Michael Geller (left), Leanore Copeland, and David Lee are among the new faces seeking city council nomination with the Non-Partisan Association.

Credit: Doug Shanks

Diverse range of NPA candidates vie for council nomination

A concert violinist, a retired banker, a former high-school teacher, an architect, and a Punjabi community advocate represent five new faces seeking city council nominations with the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), injecting new blood into Vancouver’s oldest centre-right civic party, now in its 71st year. The NPA holds its party nomination meeting this Saturday (September 13) at the Croatian Cultural Centre, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“I think the NPA is like the Cadillac, the car that used to be for old men — it decided to reposition itself,” says architect and developer Michael Geller, the only city council newcomer already elected as a candidate at the party’s first nomination meeting on June 8. “The line [Cadillac] used was, ‘This is not your father’s Cadillac,’ and in a way, the NPA today is not your father’s NPA.”

While some have questioned Geller’s interest in running with the NPA as opposed to a newer party like Vision Vancouver, he himself admits he could fit as a candidate in either camp. “A lot of the values that I have could fit with the other parties,” he says, “but I think that the NPA is a lot different today than many people think it is.”

If elected, Geller would put forward a number of recommendations for changes to city policy that would encourage alternative housing types like secondary suites or triplexes, reduce parking requirements, and encourage creative partnerships between private, non-profit and public sectors. Geller also hopes that the next elected mayor and council will make an effort to avoid the in-fighting that is characteristic of most elected City teams. “I’m looking forward to a pledge from all the candidates, regardless of which party we’re associated with, that when we are elected we will work together and not spend our time fighting the way I see other politicians at all levels of government.”

While Geller has experience on the city’s development permit board and urban-design panel, other candidates have less familiarity with details of city processes but bring years of community involvement to the table. “I never thought about going into politics,” says council hopeful and retired HSBC banker David Lee, who now volunteers as executive director of the Chinese Cultural Centre. “What really convinced me was that [Councillor] B.C. Lee is not running again, and they need a Chinese [person] to be on the NPA team, and there was no one. Yet on the Vision side, George Chow announced he’s running again, and you’ve got Raymond Louie. Chinatown needs someone with a Chinese background to communicate to it.”

Lee hopes his lengthy financial career will lend to the budgetary aspects of City Hall, and that his connections in Chinatown will help to revitalize the neighbourhood.

Despite the fact that the most vulnerable parts of East Hastings lie mere blocks away from where he spends much of his time, Lee has little to say about InSite, the controversial safe-injection site. “I don’t know enough to comment on this topic because I have not been into an injection site,” he says. Of the large homeless population in the area, Lee says the solution might not lie in housing itself. “I understand the police chief is shipping the chronic criminals back to where they’re from — maybe there’s an outstanding warrant for them in Toronto, Winnipeg or Calgary. That helps,” he says. “But I think the long-term solution is not just housing them. If they are drug addicts, you have to help get them off drugs.”

Leanore Copeland is also passionate about Downtown Eastside issues. She is president of the False Creek Community Centre, and is a former high-school English teacher and concert pianist. “InSite is essential,” she says, “but it’s not sufficient. It’s one part of a huge problem.”

Copeland’s decision to run for council came from an eye-opening walkabout of the Downtown Eastside that she took with NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner. “I know that so many millions have been poured down there, and it’s been ineffective,” she says. “I thought, there’s got to be ways that we can be effective.”

Copeland’s interest in revitalizing the Downtown Eastside is shared by Sean Bickerton, whose new home in the neighbourhood sparked his interest in city processes. After a 20-year absence from his Vancouver hometown, Bickerton moved with his partner into a condo near the International Village mall in the spring. The building had problems with sanitation and odour, so Bickerton e-mailed the mayor and city council for help. “The only people that responded were members of the NPA,” recalls Bickerton. “I started keeping Peter Ladner and B.C. Lee informed, because they responded.” A positive relationship developed from there, and Bickerton, who has worked as a concert violinist and as vice president of Columbia Artists in New York City before moving back to Vancouver, decided to throw his hat in the ring for city council.

“I want to do anything I can to help Peter Ladner get elected. Regardless of whether I get the nomination or not, that’s what I’m going to be doing,” says Bickerton. “I think [Ladner’s] a real person of dignity, and it’s cost him a lot to take the stance that he has taken, to understand the need to stand up and assert leadership at a time when it was lacking... He helped when he could, when we had a serious problem, and he’s embraced us completely.”

At press time, Punjabi Market Association founder and president Daljit Sidhu had yet to officially announce his bid for nomination. Sidhu also serves as director of the Vancouver South Neighbourhood House, as vice president of the Punjab University Alumni Association, and is a member of the Khalsa Diwan Society of BC.

The five new NPA council hopefuls will be up against council incumbents Kim Capri, Suzanne Anton, Elizabeth Ball, and NPA park board chair Korina Houghton. The NPA has five spots open for council candidacy.