NPA CANDIDATE FIGHTS STIGMA OF COUP D'ETAT

The defining moment of this year's Vancouver civic election campaign might
have occurred six months ago on March 8. That was the day the Vancouver Sun
carried a front-page, above-the-fold story with the following headline:
"Jennifer Clarke's 'coup d'etat': Observers say NPA move to force out mayor
may backfire". The story helped fuel an impression that Civic Non-Partisan
Association Mayor Philip Owen's long-time colleague, NPA Coun. Jennifer
Clarke, secretly plotted a takeover.

Political consultants often advise candidates to craft a believable message
and reinforce it over the course of an election campaign. In 1996,
provincial NDP leader Glen Clark cleverly portrayed himself as the tough
little guy who was "On Your Side" against the corporations' favourite
candidate, Gordon Campbell. The message resonated with the electorate, and
the NDP pulled off a stunning upset.

In recent years, the NPA has dominated Vancouver civic politics by defining
itself as a moderate, inclusive party and portraying its opponents as
reckless left-wing radicals. NPA politicians have sometimes described the
opposition Coalition of Progressive Electors as the "Committee Opposed to
Practically Everything", citing as examples Expo 86, the Cambie Street
Bridge, and the expansion of the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This year, the NPA has tried to reinforce this perception by emphasizing
its support for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games bid. Clarke's communications
advisor, Norman Stowe, told the Straight last month that he thought COPE
politicians would have a difficult time dealing with this issue.

But the persistence of the Vancouver Sun's coup d'etat story has often
bumped the NPA off its traditional message. Since last March, Clarke's
critics have repeatedly claimed that Mayor Owen was overthrown because some
NPA councillors and party board members opposed his handling of the drug
issue on the Downtown Eastside. Now the NPA is fighting back, which means
this could become the nastiest civic-election campaign in recent history.

Earlier this year, city council unanimously approved the mayor's "four
pillar" approach, emphasizing enforcement, treatment, harm reduction, and
prevention. Clarke's opponents, however, have maintained that the NPA
council gave Owen's policy a halfhearted endorsement to avoid political
embarrassment.

"We're strongly in favour of the four pillars," COPE strategist Neil
Monckton told the Georgia Straight. "Jennifer Clarke says she is, but we
know she is not, and clearly that is why they dumped Owen."

The NPA has the advantages of incumbency, lots of money, deep ties with
Vancouver's Chinese community, and a huge organization. However, as the
civic campaign enters the critical autumn pre-election period, the NPA is
having trouble erasing the impression that Clarke and her creme-de-la-creme
friends toppled their leader. And Owen is not saying anything in the
party's defence.

Moreover, the emergence of a new party, modelled on the old TEAM of the
1970s and 1980s, has added an unpredictable element to this year's
campaign. Former NPA park-board chair Art Cowie and former NPA councillors
Nancy Chiavario and Alan Herbert told reporters that they formed vcaTEAM to
promote "middle of the road" policies espoused by Owen.

Chiavario recently told the Straight that the NPA's biggest challenge is
"getting over the stigma of their treatment of Philip Owen".

"I really believe that this is a huge transition election," she said.

On Thursday (September 12), vcaTeam will nominate its mayoral candidate,
consumer advocate Valerie MacLean, the vice-president of the Better
Business Bureau of Mainland B.C. She told the Straight that her party's top
priority will be to stimulate the economy. Mac-Lean, an ex-RCMP officer,
added that she supports Owen's four-pillar approach.

On September 5, ex-chief coroner and former RCMP drug cop Larry Campbell
also highlighted the drug issue when he announced that he would seek the
mayoral nomination with the Coalition of Progressive Electors.

"Mayor Philip Owen got it right with his four-pillar strategy to tackle the
drug crisis," Campbell told reporters outside City Hall. "The people of the
Downtown Eastside supported the policy, and a majority of the people in the
city indicated that they also supported this policy. The members of the
mayor's own party fought him every step of the way and finally drove him
out of office in an attempt to stall the four-pillars policy."

Clarke told the Straight that this story is false. "I think that the
opponents are trying to use that as a defining issue, but there is no
evidence or truth to that," she said. "Philip had told the caucus and his
board privately that he did not intend to run again-and that may not have
been widely known-but that was something he said on many occasions."

