Time to revisit the slate of candidates — and question marks — for the mayoralty in the City of Vancouver, just over five months prior to October 20 civic election. PT’s previous wanderings over this turf are HERE and HERE.
And the noise level keeps rising, as we all watch the march….into Splitsville?
Within the right-wing NPA, 5 people (4 with some chance of winning on May 29) are running for the Mayoral nomination. 
And issues may actually be playing a part, particularly when they’re about opening up more of Vancouver’s land for greater density (well beyond laneway houses and in-house suites).
Perhaps some comfortably-housed, low-density NPA members feel the threat from within, in the form of current NPA councillor Hector (“Rezone-it”) Bremner. He’s been taking public flack, and with sweetly coincidental timing, the NPA’s nomination process (the green-light committee) itself is under public scrutiny. [With thanks to Frances Bula in the Globe and Travis Lupick in the Straight].
On the fractious left, the noise has increased in the absence of support for the fabled Unity Candidate. Perhaps at this stage, the focus is on strong name recognition, in hopes this will override voters’ party affiliations or left-right tendencies. And don’t bother me with issues just yet.
Councilor Adriane “I’m Green” Carr, current poll-topper, with major name recognition, good alphabet (“C”), and biggest councilor vote-getter in the 2014 civic election, ponders: Give up council seat, win mayor’s chair; Give up council seat, get no chair; Help the left with unity, help the right via vote-splitting; ride the status quo for 4 more years.
Vision Vancouver has announced their intention to big-foot any potential lefty unity candidate by selecting a mayoral candidate on June 24, with candidates’ papers due on May 11. Cue the big names.
From Vision’s Co-chair Michael Haack (4 May 2018): However, with less than six months to the election, none of the potential [unity] candidates emerged as a consensus choice, nor to date has been able to secure cross-party support, which would be essential to the success of an independent campaign.
After receiving multiple expressions of interest from potential candidates for mayor, and based on the level of interest from candidates committed to Vision Vancouver, our members, and our principles, we are pleased to let our members know that we will be opening nominations for a Vision Vancouver candidate for mayor in the upcoming 2018 municipal election. [Ed. emphasis].
The threats that the NPA present should not be underestimated. The NPA has already made it clear they intend to reverse many of the progressive policies Vision has implemented over the past 10 years – policies that made our city one of the best in the world to live, work, and play. Vancouver is at a critical moment, and the out-of-touch NPA are gearing up to take Vancouver in the wrong direction, whether it’s cancelling the empty homes tax or ripping out bike lanes.
OneCity won’t support Carr (with some caveats), which likely drops the unity candidate idea even further into the weeds.
