Mayor Campbell could be ready to quit

Last updated Jun 29 2005 06:02 PM PDT
CBC News

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There is speculation at Vancouver city hall that Mayor Larry Campbell is on the verge of announcing he won't run for re-election this fall.

Campbell has called a news conference for Thursday morning to discuss his future.

The mayor has said he's tired. And when he was asked about his political future on Tuesday, he joked that it would be up to his doctor.

"Why don't you just tell us now," asked a reporter."Are you going to run?

"I don't know. I have to talk to my doctor," says Campbell. "He says running may not be good for me, but now that I got rid of the cigarettes."

Earlier this year, Campbell was diagnosed with heart problems, and told to quit smoking.

His exploits as a coroner helped launch the TV show, Da Vinci's Inquest. He was first elected in 2002 under the COPE banner, and has become the most popular mayor in recent memory.

But he has also become estranged from COPE, with the left-wing party splitting into two factions – the COPE Lites and the COPE Classics.

NPA city councillor Sam Sullivan suspects Campbell is tired of battling his former caucus members during council meetings.

"He's tried for two-and-a-half years to keep some sort of cohesion with his caucus, and I would not be surprised if he announced that he is withdrawing from being the mayor very soon."

If Campbell does decide to step down, it's widely expected that COPE councillor Jim Green – who has been a close ally – will seek the mayor's chair.

COPE holds a general meeting in mid-July. And Campbell has said he would announce his intentions before that meeting.

COPE

:puke:

If Jim Green gets elected mayor Vancouver will become comunist, the whole city would go to hell.

Time to bring back the NPA!

I hope he stays, because he is popular and knows whats best for the city, If the councillars which are current are re-elected with a mayor that thinks the same way as they do, this city is gone. Larry Campbell can get a number of new candidates and win, because he is supported by most Vancouverites. If thats not the case, lets just hope COPE doesnt win the next election, with the exception of Larry Campbell and a few other councillars the rest are a bunch of incompotent clowns.

He's quitting.


Vancouver mayor quits after one term


Broadcast News


Thursday, June 30, 2005


VANCOUVER -- Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell is calling it quits.

The popular former cop and coroner told a packed news conference at city hall that he won't seek re-election in November.

Campbell says he is not a politician but feels he accomplished a lot during his three-year term, and believes it's time to move ahead.

The announcement comes after several weeks of discussions between Campbell and his supporters.

The mayor had been increasingly frustrated with the job and his council colleagues in recent weeks.

He's also been concerned about his health.
© Broadcast News 2005

COPE will do this to people.

Four city councillors want to be Vancouver mayor
NPA's Sullivan and Ladner, COPE's Green and Cadman looking ahead to November

Frances Bula
Vancouver Sun

July 4, 2005

The race to replace Larry Campbell is on.

A total of four Vancouver city councillors are now actively seeking the mayor's chair after Campbell's announcement last week that he won't run again this fall.

And while Non-Partisan Association councillors Sam Sullivan and Peter Ladner say they will work with their party to decide whether the two of them should compete for the position, it appears as though the Coalition of Progressive Electors's two leading candidates are heading for a showdown.

Both David Cadman and Jim Green say they are interested in the job. But Cadman says anyone who wants to be the mayoral candidate for COPE should do it by coming back to the party and going through a standard party nomination.

Green is part of a group that declared itself an "independent caucus" inside COPE, and potentially a new party, which is now trying to work out a coalition slate with COPE -- something Cadman says is unworkable.

"I think it's pretty hard to have someone who was with your organization and then left your organization, who is now going to be speaking on behalf of your organization," he says.

All four potential candidates say they will have to decide within the next couple of weeks whether they formally declare their candidacies.

Both parties are worried that internal competition could generate a nasty battle that would weaken them going into the election.

"Some think it would be divisive, but I think it would be healthy," says Sullivan of a possible nomination battle.

He, like the three others, said he's been getting phone calls from people encouraging him to run, and he's making the rounds to get advice on how electable he would be.

"I don't know if the city is ready for a mayor in a wheelchair," says Sullivan, a quadriplegic since a skiing accident when he was a teenager. While some people are telling him no, it's not, or asking whether his health is up to the demanding job, others say having him as mayor "would be a powerful statement about Vancouver and its tolerance."

