The worst kept secret in civic politics was finally acknowledged Monday: Longtime media executive and former CBC ombudsman Kirk LaPointe confirmed he will be the NPA's mayoral candidate in the fall election.
Almost two months after the Courier revealed LaPointe was interested in seeking a seat with the NPA in this campaign, the 56-year-old former managing editor of The Vancouver Sun made his intentions known Monday morning at a Main Street coffee shop, near the 10th Avenue bike route.
"I've spent a career asking questions I think the public wants answers to, and now I think I'm at an age and stage where I can find the solutions that the public wants, " LaPointe told a select group of civic affairs reporters invited to Kafka's Coffee and Tea to learn more about the newly minted NPA leader's transformation from a career in media to rookie politician.
LaPointe used his first meeting with reporters to zero in on the need for open government at city hall and to restore public trust that he believes has soured under Vision Vancouver's administration.
"I believe we have an opportunity here to have the most transparent government of any in Canada, maybe in North America," he said. "I don't particularly like the culture that now exists in which information [at city hall] is routinely withheld, budget documentation is very opaque, public servants are muzzled — I'd like all of that to change."
At a press conference later in the morning at the Jack Poole Plaza on the city's waterfront, LaPointe gave reporters "a taste" of what policies the NPA will roll out in the coming months. The most significant was a freeze on taxes "so we can examine the books and find ways to deliver our services more effectively."
He challenged Mayor Gregor Robertson to "open the books" on the budget to let residents get a line-by-line look at spending — something NPA Coun. George Affleck has called for in council chambers. Other policies would see free WiFi in the city, measures to address child poverty, strategies to reduce burglaries and tackle the ongoing battles between cyclists and motorists.
In an effort to run a "clean contest about ideas," the NPA will have its candidates, board members and staff sign a code of conduct to steer clear of personal attacks during the campaign.
"If they breach that boundary, I will resign as a candidate," said LaPointe, urging Robertson and Vision to sign the same declaration.
Child poverty and addressing the needs of the city's disadvantaged appears to be areas LaPointe will dwell on in the coming months. As a child, he said, he grew up in poverty in west Toronto where he never knew his father. He only met his brother when he was seven or eight, his mother having to choose whom she could afford to raise before sending one child to live with relatives in New Brunswick.
"I have a great deal of understanding of what that life is like to have an empty stomach when you go to school," he said, noting some days he resorted to eating butter and sugar sandwiches "And those are people that I would prefer to focus on."
Though known across the country in media circles, having held senior posts at The Hamilton Spectator, National Post and CTV News, LaPointe doesn't have the public profile of the NPA's previous mayoral candidates.
In selecting a non-politician in LaPointe, who was chosen in a vote by the NPA's board of directors, the once powerful party deviated from its traditional route of choosing its mayoral candidate. For the better part of a decade, the NPA has promoted its city councillors to run for mayor, either by nomination meeting or appointment.
Jennifer Clarke ran in 2002, Sam Sullivan in 2005, Peter Ladner in 2008 and Suzanne Anton in 2011. Only Sullivan managed to win but held power for one term before Ladner beat him in a nomination battle and lost the election.
Now LaPointe will attempt to do what Ladner and Anton have failed to do: Beat Robertson and his Vision Vancouver team, which has dominated city hall since the centre-left party was elected in 2008.
"I'll admit I'm the underdog," he said. "I'm the outsider. I'm the person with fewer resources than my competitor. I happen to have, at this point, four months and a day before the vote a much lower recognition factor. That's what I have to work on, that's what the team will work on."
The last outsider with no political experience to run for mayor and get elected was Larry Campbell in 2002, when he won a landslide victory with COPE. Reached Monday by telephone, Campbell said his outsider status obviously didn't hurt him at the polls, where he collected 80,000 votes. An outsider doesn't come with the baggage or "dirt" of somebody already in the civic arena, he said.
"On the one side, nobody knows who the hell you are," said the former chief coroner and current senator. "On the other side, nobody knows who the hell you are."
Campbell ran at a time when there was great debate on whether Vancouver should have a supervised injection site. Getting the Woodward's development built and campaigns for and against hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics were also on voters' radars.
