Kevin Potvin
Encyclopedia
Kevin Potvin is a newspaper publisher and columnist, small business owner, and politician based in Vancouver
, British Columbia
. He founded and runs the Magpie Magazine Gallery, a retail store on Commercial Drive
, and The Republic of East Vancouver
, an alternative bi-weekly newspaper. Since 1995 he has written a regular opinion column in the Vancouver Courier
. His forays into electoral politics have proven controversial, particularly because of his views on Canadian
and American
foreign policy
.
in the Vancouver municipal election
. He received 10,806 votes, placing 22nd in the polls (with the first ten being elected to council), gaining the most votes for an independent
.
In the fall of 2006, he was elected president of the Grandview-Woodland
Area Council.
On 15 April 2007, Elizabeth May
, leader of the Green Party of Canada
, issued a release stating that Potvin would not be allowed to run as a candidate in the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway
. The decision was made after a controversy developed over an article Potvin wrote following the September 11 attacks (see below). May cited Potvin's remarks as "antithetical" to Green Party values.
printed an article on the debate over Wikipedia
's reliability based on Kevin Potvin's entry on himself. Potvin told The Globe and Mail that he created the entry as part of his political campaign to get elected to Vancouver City Council
.
Regarding Potvin's claim that his work had appeared in Harper's Magazine
and the The Atlantic Monthly
, the paper said: "According to Harper's magazine, Mr. Potvin had a letter to the editor printed once, in November of 1992. The Atlantic could find no record of Mr. Potvin -- he says he wrote ' a substantial letter to the editor' in 1987, but the magazine does not archive letters."
According to the newspaper, when asked about his Wikipedia entry, Potvin "disagreed that it was misleading, or that he inflated his résumé." Potvin said that he did not know the identity of the editor who added the "investigative reporting" accolades to the Wikipedia article. "'I have my readers,' he added, 'and I think there are people who would say that. It's not a thing which you can be factually wrong or right about. I think I am an investigative journalist. I investigate. I write. But I think facts are just what people say they are.'"
Potvin wrote a rejoinder in The Republic claiming that the Globe and Mail article was motivated by its author's personal dislike of him and his criticism of the journalism taught in journalism schools. In making his case, Potvin pointed out that while the article was ostensibly about the accuracy of Wikipedia, the encyclopedia was mentioned 12 times in the article compared with 26 references to himself, "who is, on the national stage, a nobody." The editor of the Globe and Mail, however, rejected Potvin's arguments and refused to print a retraction.
Potvin has also been a contributor to the Globe and Mail.
He wrote, "When I saw the first tower cascade down into that enormous plume of dust and paper, there was a little voice inside me that said, 'Yeah!' When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said, 'Beautiful!' When the visage of the Pentagon appeared on the TV with a gaping and smoking hole in its side, that little voice had nearly taken me over, and I felt an urge to pump my fist in the air"
Potvin subsequently told the press, "If you read the story that I wrote, you'll notice that I'm talking about it on a symbolic level . . . I go to great pains to make clear that I'm not talking about the deaths of anybody. After all, as you can imagine, I'm a human being. I'm a father, I'm a hockey dad, I'm a businessman, I'm a community leader. I'm obviously not going to be revelling in the deaths of anybody."
In regards to 9/11 conspiracy theories, he has stated that he does not believe the official version of the events on September 11, 2001 is any more credible than alternative explanations.
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. He founded and runs the Magpie Magazine Gallery, a retail store on Commercial Drive
Commercial Drive (Vancouver)
Commercial Drive is a roadway in the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada that goes through the neighbourhood of Grandview-Woodland. However, the neighbourhood is so dominated by the businesses, cultural facilities, and residents along Commercial Drive that the area is far better known as...
, and The Republic of East Vancouver
The Republic (newspaper)
The Republic is a liberal local paper, published fortnightly from 2000 to 2008, in East Vancouver, an area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada....
, an alternative bi-weekly newspaper. Since 1995 he has written a regular opinion column in the Vancouver Courier
Vancouver Courier
The Vancouver Courier is a Canadian semiweekly local newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia by Postmedia Network Inc. Currently, it is Canada's largest distributed community newspaper, with a weekly distribtuion of 265,000...
. His forays into electoral politics have proven controversial, particularly because of his views on Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
.
