'IT'S LIKE MARTIN SHEEN RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT'

Vancouver's mayoralty race made Friday's New York Times because of city's
drug problem.

The story focuses on the Downtown Eastside and this year's big campaign
issue, safe injection sites.

The story opens with a classic Downtown Eastside vignette: Coalition of
Progressive Electors candidate Larry Campbell walking on Hastings Street
and being offered pot by a drug dealer.

Campbell shakes the dealer off, and tells the Times writer "On this street,
you get anything you want. Weed is the least offense."

The story goes on to detail the severity of Vancouver's drug problem, and
the different approaches taken by Campbell and the Non-Partisan
Association's Jennifer Clarke.

It alludes to the popularity of the CBC show Da Vinci's Inquest, which was
partly modeled on Campbell's career as chief coroner of British Columbia.

Clarke expresses frustration at the power of television images. She
compared it to running against a fictional character from the American TV
series West Wing.

"It's like Martin Sheen running for president, and voters assuming that
Martin Sheen would respond as president the way the television character
does," she said.