By Carlito Pablo, October 27, 2011
Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver may endorse candidates running with the Coalition of Progressive Electors, but the upstart group won’t be doing the same for any candidates with COPE’s senior electoral partner, the ruling Vision Vancouver.
“I believe that we will be endorsing the entire COPE slate,” Terry Martin, a council candidate with NSV, told the Straight in a recent phone interview. “Their policies really agree with ours in most ways: community-based planning and respecting the opinions of the people of Vancouver.”
He added that his group is also hoping that Adriane Carr, the sole council candidate for the Green Party of Vancouver, wins in the November 19 election.
Martin noted that the only reason why NSV is running candidates for mayor and council is that COPE refused to form a slate that will give voters a choice other than Vision and the Non-Partisan Association.
“No matter what happened, we were going to get a majority on council of the two developer parties,” Martin declared about Vision and the NPA.
Tony Tang is the only unelected candidate on the seven-person Vision slate for council. Asked for his opinion about NSV, he begged off and suggested calling the party’s campaign office instead.
“All I do is I concentrate on my own campaign,” Tang told the Straight by phone. “I just make sure my words are being heard by residents and the neighbourhoods. So I attend as many all-candidates meetings as I could.”
Martin previously sought but failed to win a council nomination with COPE. He said that he remains a COPE member.
Asked if the emergence of NSV will divide the so-called progressive vote, a result that COPE executives often cite to justify an alliance with Vision, Martin replied: “Quite the opposite. I don’t think we’ll be taking any votes away from COPE. And we expect and hope to take as many from the NPA as we do with Vision.”
