Randy Helten and NSV cleverly develop new “progressive” slate
Daniel Fontaine
November 5, 2011
CityCaucus.com
In the midst of a very busy news cycle, Randy Helten and his Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver party announced they were rounding out their civic slate. Instead of holding a traditional nomination meeting, they decided to issue a news release and surprisingly endorse candidates from across the political spectrum.
Helten’s NSV endorsed “progressive” slate heading into the November 19th election now looks like this:
- Elizabeth Murphy (NSV)
- Nicole Benson (NSV)
- Marie Kerchum (NSV)
- Terry Martin (NSV)
- R J Aquino (COPE)
- Adriane Carr (Green),
- Sandy Garossino (Independent),
- Tim Louis (COPE),
- Bill McCreery (NPA),
- Ellen Woodsworth (COPE)
This list must frighten the daylights out of the backroom boys over at Vision. If you recall, Helten was an active member of Vision Vancouver when Mayor Gregor privately referred to him as a “f***ing NPA hack” after a lengthy public hearing.
What Helten has cleverly done is design an alternate “progressive” slate for every voter uncomfortable voting for Vision Vancouver – and if you believe the NPA backroom operatives, this number is growing exponentially every day. If you don’t want to vote majority NPA or Vision, I suspect you will want to bring this list with you to the polls.
I previously wrote that Helten had become the de facto COPE mayoral candidate. This news release now all but confirms my earlier musings. But it remains to be seen how many of the NSV slate (besides Adriane Carr) will make it into the top ten.
As you will note, Helten makes a veiled reference to this not being a “reciprocal agreement”. One has to assume he’s talking about the secret deal struck between Vision/COPE. Despite some media pressure, Mayor Gregor refuses to release the details of the backroom agreement.
On a side note, I’m being told the race between Robertson & Anton may be tightening up due to Mayor Gregor’s mishandling of the Occupy Vancouver encampment. One NPA insider told me at their recent fundraiser that “voting intentions have become a lot more fluid in the last few days”. I’ll be doing a bit more digging and hope to have more to report to you early next week. Stay tuned.
