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Gearing up for Vancouver’s 2011 election: fundraisers, nominations and more

October 19th, 2010 · 2 Comments

The Non-Partisan Association is getting into gear this week for next year’s election with a fundraising dinner — an event they used to hold every year but which was noticeable by its absence last year.

The event, starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Italian Cultural Centre (see you there!), should be a good sign of how many of the faithful are still out there. The NPA is feeling cheerier about all this these days, after a run of self-inflicted Vision bloopers combined with an improved batting average from both citycaucus.com and Suzanne Anton in getting the media to focus on negative stories about Vision.

The association aimed to bring together as many mayors and mayoral candidates as they could for the meeting. Unfortunately for them, Philip Owen and Bill Vander Zalm are both out of town, while Gordon Campbell first bowed in then bowed out, according to current president John Moonen. But former mayor Sam Sullivan will be the keynote speaker, and also present will be Jennifer Clarke, Peter Ladner and Jonathan Baker.

The fundraiser comes a month before a Nov. 20 nomination meeting the NPA has set. Also according to John, they will be nominating for the following: two council positions, one park board, one school board. As I understand it, the current NPA councillors/trustees/commissioners won’t run for these. They’re intended for new people who will help “lighten the load” for the elected reps, especially lone voices Suzanne Anton at council and Ian Robertson at park board.

No word yet on who might be running for those positions. Certain Visionistas were spreading the rumour that Laura Jones, vp of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and vocal opponent of the city’s choice of Hornby as a bike lane, might be considering it. Laura laughed when I asked her and said I was the first person she’d heard that from. No, she’s not considering it.

Just to keep us up to date on nomination news with the ruling party, Vision has not set a date or rules yet, says ED Ian Baillie. Will it be an open nomination? No decision yet. When will it be? No decision yet. (Really, people, I need to plan my miserable few weeks of holidays. Can you not get on the ball and schedule this?)

Is there any truth to the rumour I’ve heard that the party might ask candidates to sign commitments that they won’t bail partway through their terms to run provincially? (Could be tempting for lefties if Gordon Campbell’s current poll numbers stay at the same abysmal levels.)

“That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” says Baillie. “But I wouldn’t take that off the table.”

I didn’t ask about whether there’s any agreement between COPE and Vision re an agreement on splitting seats. As others have reported, that’s all up in the air and will continue to be for a long time, I suspect.

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