IN WITH THE OLD NPA, OUT WITH THE NEW

So many cop cars were pulling up to the Italian Cultural Centre Wednesday
that folks figured there was a security problem at the NPA's nominating
meeting.

In fact, all those uniformed Vancouver police officers in city
cruisers-along with deputy chief Gary Grier in civies-were probably there
to vote for ex-cop Vern Campbell, who was running for a spot on the council
slate. That included Toby Hinton and Al Arsenault, the boys from the police
department's Odd Squad who have worked so hard to undermine Philip Owen's
drug policy. Arsenault made a point of assuring me he was there on his
lunch break.

While the boys in blue knew what to do, others were a lot less certain. Ray
Hall, a retired UBC professor and member of From Grief To Action, a group
for parents of addicted kids, was a typically puzzled voter. I found him
chewing on council hopeful Peter Ladner's ear.

Hall bought an NPA membership solely to support Ladner. Once he arrived, he
was told he had to vote for at least eight council candidates to have a
valid ballot. (COPE had a similar rule.)

Ladner was kind enough, once I left, to offer him some tips. If he gave
Hall the list of preferred candidates others on his team now deny handing
out, it would not have included Duncan Wilson, Sandy McCormick or George
Puil, all of whom won anyway.

Speaking of Puil, his line at the beginning of his speech-"Don't know what
I'm doing here" -was on more than a few minds. His presence on the ticket,
they figure, will do more to hurt than help.

Jennifer Clarke's speech was interesting for a number of reasons. She is,
by the way, getting smoother in her delivery and I'm not just saying that
so she'll renew my media parking pass when she wins. But the object of her
exercise was quite conventional. She was there to define her team, define
the issues and define her enemies. As far as her team goes, she has clearly
shifted ground in the few months since she announced her candidacy. Back
then, Clarke offered a "new generation of leadership."

Not any more.

Faced with a principal opponent-COPE's Larry Campbell-who has no elected
experience, she's now offering "experience, knowledge, continuity and a
track record of achievement."

As for Philip Owen's drug policy-an ongoing problem for her campaign
because of the residual optics from his defenestration-she says that's not
an election issue at all: "This is far too important to become a partisan
political football."

And who is the enemy? She deliberately makes no mention of vcaTeam or
Valerie MacLean. They are truly the wild cards in this election and the NPA
obviously figures they will draw more votes from Clarke than from Campbell.
I'm not so sure.

But Campbell is her main target. She insists he lacks civic experience and
commitment to local issues, although you can't tell that from the TV show
Da Vinci's Inquest, inspired by his work as a coroner here. And she
continues to tar Campbell and COPE as a fiscally reckless NDP front-a line
that has been successful in the past and may work again.

Let the battle begin.

HHH

Council has given Gordon Price one last slurp at the trough-a five week
vacation with pay. Council granted him leave from Oct. 5 to Nov. 11 so he
can join his partner as he competes in the Gay Olympics in Australia.
Council grants paid leaves frequently and without explanation, but it's
usually for urgent family matters, illnesses or conflicting civic duties.
Price calls this a "working vacation. He says he'll look into Australian
transportation matters and the Sydney Olympic experience. He'll report back
to council, where he'll still hold a seat for a nanosecond before the election.