NPA’S TRIPLE THREAT
The battle for the Non-Partisan Association’s mayoral candidacy pits the party’s old guard against a populist upstart.
After dominating Vancouver politics for most of its 81-year history, the Non-Partisan Association finds itself at a crossroads Sunday, when party members choose the mayoral candidate they hope will lead them to victory this fall after a decade out of power.
Two of the three men seeking the job are backed by different factions representing core pieces of the NPA’s history — the business community and the political establishment — while the third represents a shift in a starkly different direction.
Two-term NPA park board commissioner John Coupar has the endorsement of many past and present NPA politicians. Entrepreneur Ken Sim has the backing of big names in the business community. And Glen Chernen, who ran against the NPA four years ago with his own party, has described himself fighting an uphill battle against the NPA’s old guard, as he tries to ride a populist wave into the mayor’s chair.
Two others who had sought the NPA mayoral nomination — sitting NPA Coun. Hector Bremner and engineer George Steeves — were rejected by the party’s board in early May. Steeves has thrown his support behind Sim, while Bremner struck out on his own, recently announcing he’s looking at running for mayor against the NPA, with his own new party.
This race has not revolved around policy debates so far, although each candidate’s website includes, to varying degrees, some platform information.
Instead, the race has largely focused on the candidates’ backgrounds and personalities.
GLEN CHERNEN WWW.CHERNEN.COM
One word that keeps coming up around Chernen’s campaign is “populist.”
He’s gone, in the span of one election cycle, from fringe candidate with his own upstart party to striking distance of leading the city’s most established party. By his own description, Chernen hasn’t had a conventional job in 20 years. He spends his time managing his personal investments and, in recent years, speaking out publicly about what he sees as government mismanagement.
Chernen recently told Postmedia he’s battling forces within the NPA that don’t want him to succeed. And several of the most prominent figures in the party recently talked about their concerns with Chernen’s candidacy, including former NPA mayor Sam Sullivan, former longtime NPA Coun. Gordon Price and past NPA president Peter Armstrong.
Mike Klassen, a former NPA council candidate and a board member, says Chernen has a real chance to win the party’s mayoral nomination. Asked what that would mean for the NPA, Klassen exhaled audibly and replied: “I honestly think it would really potentially spell the end for, at least, the NPA in its current form.”
Chernen “comes from an almost Tea Party-esque, antielite place,” Klassen said. “When people are angry and they feel like they’ve been burned by the man, they’re always looking for somebody to represent that point of view. It’s a minority point of view, but as we’ve seen down in the United States, you can have fringe points of view rise up to the mainstream, as we’re seeing in the U.S. Congress and especially with the presidency.”
If Chernen wins the NPA nomination, could he win the mayoralty?
In response, Klassen pointed to a Vancouver Courier column he wrote back in 2016, long before Chernen was regarded as a legitimate candidate for an established political party, and as Donald Trump was closing in on the Republican party’s nomination. Klassen’s column asked whether Vancouver could see its own “Mayor Trump,” and concluded that it could indeed happen if a candidate can attract voters who are angry over issues like foreign investment, bike lanes and densification.
Two years later, those issues are central to Chernen’s platform.
When asked about Klassen’s comments, Chernen replied by email: “Since the Oxford Dictionary says that a populist is a person ‘who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups,’ maybe Klassen is right?”
But Brent Toderian, Vancouver’s former chief planner, disputes Chernen’s “populist” label. “Just because you take a popular opinion — in this case, being opposed to developers or city hall — that doesn’t make you a populist,” said Toderian, who said he’s never before publicly weighed in on any Vancouver mayoral candidate.
“What concerns me is his track record . ... We have to look past the lazy populist narrative, and understand this man’s track record.”
Chernen made headlines in recent years by mounting legal challenges, including filing a series of lawsuits naming Mayor Gregor Robertson that were dismissed. According to court records, none of Chernen’s efforts in court thus far have been successful.
Though Chernen doesn’t have a background of public or professional service as his opponents do, he’s tapped into something, drawing committed supporters, reportedly including most members of the NPA board of directors, which has gone through a major turnover in the past year.
The 4,500 NPA members eligible to vote in Sunday’s contest must show up in person to cast a ballot, so the outcome will largely depend on which candidate can motivate supporters to actually show up on the day.
