Dan Fumano: If these three parties and their candidates — who supposedly get along and are relatively aligned ideologically — can’t figure out a deal pretty quickly, that might say something else to Vancouver voters
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Four months after Vancouver’s three left-of-centre parties publicly pledged to work together to determine which of their respective mayoral candidates was best suited to unseat incumbent Mayor Ken Sim, all three are still in the race.
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With the nomination period officially opening next week, that could change soon, with one or two candidates dropping out to throw their support behind one progressive mayoral hopeful.
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The three left-leaning parties — the Greens, COPE, and OneCity — are still talking, their representatives said this week. And they believe a “unity deal” can be achieved.
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Sunrise
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But while these parties are aligned on wanting to replace the right-of-centre Sim and his ABC Vancouver city council majority, they disagree on which of the three candidates is best-positioned to lead that charge: the Greens’ Pete Fry, COPE’s Stephanie Allen, or OneCity’s William Azaroff.
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The Greens say their candidate has the name recognition and polling in his favour. OneCity say they have the best-funded and organized electoral machine, having raised more money last year than the other two parties combined.
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And COPE, the most socialist party, says they’re buoyed by their strong performance in last year’s council byelection, as well as recent municipal wins by democratic socialists everywhere from Victoria city council to the mayor’s offices of Seattle and New York.
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They’re running out of time to get on the same page though.
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The nomination period opens next Tuesday, Sept. 1, and closes the following Friday, Sept. 11.
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In April, OneCity, the Greens and COPE announced they had agreed to nominate no more than five council candidates each, and to reconvene in July for good-faith talks about which party’s mayoral candidate presented the best chance at victory.
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Despite the fanfare, with the parties trumpeting a “landmark agreement,” some on the left saw the accord as lacking.
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“We’ve got three parties presenting themselves as a team, but … it’s a team that’s running 15 candidates for 10 seats and three people for mayor,” Vancouver and District Labour Council president Stephen von Sychowski told me in May. “And the question of mayor, there’s not a real plan in there: it’s, ‘We’re going to discuss it more in July and try to get to a solution.’ So we’re concerned.”
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July came and went without a unity candidate. Now it’s almost September.
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In late June, the labour council, which has a long history of involvement in left-wing Vancouver politics, endorsed Azaroff and OneCity, as was widely expected. Unlike in past elections, when the labour council endorsed candidates from a range of left-leaning parties, this time around, the union organization backed only OneCity council candidates, announcing they wouldn’t back any council candidate from a party running an opposing mayoral candidate.
