VDLC President Stephen Von Zychowski announces a quintet of left-of-centre Vancouver civic parties have reached a brokered agreement-in-principle, that would see them work together to avoid vote splitting in the upcoming October municipal election.
On March 17th of this year, Vancouver & District Labour Council President Stephen Von Zychowski announced that the labour group that has has long played a role in local politics, would attempt to broker an arrangement among Vancouver’s five progressive parties — OneCity Vancouver, the Green Party of Vancouver, the Coalition of Progressive Electors, Vision Vancouver, and TeamJean 2018 — as to how many candidates each progressive civic party would run, with the aim of keeping the traditionally right-leaning Non-Partisan Association from winning power at City Hall.
On May 5th, representatives from the five Vancouver progressive civic parties met at the Croatian Centre — at an event called the Crossroads Conference — to see if it might be possible to hammer out a deal where combined Vancouver’s progressive parties would run no more than 10 candidates for Council, 9 candidates for School Board, and 7 candidates for Park Board, which represents the number of open seats on each civic body.
Last evening, the Vancouver & District Labour Council announced a brokered deal had been negotiated with the five progressive civic parties.
Anna Chudnovsky, a co-chairperson of OneCity Vancouver, said her party had agreed to limit the candidates it would run to two for Vancouver City Council, and three for Vancouver School Board.
Hypothetically, had an agreement not been reached, OneCity may have decided to run more candidates, she told Sun reporter Matt Robinson.
The purpose of the deals Ms. Chudnovsky told the Sun reporter was …
” … to indicate to voters that it is possible to defeat the NPA and other emerging right-wing forces in the city, and that voters can do that by following the recommendations of the Labour Council.”
Michael Haack, a Vision Vancouver co-chair, called the agreements a great deal both for his party as well as for progressive voters across the city. He said Vision had agreed to limit its candidates to five for Council, three for school board and two for parks.
“This agreement is really important because the issues that are facing Vancouverites are big enough that we need to keep working together to solve them with bold and progressive leadership,” Haack said.
The brokered deal came the day after the right-of-centre Non-Partisan Association members chose local entrepreneur Ken Sim to represent the party as its mayoral candidate in the upcoming October civic election.
If prospective Vision Vancouver mayoral aspirant Ian Campbell is nominated on June 19th to carry the party’s banner, and should he win the Vancouver civic election race, the party would retain control City Hall.
One would imagine that Vision Vancouver retaining a stranglehold on city governance likely won’t sit well with members of Vancouver’s four other progressive parties, but for the moment no left-of-centre civic party is weighing in on the prospect.
In a phone interview with Georgia Straight civic affairs reporter Carlito Pablo, the Green Party of Vancouver’s Pete Fry told The Straight that his party’s agreement with the VDLC involves three Green candidates each for council, school board, and park board.
Current Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr, Mr. Fry and Michael Wiebe, recent Park Board Chair, and current Commissioner, are widely expected to emerge as the Green Party’s candidates for Vancouver City Council.
In addition to Vision, OneCity and Green Party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the TeamJean 2018 activist group — named for 2017 Vancouver by-election candidate and community activist, Jean Swanson — are expected to sign respective agreements with the VDLC following meetings with members.
Informed sources tell VanRamblings that COPE will run two candidates for each of Council, Park and School Board, while TeamJean 2018 will run only a single Council candidate, likely Jean Swanson.
Seeking COPE nominations as Park Board candidates are SFU lecturer John Irwin and Gwen Giesbrecht, president of the Britannia community services centre’s board of management. Looking to run for school board are indigenous advocate Diana Day, and retired teacher Barb Parrott.
UBC planning professor Patrick Condon will likely make a run for Mayor, joining a crowded left-of-centre field that includes former Vision Vancouver board member Shauna Sylvester, now former Burnaby South NDP MP Kennedy Stewart, and Vision Vancouver mayoral nominee Ian Campbell. The Greens’ Adriane Carr is not expected to announce a run for Mayor.
The VDLC negotiated agreement will allow candidates for the five progressive civic parties to criticize one another.
Tickets, at $100, for COPE’s 50th anniversary celebration are available here.
