COPE councillors David Cadman and Ellen Woodsworth are in a predicament that's familiar to anyone who has been in a bad relationship.

They both supported Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson, only to discover that Vision isn’t really interested in bringing COPE councillors into any sort of coalition arrangement.

This week, Vision did not appoint Cadman to the board of Metro Vancouver. Cadman has demonstrated a great passion for regional issues for 30 years.

Vision also didn’t appoint Woodsworth to the Homeless Emergency Action Team. Woodsworth has exhibited a  deep interest in addressing homelessness for many years.

Cadman and Woodsworth are both supporters of the provincial New Democrats, so they’re not going to want to trigger a split in the city's  left leading up to the May, 2009 provincial election.

But there comes a point when they’re going to wonder if they’re in an abusive relationship with Vision Vancouver.

Look at what’s happened in the past.

In 1999, Cadman spent nearly $30,000 of his own money building up a united left to challenge the NPA under then-mayor Philip Owen.

Cadman took the bullet for his party by running for mayor that year. He’s smart enough to know that he was probably going to lose. But he also guessed that through his efforts, others would be elected. That’s exactly what occurred.

In 2002, Cadman agreed not to run for mayor again with COPE even though he knew he could win. He graciously stepped aside so that Larry Campbell could run and win. Cadman even lent the party $50,000.  After the election, he  was given the consolation prize of being COPE’s front man at the regional level.

In 2004, the right-leaning COPE faction (Campbell, Jim Green, Raymond Louie, and Tim Stevenson) bowed to pressure from organized labour and supported a transit plan that barely put a dent in traffic congestion. This plan also shortchanged transit riders by sharply scaling back a planned increase to the bus fleet.

Cadman, Woodsworth, and other so-called COPE Classic councillors had grave reservations about a centrepiece of the transit plan: the gold-plated rapid-transit project to the airport.

This was a catalyst for the right-leaning COPE members to form an independent caucus.

So what did Cadman do? He tried to build bridges with his former colleagues. It didn't work.

In 2005, the right-leaning COPE gang of four formed a separate party called Vision Vancouver. They walked away from COPE’s campaign debts, leaving Cadman and company to hold the bag.

Cadman and Woodsworth soldiered on, with Cadman managing to get reelected later that year. Then they tried to work out an arrangement with Vision once again. They supported a more moderate COPE board slate that wouldn't run a candidate against Vision Vancouver's mayoral nominee.

Woodsworth went out of her way to defeat Vision's bete noir, former councillor Tim Louis, for the second COPE council nomination.

After Vision nominated Robertson, Cadman and Woodsworth agreed to support his candidacy.  They reached an agreement with Vision guaranteeing that COPE could run only two candidates for council and three candidates for park board. This ensured COPE could  have no chance of controlling either civic body.

They also  didn’t badmouth Vision politicians, who clearly got the better end of the deal. And Cadman and Woodsworth were both elected to council last month thanks in part to Robertson's broad  appeal across the city.

So what happened next? Vision stiffed them again by not giving them representation on the regional board or on the homelessness task force.

When one party in a relationship repeatedly refuses to open its heart and give generously, it’s usually time for the other party to reassess the situation.

For the past six years, Cadman and Woodsworth have been “enabling” bad behaviour by Vision representatives. If  I was a counsellor and Cadman and Woodworth  were in therapy, I would advise them to terminate this relationship immediately. Nobody, not even a politician, deserves this much abuse.