Sullivan seems ready to start campaigning immediately. The four-term councillor knows already that his two main issues would be figuring out how to absorb growth in the city through "selective densification" and pushing the Four Pillars drug policy more aggressively than the COPE council did.

Both of those issues are ones on which the public is divided and where the city needs leadership, he says.

His political colleague, Peter Ladner, who was elected for the first time in 2002, says he's considering the job because it would be a "huge honour and also a chance to guide the next phase in the growth of the city."

But, he says, he is talking to people in his party about the best way to decide who the NPA's mayoral candidate should be.

In the 1993 election, the NPA did polling that showed then-councillor George Puil was well-known by the public, but that he had fairly negative ratings.

Another councillor, Philip Owen, was less well-known, but was viewed more favourably by those who knew anything about him. The NPA convinced Puil not to run and Owen became the uncontested mayoral candidate.

Ladner says he thinks that kind of "intelligence and thought" is needed before people go leaping into battle.

He adds that, while he is a relative newcomer compared to Sullivan, that may be an advantage in a general election.

"It may be that people are going to want someone who's not part of the old NPA."

Ladner actually got slightly more votes than Sullivan in 2002, with 41,755 compared to Sullivan's 40,372.

Meanwhile, both COPE candidates, who also were almost neck and neck in the polls last time (Green: 67,841; Cadman: 66,805) say they are getting all kinds of signals of support.

Cadman says his phone is ringing off the hook with calls from people who say he could have led the party to victory in 2002 if he hadn't stepped aside to allow Larry Campbell to run as mayor.

"I've been integrally involved in helping to build COPE and win in 2002," says Cadman, "and I'm a team leader."

Green says he is getting support from unions and developers.

"I've talked to several developers who are very, very supportive. And I'm the only one I know of who's been a developer. I know how development works," says Green.

The question for both Green and Cadman is how this will be worked out.

Green says people who support the independent "COPE Lite" group that developed with the mayor, "don't like what they see coming out of COPE."

But Cadman says everyone on the left has to run together. He believes the divisions of the past three years have been caused mainly by personalities, not by real policy differences.

"I think now we can open the flap of the tent and bring people back in."

That will all have to be worked out by July 13, when COPE has a meeting that sets the stage for the November election.

One other candidate has declared herself firmly already. Deb Abbey, who has run a company that specialized in responsible investing, says she is ready to run as the mayor for a united COPE.

fbula@png.canwest.com

IN THE RUNNING

Vancouver City Councillors Jim Green, David Cadman, Peter Ladner and Sam Sullivan want to succeed Larry Campbell as mayor. Here's how they placed in the November, 2002 council election (with total votes):

On the Left - COPE

#2. Green 67,841

#3. Cadman 66,805

On the Right - NPA

#9. Ladner 41,755

#10. Sullivan 40,372

Source: City of Vancouver, Vancouver Sun

Ran with fact box "In the Running", which has been appendedto the end of the story.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005

I think it is time to bring back the npa! This giving out drugs to addict thing is retarted! I hope a new mayor with the insight to not give drugs out to addicts is what Vancouver needs! They are just feeding the downtown eastside problem!
With urban renewal ( the woodwards building) Vancouver can become the model for success in this area! As it has in other areas if the focus is to clean up not feed addiction!

Mayor Campbell appointed to Senate

Broadcast News

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Mayor Larry Campbell of Vancouver appointed to the Senate. (Global BC)
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OTTAWA -- Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell has been appointed to the Canadian senate.

The announcement was made by the Prime Minister's office in Ottawa today.

Campbell has been mayor of Vancouver since the fall of 2002 but recently announced he would not seek re-election.

Before becoming mayor, Campbell was Vancouver's chief coroner, and before that worked on the RCMP drug squad.

He will sit in the senate as a member of the federal Liberal party
© Broadcast News

This is incredible, awesome....though I'd much rather see him as the person who will receive the Olympic flag in Torino.

That was fast.

That was fast.

He was actually asked to be Senator when Prime Minister Paul Martin came over to Vancouver in May.

Its great to hear that the political career isnt over for this guy. I like him and I feel he watches out for the little guy. he hasnt got his head in the sand like most other politicians.