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The civic election in New Westminster isn’t until October, but heck, it’s never too soon to write something highly speculative about local politics.
Not when so many bombshells have been dropping during the past couple of months.
First, of course, was Mayor Jonathan Cote announcing he would not be seeking re-election, a stunning move because he was about as sure a thing to be re-elected as it gets.
The rumblings are that the whole Together New West naming fiasco helped push Cote to decide it was time for him and his “consensus” management style to move on. Since then, Cote’s Twitter account has been a delightful look back on his time as mayor, including tweets about his stint as a wrestler and the famous tight golden pants. At least two other city mayors have told me recently how sad they are so see Cote go.
Speaking of Together New West, this party or slate or loose group of people (I’m sure they’ll deny they’re a “party” despite quacking like a duck) was supposed to consist of some or all members of council. It has now been renamed as Forward New West, which is funny because Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart just named his party as Forward Together Vancouver and I swear he’s trolling the locals with that.
But I digress.
This week saw another bombshell announcement with a third political organization starting up called Community First.
“Some heavy hitters on the local political scene have helped form a new electoral organization in New Westminster,” reads our story in the Record. “Former MP and MLA Dawn Black, former MLA Judy Darcy, former city councillor Bill Harper, some current city council and school board politicos, and community activists including Raunaq Singh, David Black and Tania Jarzebiak are among about two dozen residents who have been involved in discussions leading to the creation of Community First, said interim spokesperson Cheryl Greenhalgh.”
So we could have a situation with some members of council running against other members of council after being on the same “team” for a long time. This is interesting because for so long some local politicos have whined after the last election about how the current council would just hold hands, sing kumbaya and never disagree. The truth is that while council are like-minded, some members have very different approaches to how things get done. This new political party is a pretty big sign of the split that exists.
Also in the mix are the New West Progressives, a name people on the left still choke on like they are eating ball bearings.
The Progressives are definitely on the right side of the spectrum, while the local solidarity on the left appears to be imploding. There is still a lot to be decided as far as who is running for the two left parties, but could we see a vote split that allows the Progressives to flourish?
And are either of the parties going to run a candidate for mayor against Ken Armstrong of the Progressives? That’s no easy thing. It takes a lot of money to run a mayoral candidate. It’s also not exactly an appetizing job for many people to take on.
I’m sure someone will run, but it remains to be see if both left parties will field a mayoral candidate.
In the short-term, Community First will hold its founding annual general meeting on Thursday April 28 at 7 p.m., with the online meeting being open to all of its members.
Stay tuned.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
