CONDON WAKES UP FROM HIS ‘NIGHTMARE’
Until recently, the thought of running for mayor against a crowded field of left-leaning candidates didn’t appeal to Patrick Condon.
In fact, in April, Condon told The Vancouver Sun that situation “would be a nightmare.”
But now, two months later, Condon is doing just that.
Monday morning, minutes after Condon officially launched his mayoral campaign and entered an increasingly crowded field of leftleaning candidates, he explained that the 2018 Vancouver election in mid-June is a “whole different world” than what we were looking at just a few weeks ago.
“April was so long ago,” Condon said. “Our assumptions in April were completely destroyed by May.”
In April, there was talk about the city’s self-described “progressive” parties — Vision Vancouver, the Greens, OneCity and COPE — uniting behind a single mayoral candidate to prevent votesplitting and stop the historically right-leaning Non-Partisan Association from winning back the mayoralty.
The accepted wisdom then, Condon said Monday, was that “the left was united and you had to unite against the monolithic NPA. None of that’s true anymore. It’s a whole different world. That was so April.
“I was wary of splitting the vote on the left, but the vote since that time has been split in a million different ways. So any concern about splitting the left is so yesterday. And furthermore, the right is split as well,” Condon said, referring to two new parties being launched by one-time possible NPA mayoral hopefuls: sitting NPA Coun. Hector Bremner and former federal Conservative MP Wai Young.
“I would still feel some of that reluctance if the NPA hadn’t split into at least three pieces,” Condon said.
Condon, a professor of urban design at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, formally announced Monday that he’ll seek the mayoral nomination of the Coalition of Progressive Electors. COPE, the city’s oldest left-of-centre political party, will decide its mayoral candidate at a nomination meeting in August.
But one factor influenced Condon’s decision to enter the mayoral race even more than the NPA’s internal drama and the splintering of the right-ofcentre vote: Coun. Adriane Carr’s decision, announced Friday, not to run for mayor. Carr, the only Green representative on Vancouver city council, had been considering a mayoral run for months, but announced Friday she would instead seek a third term on council.
With such a crowded field of mayoral candidates, including left-leaning independents Shauna Sylvester and Kennedy Stewart, as well as Vision nominee Ian Campbell, Carr felt the risk of losing was too great to give up a Green council seat she has a very safe chance of re-winning.
Had Carr decided to run for mayor, Condon wouldn’t have run, he said, and would have supported her.
“It took a long time for Adriane Carr to make that decision,” Condon said.
“I’m sad that she made that decision, but it’s probably the wisest decision for her. It would be terrible to lose her on council. But until she made that decision, I was honour-bound to wait.”
Condon frequently appears in the media discussing matters such as urban planning, transportation and public policy. One thing distinguishing Condon’s Monday event from the respective campaign launches of his competitors was the inclusion of specific policy ideas and proposals. As a comparison, the NPA’s mayoral nomination race, which concluded last week with Ken Sim’s win, was notably leaner on discussion about specific policy.
Of the declared mayoral hopefuls, Bremner has probably presented the most specific ideas about policy, including his time on council. Members of his new party are working on creating a full platform and the party is expected to formally launch it within the next month.
Bremner’s platform is, at its most basic, based around fixing Vancouver’s housing crisis by dramatically increasing the supply of the right kinds of housing in the city.
Condon believes the city’s “developer-friendly policies and an absolute faith in the market to fix our problems have made them worse,” he said.
Condon’s ideas, which will likely be debated by opponents and the public, include setting a goal of increasing the amount of nonmarket housing in Vancouver from 15 per cent to 50 per cent. To achieve this goal, Condon said he would shift city expenditures toward non-market housing and fight to make city property tax laws progressive to help fund it.
“I want to be the Bernie Sanders of this campaign. I don’t want to be the Hillary Clinton of this campaign,” Condon said. “I don’t want to be afraid to come up with specifics and afraid to say the hard things.”
Even if his campaign is eventually unsuccessful, Condon said, he would be happy if he can help change the dialogue and push the city “aggressively towards nonmarket housing and understanding that the marketplace is not going to solve the problem.
“I want to win, but if I get that consolation prize, that would be good, too,” he said.
I was wary of splitting the vote on the left, but the vote since that time has been split in a million different ways.