Clarke claimed that in November 1998, Owen told her that he would run for
the last time the following November. She said that in the summer of 2001,
in a meeting in the mayor's office, Owen told her and Coun. George Puil
that he was not running again. Clarke also said that Owen claimed that he
wanted "off this merry-go-round" at a party fundraising dinner last autumn.

During the campaign, Clarke has tried to define herself as a moderate
candidate concerned about transportation and in tune with the majority of
Vancouver voters. When asked how she'll deal with the challenge from
vcaTEAM, Clarke claimed that the new party won't be much of a factor. "The
only thing they can do is split the vote either way," she said.

Clarke regularly dismisses COPE as civic accomplices of the provincial NDP,
and she claimed to the Straight that when people sign up as COPE members,
they also receive an NDP membership card. "I've heard that from a number of
sources," Clarke said. "It's a double sign-up."

COPE's Monckton told the Straight that Clarke's claim is false. "We're not
affiliated with any provincial party," he said. "I mean, there was the
merger of the Civic New Democrats in 1993, but they ceased to exist in
1998. [COPE Coun.] Fred Bass is a Green Party member."

Clarke, a nine-year council veteran, has tried to portray COPE's probable
mayoral candidate, Larry Campbell, as a virtual stranger to city hall. "I
will say that we have never seen him at any community meeting, charitable
function, community function-ever at anything that had anything remotely to
do with civic government," Clarke said. "So our paths have never crossed."

Campbell, on the other hand, said that as coroner, he had extensive
dealings with the city's engineering, police, fire, and law departments. "I
think it's time for people at city hall who focus on solutions, not in
fighting and power games," he said.

Monckton claimed that COPE has already raised $250,000 this year and said
that more money will come in after the party's September 18 nomination
meeting. That would reduce the perennial funding gap with the NPA, which
routinely outspends its opponents by a three-to-one margin. Pegg declined
to offer details about NPA fundraising.

The NPA can also expect attacks on other fronts. The Vancouver Marijuana
Party's mayoral candidate, Marc Emery, told the Straight that his party
will run ads criticizing the NPA's relationship with the police department
and opposing the Olympic bid. Vancouver Green Party candidate John Whistler
said his party will focus attention on transportation issues.

According to UBC political scientist Paul Tennant, there was a dramatic
increase in the number of candidates for city council when the NPA's
influence declined in the early 1970s. He also told the Straight that one
of the biggest dangers for the NPA is if something unpredictable occurs at
its October 2 nominating meeting.

Pegg said the NPA has more than 6,000 members. Political activist Hanson
Lau told the Straight that Chinese-Canadian party members will turn out in
force to try to nominate candidates of Chinese descent. He also said that
he is en-couraging Chinese members to adopt the "80/20" initiative backed
by Chinese-American community leaders, which was designed to increase
Asian-American representation in U.S. politics.

Lau estimated that approximately 20 percent of Vancouver's registered
voters are of Chinese descent. He said that if 80 percent of those voters
can be persuaded to support Chinese-Canadian candidates, then the community
will increase its representation on the NPA slate and on Vancouver city
council.

"The Chinese community is slowly getting wise to this kind of reality," he
said.

Lau said that the 80/20 initiative is necessary to convince the NPA council
to stop letting city staff control the drug policies. Another Chinatown
political activist, Charles Lee, told the Straight that he has given up on
the NPA because its "four-pillar approach" promotes safe-injection sites
and other harm-reduction measures and does little about treatment,
prevention, and enforcement.

"My view is we don't have a four-pillar approach," Lee said. "We have one
pillar and three toothpicks."

UBC's Tennant said that in recent years, the NPA has done a much better job
than COPE in attracting support from ethnic communities. However, Lee said
that this year there is a lot of anger in the Chinese community against the
NPA.

"I assure you, there will be a strong independent candidate who speaks up
for Chinatown and for everybody who feels it's inappropriate to march on,
in my view, down the slippery road towards liberalization of drugs," Lee said.

The NPA has kept control over Vancouver city hall for the past 16 years.
But dissension within the Chinese community is just one sign that the party
could face a huge challenge on election day on November 16. COPE has more
money in this campaign, and vcaTEAM could siphon votes from the NPA's
traditional supporters.

Meanwhile, hardliners say the NPA is too soft on drugs. Harm-reduction
advocates say the NPA wants to revive the war on drugs. It's not an
enviable situation for Coun. Jennifer Clarke, desperately trying to portray
herself as the moderate voice of reason.