And both supporters and critics of Chernen agree there’s one thing working in his favour this Sunday: His followers, many of whom are frustrated, appear to be motivated.
JOHN COUPAR WWW.JOHNCOUPAR.COM
Coupar was described recently by NPA stalwarts — and by Coupar himself — as “a known entity.”
If Chernen represents the “populist outrage” candidate, then John Coupar is pretty much the opposite, said Gordon Price, who served as an NPA councillor for six terms.
Price said Coupar represents “stability,” a candidate who, at the very least, “isn’t going to be gratuitously disruptive.”
But Chernen seems to want to “hijack” the NPA and move things in a completely different direction, Price said.
Price said that historically, “regardless of whether you supported NPA policy or not, at least we had policy . ... People knew what we stood for.”
Coupar appears to be a candidate in that tradition and people have a fairly good idea of what he’s about, Price said, while Chernen “looks like he’s making it up as he goes along.”
“I think Coupar’s challenge will be to articulate policy that will be appealing to enough of the progressive or left side, particularly on housing. You’re not going to be able to go into this election without a credible housing policy and initiatives you will take.”
Coupar has touted the fact he’s been an NPA member far longer than his opponents, is the only one to hold elected office, and enjoys the support of NPA politicians like widely revered former NPA mayor Philip Owen, current caucus chair George Affleck, and NPA park board commissioners and school board trustees past and present.
Recently, Coupar was copied on an email that he turned into a campaigning opportunity.
Last week, Sim sent an email to NPA members seeking support, telling them he’s the best candidate to unite the NPA and build it to new heights. He received at least one unimpressed reply.
Michael Geller, an architect and past NPA council candidate, replied that the email from Sim — who, Geller emphasized, had no experience with civic politics — revealed “a complete lack of understanding of what being a mayor is all about.”
“This email message gives a whole new meaning to the term chutzpah,” Geller wrote. “You’ve got a nerve sending it out! What were you thinking ?”
On his reply to Sim, Geller chose to copy Coupar, who in turn forwarded the email to NPA members with the prologue: “I hope you’ll agree with Michael that my elected experience means I’m ready to win back City Hall.”
In an interview last week, Coupar said his knowledge of city hall elevates him above his opponents, adding: “If you’ve never been elected before and you get the job, the problem then is you’re so dependent on city staff, that they’re going to be running you rather than the other way around, and I think that can be a problem.”
KEN SIM WWW.BUILD ABETTERVANCOUVER.CA
When Peter Armstrong, a past president and longtime major financial backer of the NPA, talks about Sim, he often uses words like fresh, energetic and new.
Armstrong has good things to say about Coupar, too, calling him a “loyal, hardworking park commissioner” and a “loyal, hardworking NPA member.”
But Armstrong is supporting Sim’s bid to be the NPA’s next mayoral candidate, saying he represents “new energy coming into the party.”
“He cares about this city, and he wants to help,” said Armstrong, CEO of the Armstrong Group.
Sim co-founded a pair of expanding businesses based in Vancouver: home care service Nurse Next Door, which has more than 180 locations in North America, and bagel bakery Rosemary Rocksalt, a more recent venture. In his bid to become mayor, he counts among his supporters some big names in the local business community, such as Armstrong, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, and Tracey McVicar, the managing partner at CAI Capital Partners.
Sim said his vision is for a city that’s business-friendly, but still doesn’t allow its most vulnerable residents to fall behind.
“I want to bring a fresh perspective,” Sim said. “Doing what we did in the past isn’t going to solve our challenges, because that’s how we got here.”
One challenge for Sim is timing. Of the three candidates, Chernen has been campaigning the longest. Less than three hours after Mayor Robertson announced, on Jan. 10, he would not run for re-election, Chernen announced his mayoral campaign via Twitter. Two months later, Coupar launched his campaign. Coupar said this week that his late launch is an obstacle he has to overcome, but Sim — with a lower profile both publicly and within the party — didn’t announce his campaign until a month after Coupar.
Sim was a childhood friend of Chernen. With current NPA president Gregory Barker, the three attended Winston Churchill Secondary together.
“It’s a Churchill reunion,” Sim said.
Sim said although he and Chernen were close friends for a long time, their “lives have diverged a little bit” in recent years, adding: “I don’t think Glen’s super-happy about the fact I decided to run at the last minute.”