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Speculation rampant about NPA candidates: journalist LaPointe in? Macdonald out

May 29th, 2014 · 22 Comments

Great excitement this week when Mike Howell at the Vancouver Courier was first up to publish news about the rumours that former Vancouver Sun editor, former CBC ombudsman Kirk LaPointe is being considered by the NPA as a mayoral candidate.

Mike actually got a live interview with LaPointe that confirmed there’s some kind of negotiation going on (LaPointe also told me by email “it’s still a process” and nothing else to say at the moment). Mike also got a confirmation from developer Rob Macdonald that he had decided not to run, in part because of his health, in part because he felt like he’d be opening up himself and his party to a major assault by Vision Vancouver. (He’s right on that one.)

I hear elsewhere that the potential mayoral candidates are meeting with party board members sometime this week. There are apparently two or three other possible candidates, but no word yet on who they are. NOT current NPA councillor George Affleck, I’m hearing, who is going to carry on at the councillor level.

Here in the journalism world, of course, people are agog about the idea of LaPointe (one of our OWN) running, though I suspect some uncertainty about what he would be like in this new role. He’s spent his whole life, since teenagehood, in the world of journalism. And, typical of many journalists, LaPointe was always hugely interested in the drama of politics but never demonstrated any particular political leanings one way or the other, at least not any that were visible in the newsroom.

We await further developments.

 

 

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