Dan Fumano: The F-bomb episode at Vancouver city council represented a rare public display of acrimony between members of the same party. It didn't come out of nowhere

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It can be difficult to get people to pay attention to municipal government, but this week, Vancouver city council found a way to do it — just not the way it would have wanted.

When ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung took issue with a procedural matter in Wednesday’s meeting, declaring “This is not the Wild West of f—ing procedure,” it drew a lot of notice. Online broadcasts of council meetings often have a mere dozen or so viewers. But within hours, the clip of Kirby-Yung’s comments and the ensuing fracas was viewed tens of thousands of times.

Taken on its own, Kirby-Yung’s exclamation appeared to come out of nowhere, a seemingly disproportionate response to a disagreement over procedure.

But it was actually the culmination of what had already been a particularly heated week at council. The tension was palpable not only between rivals, but among ABC party colleagues.

“I think this week was more emotionally intense than I’ve seen on council,” the longest-serving councillor, Green representative Adriane Carr, said Thursday. “People’s tempers were flaring. … I’ve never seen such tension as I’m seeing now.”

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The mayor walking around eating, Sarah Kirby-Yung losing it at Klassen, the abrupt chaos of a council that is fueled by spite. Provincial politics has nothing on this. #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/qWUXk8g6Bm

Earlier Wednesday, there was a somewhat confrontational exchange when Green Coun. Pete Fry asked ABC........

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