Left-of-centre politicians considering strategic voting
Some left-of-centre politicians eyeing the mayor’s chair in Vancouver are considering running as independents as part of a strategy to avoid vote-splitting.
Vancouver-Kingsway MP Don Davies is among those touting the idea that if all centre-left parties and their supporters backed a common candidate for the top job on council, there would be no threat of a surprise centre-right victory.
“I think that Vancouver is a progressive city and if we can get all four progressive parties — the Greens, Vision Vancouver, COPE and OneCity — all pulling in the same direction, then I think that’s a coalition that is most reflective of the majority of Vancouverites,” Davies said Tuesday.
Structurally, that could mean running
as an independent, for one particular party, or under an entirely new banner, Davies said.
New campaign-contribution restrictions effective for the 2018 election limits individual donations to $1,200 per year to a political party and its endorsed candidates, said Andrew Watson, a communications manager for Elections B.C. But it’s possible for an individual to donate $1,200 to a party and another $1,200 to an unendorsed candidate, he said.
For the centre-left, a lack of cooperation could produce a result similar to what happened in Vancouver’s recent byelection. Hector Bremner, the candidate fielded by centre-right party the Non-Partisan Association, sailed to victory with just 13,372 votes (about 28 per cent of those cast).
Behind Bremner was independent (but COPE-endorsed) Jean Swanson with 10,263 votes, the Green party’s Pete Fry with 9,759, OneCity’s Judy Graves with 6,327 and Vision Vancouver’s Diego Cardona with 5,411. Together, those centre-left votes totalled 31,760.
“I think we run the risk of having a similar result,” Davies said of the upcoming election. “You would have an NPA council and potentially mayor, with a minority of votes, simply because the majority of votes are split.”
Libby Davies has publicly said she too is considering a run for the mayor’s seat and with a similar approach to the race in mind. She couldn’t be reached for comment.
Connie Hubbs, a co-chair at COPE, said her party’s leadership was exploring the idea of what she phrased as “electoral cooperation.”
There’s a range in how close parties can cooperate, from merging to joint endorsements as two extremes, with an alliance falling somewhere in-between, Hubbs explained. It’s also possible for a given party to simply not field a candidate as a way to avoid vote-splitting.
While Hubbs said it “would not be an easy sell” to get COPE to endorse, say, a Vision candidate — that being one example of cooperation — she said she “wouldn’t rule anything out.”
“If there’s something we can do that will make a difference to the City of Vancouver and the people that live here … especially the most-vulnerable people, we’re going to be there to do that,” she said.
Meanwhile, former mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe, who ran for the NPA in 2014, announced Tuesday on Twitter that he wouldn’t compete in the upcoming election.
“While there has been speculation I might run again, after much consideration I have decided not to do so. I wish the party well in finding its next nominee,” he wrote.