A byelection to replace Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs will likely be held in October and cost more than $1 million, according to Mayor Gregor Robertson, who also suggested voters could be going to the polls at the same time to elect school trustees.
Meggs, who was elected with Robertson in 2008 as part of a Vision majority, announced Tuesday that he resigned to accept a position as chief of staff for NDP premier-designate John Horgan. The Vancouver Charter dictates the byelection must be held within 80 days of city council appointing a chief election officer, which will likely happen at council’s last meeting this month.
“The timing from there is 80 days to a Saturday, so that would put the byelection roughly in mid-October,” Robertson told reporters Wednesday on the back steps of city hall. “We’ll wait and see what happens in terms of the provincial government’s decision on whether the school board will be going to byelection, as well. That remains an unknown.”
If that scenario were to unfold, the costs would be shared by the city and school board, said Robertson, noting that’s typically what happens in a general election. Robertson reiterated his recommendation that Vancouver have a democratically elected school board.
In October 2016, then-education minister Mike Bernier fired the Vancouver school board of trustees for failing to comply with the School Act and adopt a balanced budget on time. All nine trustees were replaced with former Delta superintendent Dianne Turner, who remains on the job.
Last month, former Vision trustees Mike Lombardi and Patti Bacchus confirmed they intended to return to their previous posts, whether by provincial reinstatement or a byelection. With Tuesday’s news that Meggs resigned, Bacchus has since said she is considering running for the empty seat.
Robertson said it will be up to the party to choose a candidate. He didn’t know Wednesday whether Vision would hold a nomination meeting to have more than one person compete to be the Vision membership’s choice to run in the byelection.
With Meggs gone, Vision still holds the majority on the 11-member council with six seats. The NPA has three seats and the Greens, one. Both the NPA and Greens confirmed Tuesday they will run candidates but aren’t saying whether they have a candidate in mind.
Pete Fry, who ran for the Greens in the 2014 civic election and won 46,522 votes, said he is considering a run. But, he added, he has to decide whether the work he is doing with low-income people in Strathcona would be compromised. The Greens also haven’t determined whether there will be a nomination meeting.
“There is a bit of process, as far as the Green Party is concerned, so it’s not a pre-foregone conclusion that I would be the guy,” Fry told the Courier by telephone. “Certainly, I’m thinking very hard about it. Obviously, it’s very sudden and I haven’t had an opportunity to really fully process what I’m going to do for the next 80 days.”
NPA Coun. George Affleck posted a tweet on Twitter Tuesday, saying: “Interesting day. I’ve already been contacted by several solid and very interested wannabe @NPAVancouver city council candidates.” The Courier left a message for Affleck but was not returned before this story was posted.
Interesting day. I've already been contacted by several solid and very interested wannabe @NPAVancouver City Council candidates. #Vanpoli
— George Affleck (@george_affleck) July 5, 2017
Ian Robertson, who finished 512 votes out of a council spot in the 2014 election, said he’s not interested in seeking a council seat. Meggs was the candidate who finished ahead of him and won a seat.
Robertson, who took a job as CEO of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, said he has moved on from politics and sold his house in Vancouver. Robertson was a former chairperson of the park board.
“That ship has sailed, and my days of politics in Vancouver are not going to happen anymore,” he said.
Echoing what Vision Coun. Raymond Louie told the Courier Tuesday, Robertson said Meggs would be “a bonus for Metro Vancouver” in terms of the former councillor’s commitments to improving transit and shaping policy to create more affordable housing.
“He’s been a dedicated and productive councillor here, and very involved in regional transit and transportation at TransLink,” the mayor said. “He has such extensive knowledge of the both the local and provincial arenas. He’ll be a real asset to the NDP government and, I expect, a big benefit to the region to get more happening on the ground.”
The last civic byelection in Vancouver was held in 1992 when the NPA’s Lynne Kennedy won a seat after COPE’s Bruce Yorke resigned from council because of ill health. Previous to that race, a byelection also involved Yorke occurred in 1985, when Philip Owen contested the results of the close general election after he lost by a couple hundred votes. Yorke won a wider margin in the byelection.
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