The Non-Partisan Association’s mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe announced July 18 the party’s incumbent candidates running for re-election in Vancouver’s civic election on Nov. 15.
Park board commissioner Melissa De Genova will join councillors George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball in vying for spots on city council. Affleck and De Genova were first elected to their current posts in 2011. Ball was first elected to council in 2005 and was re-elected in 2011.
John Coupar will run again for park board and Fraser Ballantyne will run for school board. Both have served one term, thus far.
LaPointe, a longtime media executive and former CBC ombudsman, said the party will announce the rest of the NPA slate for council next week, the slate for the park board after that and candidates for school board before the long weekend at the start of August.
LaPointe said the NPA won’t announce a full slate but will run candidates for the majority of seats.
He says it hasn’t been difficult for the NPA to attract candidates. LaPointe expects more wannabe civic politicians to step forward once they become better acquainted with him and his campaign.
“A lot of successful candidates over the years have only come in after Labour Day,” he said. “Larry Campbell won the mayoralty with about 60 days of campaigning.”
The NPA ousted school board trustees Sophia Woo and Ken Denike, the longest-serving elected civic politician in Vancouver, in June after concluding the pair didn’t share the same level of sensitivity and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer community and noting the two had chosen to follow their own course in various matters without consulting the other members of the party’s caucus.
LaPointe doesn’t think problems with Denike and Woo have hurt the NPA’s ability to draw candidates for school board.
“These are part-time paid, nearly full-time occupied positions,” he said. “So for a lot of people it can be a real challenge around their lifestyle. I have a lot of respect for people who step forward for these roles because they’re certainly sacrificing a great deal to do them.”
