Hector Bremner alleges racist intent as reason for NPA rejection of his mayoral bid
As VanRamblings wrote yesterday, the Board of Directors of Vancouver’s longest serving civic party, the Non-Partisan Association, on Monday informed NPA Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner that his bid to become the party’s mayoral candidate had been rejected by the Board.
And, as we also wrote …
As you might well expect, Mr. Bremner, his family and his many supporters — both inside and outside of the party (sitting Vancouver School Board trustee, Lisa Dominato, is one such supporter) — were devastated at hearing the unwelcome news from their party’s Board of Directors.
Throughout the day Tuesday, VanRamblings heard reports that since hearing the unwelcome news Mr. Bremner was devastated, despondent and angry. Would Mr. Bremner simply sit back, and take the slight to his reputation as par for the course in political life, run once again for Council and live on to fight another day, or would he come out guns a blazing at what he considered to be the unfair decision of the NPA Board of Directors?
Late last evening, Vancouver politicos’ answer to that question came in the form of a blistering column penned by Susan Lazaruk for the Vancouver Sun, in which he accused the Non-Partisan Association Board, and the party itself, of lacking transparency, being stuck in an old “backroom boys mentality” and — most damaging of all to the NPA’s prospects of winning government at City Hall this upcoming October — ”displaying an anti-immigrant bias”, both in the selection and the vetting of their candidates for public office. Bremner’s allegations are explosive and unprecedented in the history of Vancouver municipal political internal party struggles.
VanRamblings will hold off on weighing in on the current NPA contretemps until Monday, when we will publish an expansive piece as response to the allegations being made by Mr. Bremner, and others, and the as yet undisclosed reasons why Mr. Bremner’s mayoral candidacy was rejected which, we understand, are quite as explosive as Mr. Bremner’s untoward allegations of racist bias in the operation of the internal mechanisms of decision-making within the windward Vancouver Non-Partisan Association.
For the record, as we wrote to well-known political operative Mark Marissen late last evening …
You know, Mark, I like a fair fight.
Whoever wins, wins. Sometimes the playing field isn’t level, sometimes the game is rigged, the outcome pre-determined and the result not fair. Sort of like the great Canadian game, hockey.
But, you know what? Life isn’t fair. We’ve both lived on this planet long enough to know that.
While I appreciate your linking to Dan Fumano’s April 27th article in The Sun, and I very much appreciate what Wade Grant has to say: for the record, I do not believe that (NPA Board of Directors Chair) Gregory Baker, (Park Board Commissioners) John Coupar, Sarah Kirby-Yung and Casey Crawford, (sitting NPA City Councillors) George Affleck, Elizabeth Ball and Melissa De Genova, (NPA School Board trustees) Lisa Dominato and Fraser Ballantyne, (current NPA mayoral nominee hopeful) Glen Chernen, and my friends Christopher Richardson and Robert McDowell — not to mention good and socially conscious folks like Kirk LaPointe and Peter Armstrong, despite the fact that they are all white, are racists.
Neither do I believe that the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association is a racist party and organization — the NPA may be many things the so-called “progressive forces” in Vancouver don’t like, but racist?
That’s not only an untoward suggestion, it is an outrageous — and we would suggest to you — completely and utterly unwarranted charge, based on the inclusive history of the NPA in selecting and championing the interests of their diverse candidates — Erin Shum, Jay Jagpal, Ken Low and Sandy Sharma running as NPA candidates in 2014, with Bill Yuen and Frances Wong running strong NPA campaigns for office in 2011 — and all of the other fine candidates representing the spectrum of communities that make Vancouver, Vancouver, civic election after civic election.
Based on what I know and what I have observed first hand — and, I bet, you have experienced and know about the members of the NPA, as well — the members of the various NPA Boards of Director, the members of the party, and the NPA candidates running for office comprise, as a group, and as a political organization, not only some of the finest political minds who have gifted Vancouver’s political landscape, but some of the finest, most heart-filled, and socially forward-thinking persons it has been my privilege to get to know.
I sleep better at night, and I enjoy my life more each and every day, knowing that fine folks like the ones whose names are mentioned above play a key role in the governance of our city.
I heard from various sources earlier (yesterday), that you — as Hector’s campaign manager — were acting as a moderating force to keep Hector’s worst instincts (sort of like keeping Trump’s worst instincts) at bay, that you had convinced Hector to play the long game, to live to fight another day (stacking the NPA Executive with your own people is a tried-and-true political tactic to gain control of an organization), that Hector would run in 2018 as a Council candidate, and come back guns a blazin’ in 2022 to take the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association by storm, take the Mayoral slot in a landslide, and go onto civic victory in October of that year.
I guess not. Not if you read the Vancouver Sun article.
Take a breath. As I wish that everyone on the so-called “progressive” side of Vancouver’s political landscape might get it together, and run candidates for office in some sort of informal ‘progressive coalition’, to forward their civic agenda.
Almost needless to say, and as you might well imagine, I wish the same thing for the nominally right-of-centre folks in the NPA and those who once saw the NPA as their political home.
Time to stop the infighting. Everyone involved in the current NPA fiasco — inside and outside the party — should seek to find peace and resolution, and mount a campaign that best serves the interests of the citizens of Vancouver. I mean, after all, isn’t that why you — and every one else you know who is politically engaged — dedicate yourself to public life?
VanRamblings writes about politics — municipally, provincially and federally, and in every other forum (our housing co-op governance has long driven us just crazy for its lack of true and respectful democratic engagement) — because we care desperately about democracy, and the right of the people to be truly engaged in the life of their city, province and nation.
The current internal political shenanigans troubling the Non-Partisan Association ill serve the interests of democracy. Oh sure, to seasoned politicos, the NPA’s political adversaries, and even to the casual observer, the current NPA contretemps all seems like so much fun and game playing in the old political corral, a perverse and voyeuristic look inside the malodorous internal workings of a political party riven with dysfunction.
Not to VanRamblings it doesn’t — not when there are life and death issues on the line: homelessness; maltreatment and the underserving of the interests of our most vulnerable citizens; continuing rampant poverty in our city that drains hope from those living in wont, and sees one in five children going to school hungry each day; a lack of affordable housing that constitutes a crisis in our city for tens of thousands of our citizens.
A transit and active transportation system that requires our close attention; the all-too-frequent displays in our city of racism and bigotry towards our Jewish population, and towards persons of colour and our immigrant and refugee populations; and perhaps most egregiously of all in 2018, a still seemingly unbreakable glass ceiling for women who live in our city, women who are still not safe walking alone in neighbourhoods in our the city, and on Vancouver streets whatever the time of day, whatever the circumstance.
Vancouver Non-Partisan Association: you’re better than this. Mr. Bremner and Mr. Marissen, you’re better than this. Seek to bridge the chasm that now separates you. Perhaps Board Chair Greg Baker needs to consider appointing an independent third party to look into Mr. Bremner’s allegations, the concerns of Mr. Grant, and others. The roiling battle within the NPA does no one any good, neither Mr. Bremner, nor your party.
As a political party offering candidates in the critically important 2018 Vancouver municipal election, you’re supposed to be our leaders, you’re supposed to be focused on making life better for those whom you propose to serve while elected to public office. The NPA’s internal dissension not only ill-serves your party, it ill-serves the interests of Vancouver’s citizenry.
