Nanaimo: a new challenge for an old hand

A Nanaimo city councillor repeatedly advised the mayor to “bite me.”

The Nanaimo mayor’s private rundown of his councillors’deficiencies - mentally ill bullies was on the list - wound up on the windshield of a car in the cityhall parking lot, from which it was shared with the council.

Seven of the eight councillors invited the mayor to resign.

The $12,000 city staff Christmas party drew so few people because of the various feuds that most of the food was donated to the Salvation Army.

The Snuneymuxw First Nation got so fed up it reclaimed its flag from city hall.

The city’s ex-chief administrator is the subject of a peace-bond application because five past and current staff, two councillors, a reporter and the mayor are afraid of her.

Two special prosecutors have been called in to decide if criminal charges were required in some of the dust-ups.

Reviewing this scant outline of the Hub City’s descent into chaos over the past few years raises the question: Who on Earth would want to get involved in this brawl? Nanaimo NDP MLA Leonard Krog, that’s who. He’s expected to join ex-RCMP officer Norm Smith and former Island Health board chairman Don Hubbard in the mayoral race. He’s inviting people to a “special announcement” on Wednesday, and it looks as if it involves the civic election this fall. Specifically, the contest for the mayor’s chair now held by Bill McKay, the focal point for most of the controversy. It makes good sense for Krog on a couple of different levels.

The first is the current state of his political career, which is good, but in a static state. He has won five elections and lost two over the years. He was elected NDP caucus chairman last year. But chairing the caucus wasn’t his ambition.

As a lawyer and a senior member of caucus, he was entitled to hope for the justice or public-safety portfolios. For a combination of reasons, he got shut out, just as he was left out of the Mike Harcourt government in the early 1990s, through a few cabinet shuffles.

Krog has described himself as a third-generation CCF/NDPer, so he would never be disloyal to the party.

But after spending 17 years in two stretches delivering speeches to a mostly empty legislature, the prospect of doing it for three more years and riding herd on the caucus likely doesn’t appeal.

If he’s looking for a new challenge, the city of Nanaimo is perfect for him. Krog has been tending to his constituency there for years. He’s got a good base from which to work. The challenge also has certain advantages, in that the city administration is reaching the point where it couldn’t get much worse.

That takes a certain amount of pressure off any of the mayoral challengers. Expectations are so low that just keeping the police and special prosecutors away from city hall for a few months would count as a win.

There’s much interest in what Krog’s run might do to standings in the legislature. The NDP would slip two seats behind the Liberals during a vacancy. They would still win split votes (B.C. Liberals 42, NDP/Greens 43, with the non-voting Speaker presiding).

The vacancy would occur in the fall, though. Votes in which the fate of the government is at stake aren’t anticipated, and could be avoided if they crop up.

If the party lost a byelection to the Liberals, the house would split evenly at 43-43 and the Speaker would have to break the tie. But Nanaimo has been reliably NDP for years. If the party can survive the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society bingo scandal and win elections there for years afterward (which it did with only one exception), it can survive the loss of Krog.

For all the joking about the tire fire that is Nanaimo civic politics, it’s encouraging that people are still interested in taking part. And the higher the candidate’s profile, the more interest might be generated in setting things straight.

Just So You Know: Personal disclosure: I have a hazy memory of voting the Krog ticket for class president at Qualicum Beach Senior Secondary School a few decades ago. So I might have a residual vested interest in his career, since I helped start it.

Les Leyne covers the B.C. Legislature for the Victoria Times Colonist.