23, two representatives of the B.C.
Ambulance Service presented Lin with the Vital Link Award, which is awarded to citizens who are involved in saving a life through successful cardio-pulmonary resuscitation efforts.
The man she assisted and his family attended the award presentation at Canada Games Pool, as did Mayor Wayne Wright, Coun. Lorrie Williams and Dean Gibson, the city's director of parks, culture and recreation.
"The city and the staff here at Canada Games Pool are very proud of Michelle and her actions that day," Barberie noted.