But the NPA was also in a battle with its mayor, Philip Owen, who was pushing a four pillars drug strategy. Owen was ultimately pushed from his party to make way for councillor Jennifer Clarke to run. As Campbell said, "as soon as Jennifer Clarke got the Lady Macbeth title, it was over. I mean all I had to do was put my arms around Philip."
Despite the issues and the NPA's internal politics, Campbell said credit for getting elected rested with a well-organized and energetic campaign team. He described COPE's campaign office as a "bee-hive" that ran 24 hours a day.
"If it hadn't have been for them, I wouldn't have been elected," said Campbell, who served one term as mayor before retiring, citing long hours, the split with COPE and achieving some of the party's goals, including opening an injection site. "[LaPointe] is going to have to spend the next four months 24/7 on the campaign. It's exhausting."
Campbell's split with COPE led to the creation of Vision Vancouver. So, as he said, he wasn't going to offer any advice to LaPointe or "put any meat on the bones" of the NPA's campaign to gain points against his former party.
Though solving homelessness and tackling issues such as drug addiction and mental health problems are concerns of Vancouverites, Campbell said civic politicians should know many residents only really care about their taxes, the cleanliness of the city and how the city is being run by the party in power.
"And you know what? It ain't being run badly."
Added Campbell: "Governments defeat themselves, and I don't think Vision has reached the end of their string. They really do have a plan and Gregor is continually throwing that out there."
Campbell noted a few large issues or a series of small ones that resonate with voters are essential in attracting residents' attention at election time.
"You don't want to take on something that's going to go sideways on you," he said, noting reliance on senior levels of government to deliver on a campaign promise can be a political gamble.
Vision Vancouver councillors Heather Deal and Tony Tang were the party's designated spokespersons Monday to answer questions regarding LaPointe's candidacy; the mayor was not available, said Deal, noting there would be plenty of time during the campaign to answer questions.
Deal welcomed LaPointe to the mayoral race but was quick to point out what she said was an NPA record of voting against Vision's efforts to reduce homelessness, build affordable housing and tackle environmental concerns to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020.
"Mr. LaPointe says he wants to run this campaign on ideas, we look forward to hearing what those ideas are," Deal told reporters Monday on the back steps of city hall.
Asked whether Vision would sign a declaration to ensure no personal attacks would occur during the campaign, Deal said Robertson has been clear he will not engage in "a smear campaign." As for LaPointe's criticism about the lack of transparency at city hall, Deal urged the NPA leader to visit the city's website and examine the budget documents.
"We have one of the most transparent, detail-oriented budgets that the city has produced — and certainly the most detail-oriented in the history of Vancouver," she said. "We do our data in an open, transparent fashion. All of our public consultation is done online, in person — we have thousands of people giving us input on all of our policies and plans. We are very open to the public."
The NPA holds two seat on city council with George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball, two on park board (John Coupar and Melissa DeGenova) and Fraser Ballantyne is the party's lone school trustee; recently, the NPA booted trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo from the party for remarks regarding the school board's sexual orientation and gender identity policy.
LaPointe said the party plans to run enough candidates for council, school board and park board to win majorities. Candidates for those positions are expected to be rolled out over the next few weeks.
Up until Monday, LaPointe was the publisher and editor-in-chief of Self-Counsel Press, an adjunct professor in the journalism school at the University of B.C. and held the post as executive director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. He has stepped down from the ombudsmen organization and will continue in a reduced role at Self-Counsel Press.
LaPointe's first meeting with five reporters Monday at Kafka's felt more like a coffee klatch than a formal press conference. Reporters gathered around a table with no television reporters or camera operators present. It was a move that seemed to be an attempt to bring reporters onside and give Vision Vancouver a subtle poke for implementing a stringent media policy at city hall.
In an email Sunday night, LaPointe told reporters he wanted to "enter the conversation with an intention of accessibility" and that he held the work of civic affairs reporters in "high regard."
LaPointe is married to Mary Lynn Young, associate dean of the arts faculty at UBC. LaPointe has two adult children from a previous marriage and a stepdaughter with Young.
The couple lives on the UBC campus.
The election is Nov. 15.
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