A vice-president of the provincial NDP known for her advocacy work on behalf of the transgender community is considering running as an independent candidate for mayor in this fall’s municipal election.
Morgane Oger announced her intention Tuesday on her Twitter account, saying “I am engaged in dialogue with Vancouver’s civic parties and regional stakeholders as I explore running for mayor in 2018 as a progressive unity candidate. Discussions so far are encouraging.”
Oger told the Courier she has contacted COPE, Vision Vancouver, the Greens, OneCity and Jean Swanson’s team to inform them of her interest in becoming the mayoral candidate to unite the so-called progressive parties, which are collectively pushing to support one person in the campaign.
“There’s no doubt that it’s early days,” said Oger, recognizing Shauna Sylvester announced two weeks ago that she is running as an independent and hopes to win support of the same parties. “I’m going into this thinking I’d be the best candidate, otherwise I wouldn’t have added my name.”
Oger, an IT consultant, suggested Sylvester’s ties to Vision as a former board member and financial contributor to the party make her a difficult candidate to support. Oger said Vision “carries quite a stigma” and that a lot of the anger from residents over the city’s affordability crisis is directed at Vision, whether it’s warranted or not.
Vision has not definitively said it will run a mayoral candidate, but has asked people interested in running for mayor with the party to submit an application. The deadline was Monday. Vision Coun. Raymond Louie said Tuesday he notified the party of his interest.
The Courier left messages with a party representative to confirm whether other people were in the mix but had not heard back before the posting of this story. Louie told the Courier last week that at least three other people were interested in running for mayor with Vision.
Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr is also mulling a run with her party, while the NPA has at least four candidates—Coun. Hector Bremner, park board commissioner John Coupar, financial analyst Glen Chernen and entrepreneur Ken Sim—competing to be the party’s mayoral candidate.
Former Conservative MP Wai Young is also preparing for a mayoral run with Coalition Vancouver.
If Oger decided to run for mayor, it wouldn’t be her first campaign. In 2017, she ran as the NDP candidate for Vancouver-False Creek and narrowly lost to the Liberals’ Sam Sullivan. Over the years, she’s also challenged politicians from all levels of government to either implement or update policies that discriminate against the transgender community.
Oger, a mother of two young children, is a former chairperson of the Vancouver district parent advisory council, a member of the city’s LGBTQ advisory council, the chairperson of the Trans Alliance Society and runs her own foundation, which is focused on lobbying for rights of transgender people.
Meanwhile, a new party has emerged on Vancouver’s civic scene called ProVancouver.
Financial planner David Chen, who founded the party, announced Tuesday in a news release that he is running for mayor. The party bills itself as “freed from right wing or left wing politics,” saying it can “use the best solutions for issues through collaboration and connecting with everyone.”
@Howellings
