On Monday, VanRamblings published the reasons why Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner’s mayoral candidacy was rejected by the party he sits with on Council, the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association. Since publication, further information has come to VanRamblings attention, in respect of Mr. Bremner’s now truncated candidacy for Mayor, and how his bid for the NPA mayoral nomination came about in the first place.
Given the involvement of longtime B.C. Liberal party fixer Mark Marissen, readers will probably find it rather elementary to put two and two together, to determine that the Andrew Wilkinson-led provincial Liberal party had everything and more to do with novice Vancouver City Councillor Hector Bremner’s decision to seek the Non-Partisan Association mayoral nod.
Part 1: How Hector Bremner Came to Be a Mayoral Nominee for the NPA
On May 9, 2017, the B.C. Liberal party fell out of power, after 16 years in control of the British Columbia legislature. Following the resignation of former Premier Christy Clark as leader of her party, on February 3rd of this year, Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Andrew Wilkinson won the leadership of the renewed B.C. Liberal party.
Once at the helm of the now opposition provincial political party, newly-installed Liberal party leader Wilkinson hired Harvard-educated Vancouver lawyer, Paul Barbeau, as his “special assistant“. Mr. Barbeau, a longtime respected activist in the federal Conservative party, is a founding partner of the prestigious Vancouver law firm of Barbeau, Evans & Goldstein.
Mr. Barbeau’s job for the B.C. Liberal leader: join (or is that, infiltrate?) the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, with designs on taking over the Vancouver civic party in time for the 2018 Vancouver municipal election.
Andrew Wilkinson told Mr. Barbeau that the B.C. Liberals required a political power base in Vancouver, and an opportunity to test-run the party’s electoral readiness machine, with the upcoming Vancouver civic election providing the best possible circumstance to achieve both ends. Hector Bremner — a B.C. Liberal acolyte — would be their stalking horse.
Consulting with Marissen & Mike Wilson — a veteran B.C. Liberal operative, and Mr. Bremner’s campaign manager in last year’s successful Vancouver municipal by-election — Barbeau brought Marissen and Wilson on board to run a winning Hector Bremner mayoral bid for the NPA nomination.
On February 19th of this year, Hector Bremner published a Facebook post, writing that he would be running for the mayoral nomination of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association, writing, “I’m excited today, with the support of my wife Virginia and two kids Carlo and Gianluca, to confirm that I am seeking the NPA nomination for Mayor of our great city Vancouver.”
With successful and experienced campaign managers Marissen and Wilson at the helm of Hector Bremner’s mayoral nomination bid, all seemed to be falling into place nicely for the B.C. Liberal party leader’s plan to take over Vancouver civic politics, and establish an electoral power base for his party.
To seal the deal, Mr. Barbeau — now a member of the Non-Partisan Association — offered his services to the NPA Board, stating that he would be “willing” to sit on the party’s Green Light Committee, if the Board so wished … which they did. At this point, everyone was happy!
But not for long, as it would turn out.
As Globe and Mail civic affairs columnist Frances Bula has written, NPA election readiness has become a real soap opera. But we’re not there yet.
Paul Barbeau, then, would sit on the Green Light Committee vetting Mr. Bremner’s candidacy to become the NPA’s mayoral nominee.
Part 2: How Hector Bremner Lost the NPA Mayoral Nomination
A Tale of Much Sadness and Woe for Everyone Involved. Or, the Destruction of the NPA.
In fact, sources have told VanRamblings, on the three-person NPA Green Light Committee, Mr. Barbeau emerged as the only committee member to heartily endorse Mr. Bremner’s candidacy, with the other two members of the committee expressing reservations, which they would take to members of the NPA Board of Directors, recommending rejection of Mr. Bremner’s nomination application, based on those reservations — as outlined in VanRamblings’ Monday column, and in a column written by Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter, Dan Fumano, in which he writes …
The Non-Partisan Association shot down their own sitting caucus member’s bid for its mayoral nomination because of, among other things, concerns that his day job left him in an “inherently conflicted” position.
That allegation was among the “serious concerns” outlined in a two-page letter sent Sunday evening from NPA president Gregory Baker to NPA Coun. Hector Bremner, according to a person who had reviewed the document.
Sunday’s letter came at the end of a tumultuous week for the city’s oldest political party, after the NPA board voted last Monday to reject Bremner’s attempt to seek the party’s mayoral nomination, prompting a series of departures from the party, including prospective candidates and two board members, as Postmedia News reported last Friday. By Monday, another director had departed, bringing the total to three.
On Monday morning Baker released a statement saying he had sent a “confidential letter” to Bremner the previous evening, “outlining in detail the reasons why the NPA board did not approve his mayoral application.”
“Although the NPA does not plan to publicly release this information, Mr. Bremner is within his rights to release the information, as well as the contents of the letter, as he sees fit,” Baker said in the statement.
The letter hasn’t been released publicly, but a person who had a copy of it read excerpts to The Vancouver Sun over the phone Monday and described parts of it, including the list of the NPA’s concerns about Bremner’s application.
The letter outlines the NPA’s “serious concerns” about Bremner’s application, beginning with Bremner’s request (ed. note., as was reported by VanRamblings on Monday) that his lawyer could accompany him to the Green Light Committee meeting to discuss his prospects of being on the ballot for the NPA’s nomination meeting May 29.
The letter cites three conflict-of-interest complaints involving Bremner’s work with the Pace Group, a media-relations and lobbying firm. Baker confirmed Monday that the three complaints referenced in the letter were those filed by two locals named Raza Mirza and Justin Fung. Mirza and Fung, both of whom spoke last month to Postmedia about their complaints, said they had recently signed up for NPA memberships. Both expressed concerns about Bremner’s suitability for the city’s top job.
As a reminder to readers, Messrs. Mirza and Fung are co-founders of HALT Vancouver — Housing Action for Local Taxpayers — and avowed supporters of Bremner nemesis, Glen Chernen, whose mayoral nomination was approved by the NPA Board, Monday, May 7th.
VanRamblings has to ask: are there any winners in this mishegoss?
B.C. Liberal Party leader, Andrew Wilkinson? No. Paul Barbeau? No.
Hector Bremner? No. NPA President Gregory Baker? No. The Board of Directors, and members, of the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association. Definitely not. Mark Marissen, Mike Wilson, Glen Chernen and his acolytes, Raza Mirza and Justin Fung? Only time will tell — but it ain’t lookin’ good.
