Vancouver Sun

MAYORAL CANDIDATE YOUNG COY ABOUT RUN

It appears she has dropped NPA in favour of Coalition Vancouver, but won’t confirm

- DAN FUMANO dfumano@postmedia.com Twitter.com/fumano

What’s Wai Young up to?

It’s hard to say.

As the former Conservati­ve MP prepares a Vancouver mayoral run this year, she appears to be accepting supporters’ donations, but not journalist­s’ questions.

Senior officials in the NonPartisa­n Associatio­n, Vancouver’s traditiona­lly right-leaning civic party, have said they’re also not sure about Young ’s plans, but acknowledg­ed it won’t help their party’s chances of winning back city hall if she runs against them with her own upstart party, as she seemingly plans to do.

Young picked up an applicatio­n package from the NPA earlier this year to seek the party’s mayoral nomination for October’s municipal election, NPA president Gregory Baker said this week. But Young hasn’t returned a completed applicatio­n to the party, and now she appears to have set out on her own.

Baker said he didn’t know what Young was doing, beyond what he’d heard through “people chatting.”

Asked if the NPA’s mayoral candidate could lose votes if Young runs against them, Baker said: “I don’t think it helps us and I’d prefer that it didn’t happen.”

But, he added, he’s not too concerned at this early stage, hoping there’s still be a chance for her to return to the fold. “I’m hoping to speak with Wai and anybody else that’s considerin­g a departure, that hopefully we can work together,” he said, adding he plans to “reach out to Wai and bring people together with the NPA.”

“Wai Young, I think, has her feet firmly planted in the right,” Baker said. “And I’ve always seen (NPA) supporters as more centrist. So, does it hurt when you split the vote up a whole bunch of ways? Yes, I think it does . ... The left is somewhat divided, and we don’t want to be divided.”

One candidate for the NPA mayoral nomination, NPA Coun. Hector Bremner, said he wasn’t sure about Young ’s mayoral effort nor had he “heard of anyone else involved with it, or why she abandoned her effort with the NPA.”

The website VoteWaiYou­ng.com promotes Young ’s qualificat­ions to become Vancouver’s next mayor to “transform City Hall to be transparen­t, compassion­ate and sensible.”

The website suggests Young will run under the banner of something called Coalition Vancouver, described as “a society of community-minded Vancouver residents, business operators or owners, workers, and other people and organizati­ons.”

Coalition Vancouver “is a democratic, open, welcoming and inclusive society,” the website says.

But informatio­n is not readily available about what the society is or who, beyond Young, is involved.

Civic political parties, unlike their provincial counterpar­ts, don’t register with Elections B.C. And the city doesn’t have informatio­n on local parties or who’s running until the nomination period, which is in September.

One early clue about Young ’s plans comes from a recent letter promoting a “Wai Young for Mayor Spring Fundraisin­g Dinner” this month at a Chinatown restaurant, as Postmedia recently reported.

The letter urges supporters to “do your part for change,” with “supporter” tickets listed at $40 each and “donor” tickets for $200. “VIP” tickets are $500.

The phone number on the fundraisin­g letter was for Lianne Rood, a former NPA board member. When reached by phone this week, Rood confirmed that while she previously served on the NPA board, she was no longer a party member. Rood’s LinkedIn profession­al background shows that, like Young, she has ties to the federal Tories, having worked in legislativ­e and executive assistant roles for Conservati­ve MPs over seven years in Ottawa. Rood then directed any questions to Young ’s “campaign media relations person.”

Postmedia sent questions Wednesday morning to the address provided, seeking clarificat­ion about Coalition Vancouver and who’s involved, asking for a response by phone or email by Thursday, if possible.

No reply had been received by Friday afternoon.

Another email sent Tuesday to Young ’s personal email address, provided by one of her contacts, also yielded no response.

Of course, Young doesn’t have to talk to the media if she doesn’t want to.

But most political campaigns tend to try to return emails and calls.

But it may not be anything personal against Postmedia.

Recent stories about Young ’s possible candidacy in the Georgia Straight and the Courier both noted that she did not reply to interview requests.

Young has spoken disparagin­gly of the media.

In a 2015 speech to a Vancouver church, she said she no longer reads newspapers because “most of the facts in there are not facts.”

That speech made national headlines because of Young ’s comments claiming Canada’s spy agency had advance knowledge of the Air India bombing and didn’t notify the RCMP. Asked later to clarify, she rejected interview requests but issued a statement taking back the comments, saying she “misspoke,” and adding: “I regret this error.”

Stay tuned for more on Young ’s 2018 plans. Or maybe not.

 ?? ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? Former Conservati­ve MP Wai Young Young’s website VoteWaiYou­ng.com suggests Young will run under the banner of Coalition Vancouver in a bid to become mayor.
ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS Former Conservati­ve MP Wai Young Young’s website VoteWaiYou­ng.com suggests Young will run under the banner of Coalition Vancouver in a bid to become mayor.
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