Race claim defamatory, NPA says of rejected candidate

Vancouver’s centre-right political party is firing back at a city councillor who suggested race played a part in the rejection of his candidacy for mayor.

The president of the Non-Partisan Association, Gregory Baker, said in an emailed statement that Hector Bremner’s suggestion to Postmedia News that “race played a role” in the party board’s rejection of him as a mayoral candidate “are untrue, unfounded, and defamatory.”

“The NPA will not tolerate such false and defamatory accusations being made against the NPA or anyone else involved in the NPA’s nomination process.”

Bremner had been considered by outside observers as likely to be a strong contender to win the party’s nomination but was rejected by the party’s board on Monday. Bremner said at the time that he had been approved by the NPA’s Green Light Committee, but Baker disputed this to Postmedia on Tuesday.

On Thursday, he reiterated the party’s position, that Bremner was not green-lit as a possible candidate for mayor and that the board had acted based on this recommendation. Baker said on Tuesday that he couldn’t share the reasons why the Green Light Committee was opposed to Bremner, and also said their recommendation had been only communicated verbally.

“The reason why the Green Light Committee verbally communicated their concerns about Mr. Bremner to the NPA board of directors, rather than in writing, was an attempt to avoid potentially harming Mr. Bremner’s reputation by restricting the potential for the concerns to be made public,” he said in the email. “The information conveyed to the board was entirely confidential.”

According to Baker, Bremner has told the NPA he would welcome the release of the reasons for his rejection.

“As a result, we are currently consulting with legal counsel concerning the possible release of relevant information about the concerns conveyed by the Green Light Committee to the NPA board about Mr. Bremner, as well as the board’s decision to reject his candidacy application,” he said.

Baker added that Bremner’s approval by the NPA board to run as a candidate for city council in last October’s byelection — which he won — “was made by a previous NPA board, under a previous president, and by way of a different process.”