04) CHANGING SCENARIOS IN VANCOUVER CIVIC RACE

 

PV Vancouver Bureau

 

            For progressive activists in Vancouver, September 16 was an important date, as Vancouver and District Labour Council delegates debated recommendations for the Nov. 15 civic election. The outcome was very different than in previous campaigns.

 

            The Coalition of Progressive Electors was formed at the initiative of the VDLC in 1968. But this year, delegates gave their support to just two of the party's eighteen candidates, Gayle Gavin for City Council and Anita Romaniuk for Park Board.

 

            Instead, the delegates endorsed all candidates of Vision Vancouver, the centrist party which won majorities at every level in 2008 and 2011. This includes Mayor Gregor Robertson and eight Council candidates (seven of these being incumbents), School Board chair Patti Bacchus and six other Trustee candidates, and six candidates for Park Board (mostly first-timers).

 

             The VDLC also endorsed the new One City party's council candidate R.J. Aquino, who ran in 2011 for COPE; two School Trustee candidates nominated by the Public Education Project, Jane Bouey (a COPE Trustee in 2002-2005 and 2008-2011, and vice-chair of the board in the latter term), and Gwen Giesbrecht, the former chair of Vancouver District Parent Advisory Committee. All three have strong pro-labour track records.

 

            The Labour Council endorsations help candidates to approach trade unions for financial support. Also, the VDLC traditionally sends a "slate card" to residences across the city, urging votes for these candidates. For One City and the Public Education Project, this is a major boost to their first campaigns.

 

            COPE mayoralty candidate Meena Wong told the Vancouver Sun that she was "shocked" at the decision by "union bosses," using a common right-wing phrase.

 

            But the outcome was no surprise to most observers. Several members of the current COPE leadership have long been hostile to the trade union movement in Vancouver, after the painful divisions which rocked the organization after its sweep in the 2002 civic election. Since that time, the VDLC and some major affiliates, such as CUPE locals representing civic workers, have supported a common slate of Vision and COPE candidates, to block the right-wing NPA at Council and School Board.

 

            The NPA, which is heavily backed by major resource corporations and developers, did win majorities in 2005, and forced civic workers into a lengthy strike two years later. That bitter experience was a factor in convincing most COPE members to back a combined slate again in 2008 and 2011.

 

            Such a tactic was not in the cards this year, as resentment grows over the Vision city council's close links with developers, and its attempts to "manage" citizen consultations around zoning and other policy issues. (On the other hand, the Vision trustees on School Board have been strong critics of the BC Liberal government's attacks on public education.)

 

            In recent years, COPE has become dominated by forces which want to scrap the organization's historic city-wide coalition with labour and sections of the left, such as the Communist Party. Instead, the focus is on building a narrower geographic and political base in the poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside.

 

            Some executive members even welcomed the departure of long-time COPE elected officials, claiming that this would "clarify" issues. They often denied that COPE needed financial or political support from the labour movement, and very few of COPE's current candidates have any links to trade unions.

 

            This strategy will be severely tested in the November 15 election. Recent opinion polls indicate that COPE is running fourth among local civic parties, far behind Vision, the NPA, and the Green Party.

 

            In upcoming issues, People's Voice will analyze the campaign in Vancouver, and present our views on the huge field of candidates.

 

(The above article is from the October 1-15, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)