Vision Vancouver won’t field mayoral candidate
VANCOUVER — Vision Vancouver, the civic party that has dominated the city council chamber for the last decade, will not run a mayoral candidate in the Oct. 20 municipal election.
Vision made the announcement Friday, the final day for candidates to submit their nomination forms and four days after its proclaimed mayoral candidate, Ian Campbell, decided against entering the race.
“After considering all the options, and listening carefully to party members and progressive voters, Vision Vancouver has decided we will not field a mayoral candidate. This was a difficult decision, because we believe our chances would have been very good, but we believe this decision is the right decision for our city,” said Ange Valentini, Vision’s executive director.
Campbell had been acclaimed by Vision as the party’s mayoral candidate — and the party’s man to replace retiring three-term Mayor Gregor Robertson — in June, but stepped aside Monday for unspecified reasons.
Another potential candidate, three-term Vision councillor Andrea Reimer, announced Friday that she would not seek the city’s top job.
Valentini said the party will undertake a process of deciding to formally endorse a mayoral candidate, likely either Kennedy Stewart, the soon-to-be former Burnaby South NDP MP, or Shauna Sylvester, a former Vision board member, who are both running as independents.
“Vision will be looking closely at their full platforms as they are released, as well as their ability to beat Ken Sim and the NPA [Non-Partisan Association] and the other right-wing parties,” she said.