COPE’s Tim Louis may vote for Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver
Carlito Pablo, October 28, 2011
Straight.com
Candidates on the combined council slate of the ruling Vision Vancouver and Coalition of Progressive Electors should start asking themselves one question.
Who among them may lose the vote of maverick COPE council candidate Tim Louis?
That’s because at least one of the nine other council candidates in the Vision-COPE alliance potentially may not be among the ballot choices of Louis.
Louis has indicated that he’s eager to work in council with Terry Martin, one of the four council candidates of the new electoral group Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver.
What’s more, Louis also believes that NSV is raising important questions in the campaign, and that voters should pay attention to these.
“I’m going to be voting for people that I can work with,” Louis told the Straight in a recent phone interview when asked if he’s voting for NSV’s Martin. “I think it’s important that we implement positive solutions, that we work together to implement positive solutions. Terry is certainly somebody I could work with.”
The left-leaning lawyer and former city councillor has a high opinion of NSV, which is running four council candidates and a candidate for mayor.
“They are speaking to very important issues,” Louis said. “Number one, how do we ensure that development is not for the benefit of developers but instead for the benefit of neighbourhoods? And number two, how do we ensure that development is sustainable? They’re raising some very important and very necessary questions.”
The Straight asked him whether voters should pay attention to NSV.
“I think that we all need to learn to pay attention to important messages,” Louis responded. “It doesn’t matter what party the message comes from. If it’s a good message, we need to pay attention to that message.”
Going back to Martin, the Straight asked Louis whether Vancouver voters should support the NSV candidate.
“I think it’s very important for people to determine where the different candidates stand on issues that are important to them, and then vote based on the issues,” Louis said.
