Presumed NPA mayoralty candidate Kirk LaPointe apparently vetting NPA team members
Word out of the Non-Partisan Association camp (not official, of course) suggests that Vancouver’s natural governing party finds itself still two to three weeks away from announcing their slate of conscientious candidates who will seek elected office in the upcoming November 15th Vancouver civic election, on Vancouver City Council, Park Board and the Board of Education.
Although the selected few who will receive the endorsement of the party is still hush-hush, VanRamblings has learned the names of seven of the eight purple revolution members of the probable New Progressive Association slate: incumbents Elizabeth Ball and George Affleck; former Park Board chair Ian Robertson; current Park Board Commissioners Melissa DeGenova and John Coupar; longtime NPA Board member Rob McDowell (one of our town’s good guys); entrepreneur Greg Baker (founder of PC Galore, and son of former City Councillor / municipal affairs lawyer, Jonathan); as well as a yet unrevealed high profile member of Vancouver’s Chinese community.
The hold up in the Non-Partisan Association candidate reveal?
Apparently, following a thorough and exhaustive vetting process by the NPA’s Board of Directors (which did not include party President, Peter Armstrong) — the vetting process also engaging a handful of longtime party stalwarts — putative New Progressive Association mayoralty candidate Kirk LaPointe informed the party that he wished to be given the opportunity (since granted) to vet the members of the NPA candidate team he’ll be running with this fall, in order to gain an assurance that all members of the NPA slate will be rowing together in the same direction towards (a much-needed, for beleaguered Vancouver voters) victory this autumn.
Jamie Lee Hamilton Withdraws From COPE Park Board Race
Respected community activist, and longtime Park Board watchdog, Jamie Lee Hamilton has withdrawn her name for consideration as a potential COPE Park Board candidate, in the upcoming 2014 Vancouver civic election — allowing her, as an independent candidate, to speak freely on the myriad parks and recreation issues she has valiantly championed over the years.
In 2014, the principled Ms. Hamilton will run under the IDEA banner, as she did in the 2011 Vancouver civic election, when she held Vision Vancouver, NPA and COPE candidates feet to the fire on parks and recreation issues, garnering a substantial 19,496 votes — the top independent candidate vote getter, in 2011, seeking a seat at the Vancouver Park Board table.
Since making her announcement of her intention to run as an independent candidate for Park Board this autumn, Ms. Hamilton has spoken out on two issues of concern to her …
I’m very unhappy to learn that Vision Vancouver placed a bike lane right through the children’s playground at Ceperly Park in Stanley Park.
The children play there on the fire truck and their playground is across from the fire truck. Cyclists are at high speed coming down the hill to access the bike underpass. Very tragic today (June 22) that three little children were knocked to the ground by the cyclists.
What the hell is Park Board thinking? Three Park Commissioners have small children and they should be speaking out!
Ms. Hamilton also weighed in on the Vision Park Board nominations …
What this commentary (on Frances Bula’s blog) misses is that the new young slate was put together by the waspy backroom of Vision.
These new faces were also willing participants to the deal-making of the backroom. This tells me that these new faces are willing to go along with being directed by the backroom. This is no different than the current Vision Commissioners who always and still do as they are told. This new younger crop may be the new faces of Vision but sadly for voters it is still the same old Vision.
And the only outcome of moving forward with Vision will be the complete dismantling of an independent Park Board!
VanRamblings’ recommendation: if you’re not following Jamie Lee Hamilton on Facebook, you oughta. Make a point, as well, of reading Ms. Hamilton’s frequent commentaries in The Straight, as well as on other online sites.