Politics
In 2005 Potvin ran for councillorCouncillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
in the Vancouver municipal election
Vancouver municipal election, 2005
The City of Vancouver, along with the rest of British Columbia, held its triennial municipal elections on November 19, 2005. Canadian citizens who were over 18 years of age at the time of the vote, and had been a resident of Vancouver for the past 30 days and a resident of B.C...
. He received 10,806 votes, placing 22nd in the polls (with the first ten being elected to council), gaining the most votes for an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
.
In the fall of 2006, he was elected president of the Grandview-Woodland
Grandview-Woodland
Grandview-Woodland, also commonly known as Grandview-Woodlands, is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to the east of the downtown area, stretching south from the shores of Burrard Inlet and encompassing portions of the popular Commercial Drive area...
Area Council.
On 15 April 2007, Elizabeth May
Elizabeth May
Elizabeth Evans May, OC, MP is an American-born Canadian Member of Parliament, environmentalist, writer, activist, lawyer, and the leader of the Green Party of Canada. She was the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada from 1989 to 2006. She became a Canadian citizen in 1978.May's...
, leader of the Green Party of Canada
Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and...
, issued a release stating that Potvin would not be allowed to run as a candidate in the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway
Vancouver Kingsway
Vancouver Kingsway is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1953 to 1988 and since 1997. It is located in Vancouver.-Demographics:...
. The decision was made after a controversy developed over an article Potvin wrote following the September 11 attacks (see below). May cited Potvin's remarks as "antithetical" to Green Party values.
Globe and Mail report
On May 6, 2006, The Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
printed an article on the debate over Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
's reliability based on Kevin Potvin's entry on himself. Potvin told The Globe and Mail that he created the entry as part of his political campaign to get elected to Vancouver City Council
Vancouver City Council
Vancouver City Council is the governing body of the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.The city is governed by the Vancouver Charter, not the Community Charter and the Local Government Act which are used for other municipal governments...
.
Regarding Potvin's claim that his work had appeared in Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
and the The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, the paper said: "According to Harper's magazine, Mr. Potvin had a letter to the editor printed once, in November of 1992. The Atlantic could find no record of Mr. Potvin -- he says he wrote ' a substantial letter to the editor' in 1987, but the magazine does not archive letters."
According to the newspaper, when asked about his Wikipedia entry, Potvin "disagreed that it was misleading, or that he inflated his résumé." Potvin said that he did not know the identity of the editor who added the "investigative reporting" accolades to the Wikipedia article. "'I have my readers,' he added, 'and I think there are people who would say that. It's not a thing which you can be factually wrong or right about. I think I am an investigative journalist. I investigate. I write. But I think facts are just what people say they are.'"
Potvin wrote a rejoinder in The Republic claiming that the Globe and Mail article was motivated by its author's personal dislike of him and his criticism of the journalism taught in journalism schools. In making his case, Potvin pointed out that while the article was ostensibly about the accuracy of Wikipedia, the encyclopedia was mentioned 12 times in the article compared with 26 references to himself, "who is, on the national stage, a nobody." The editor of the Globe and Mail, however, rejected Potvin's arguments and refused to print a retraction.
Potvin has also been a contributor to the Globe and Mail.
Remarks about 9/11 attacks
On April 12, 2007, Public Eye Online reported that Potvin had written an article in 2002 about the September 11, 2001 attacks in which he reported his reaction to the planes hitting the twin towers.He wrote, "When I saw the first tower cascade down into that enormous plume of dust and paper, there was a little voice inside me that said, 'Yeah!' When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said, 'Beautiful!' When the visage of the Pentagon appeared on the TV with a gaping and smoking hole in its side, that little voice had nearly taken me over, and I felt an urge to pump my fist in the air"
Potvin subsequently told the press, "If you read the story that I wrote, you'll notice that I'm talking about it on a symbolic level . . . I go to great pains to make clear that I'm not talking about the deaths of anybody. After all, as you can imagine, I'm a human being. I'm a father, I'm a hockey dad, I'm a businessman, I'm a community leader. I'm obviously not going to be revelling in the deaths of anybody."
In regards to 9/11 conspiracy theories, he has stated that he does not believe the official version of the events on September 11, 2001 is any more credible than alternative explanations.
External links
- The Republic of East Vancouver, newspaper published by Kevin Potvin.
- The Vancouver Courier, newspaper with a regular column by Kevin Potvin.