Its the election signs strapped to Sal Vetros torso front and back that first catches the eye.
Move in a few steps closer and out comes Vetros hand with a brochure for his B.C. First Party followed by a handshake to welcome you to his campaign headquarters.
Vetros headquarters is a street corner at Davie and Pacific Boulevard in Vancouver-False Creek, a riding he hopes to represent as an MLA once the votes are counted in the May 14 provincial election.
This is where I communicate with people, said Vetro in between soliciting votes Wednesday morning from pedestrians.
Parked on the sidewalk next to him is his green Miata, 21-speed bicycle equipped with a customized milk crate decorated with more election signs and two small B.C. flags.
My campaign vehicle, he said, adding that his budget for the campaign is less than $5,000.
Vetro, a 60-year-old HandyDart driver on leave, is the leader of a party that has its roots in the successful fight-the-HST campaign headed by former premier Bill Vander Zalm. Vetro was a coordinator of the campaign that ultimately led to referendum in which voters rejected the controversial tax.
Vetro is an old hand at campaigning, having run in Vancouver-East for the Canadian Alliance in the 2000 federal election. He received 5,536 votes. A year later, he ran in Vancouver-Kingsway for the Unity Party in the provincial election and finished with 541 votes.
Vetro said he founded B.C. First in 2010 and described the two-candidate party the other candidate is retired auto mechanic Doug Maxwell in Penticton as a movement that couldnt be classified as left, right or centre on the political spectrum. Its one of eight small parties, including the Platinum Party, Work Less and Libertarian, running against their much bigger counterparts in Vancouvers 11 ridings.
Vetro said hes campaigned at the same intersection at Davie and Pacific for five weeks. The reception, he said, has been fairly good thats, of course, from the people who stop.
The apathy meter is way up there in the stratosphere, he said from behind his sunglasses and dressed in his navy blue HandyDart uniform. Out of 10 people who walk past me, eight have got earphones on and others have got texts going. Its like weve lost touch with each other as human beings.
Vetro wants to end that apathy by making some changes in Victoria, including reforming government and modeling it on the system in Switzerland, where referendum can be requested to challenge laws.
This way, Vetro said, people are put first in what amounts to a direct democracy. B.C. also has to do away with its traditional reliance on heavily funded political parties and develop a system where independents can get elected, he added.
Achieving that goal would involve allowing only individuals to contribute to campaigns and have a donation capped at $1,000. Other platform planks include opening a mobile virtual constituency office to save taxpayers money, leverage city land for affordable housing and require developers to build a childcare facility each time a development is approved.
Yaletown resident Heng Neoh stopped to have a short chat with Vetro and took one of his brochures. Neoh, a retired businessman, told the Courier as he departed that he would read Vetros brochure and possibly go talk to him again.
Hes a very courageous guy gutsy to stand up for what he believes and stand there like that, said Neoh, who hasnt decided who he will vote for.
Neoh said he was more familiar with Liberal candidate Sam Sullivan and the NDPs Matt Toner, whom he met and described as someone on the ball.
A forestry conservation worker, who would only give her first name as Christine, also stopped by to listen to Vetros pitch. She splits her time between the riding and the Gulf Islands and was on her way to vote in an advanced poll at the Roundhouse Community Centre across the street.
Im voting Green, she told the Courier after speaking to Vetro. Daniel Tseghay is the partys candidate in Vancouver-False Creek.
Why Green?
Im just impressed with what [federal Green leader] Elizabeth May has done, she replied.
Why not Vetro?
I dont know much about him and really have to get going. Its good that hes out here, though.
Vetro acknowledged he was in a David versus Goliath fight but seriously believes that his on-the-street campaign gives him a shot at getting elected. How much of a shot?
Fifty-fifty, he said. Im a longshot. I know that.
mhowell@vancourier.com
twitter.com/Howellings
mhowell@vancourier.com
twitter.com/Howellings
