There’s still a week to go if you want to run for office in the upcoming municipal election. If you’re not running as a candidate for one of Vancouver’s handful of established political parties, your chances probably aren’t good considering an independent candidate has rarely been elected to city council, park board or school board, let alone the mayor’s chair.
But don’t let this stop you, just as it hasn’t stopped Mike Hansen. At the Courier’s press deadline, he was the only candidate for mayor whose nomination paperwork was posted on the City of Vancouver’s website.
Hansen — who is financing his campaign by selling marijuana and claims on his website to be running to “introduce democracy to city hall for the first time ever in Canadian history” — has gathered the minimum 25 signatures endorsing his candidacy and conformed to all the other requirements, which include being a Canadian citizen 18 years of age or older, a resident of the B.C. for the past six months and of Vancouver for the past 30 days, and having paid the $100 filing fee.
The cutoff to turn in all the necessary forms, which can be downloaded here or picked up from the city clerk’s office on the third floor of city hall, is Oct. 10 at 5 p.m. Profiles of all confirmed office-seekers will be formally released by the city after the nomination period closes.
Until then, the only other two people whose paperwork has been uploaded are both running for city council. Anthony Guitar, an ex-convict and social justice advocate who failed to receive the endorsement to run for either mayor or council as a COPE candidate at the party’s Sept. 7 nomination meeting, is instead now running as an independent. Jeremy Gustafson, a film industry worker who ran as an independent candidate in the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant riding in the 2013 provincial election, is running for the newly formed Cedar Party.
But although his own paperwork hasn’t been posted online yet, it seems unlikely incumbent Vision Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson will miss next Friday’s deadline. Other hopefuls known to be in the running for mayor include Non-Partisan Association candidate and former journalist Kirk LaPointe, COPE candidate and mental health worker Meena Wong, lawyer Bob Kasting and restaurant owner Colin Shandler.
All seven current Vision councillors are seeking re-election and are joined by former park board commissioner Niki Sharma. The ruling civic party is running six park board candidates for seven available seats and seven candidates for the nine-member school board.
The NPA’s two sitting councillors, George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball, are both seeking another term and are joined by six aspiring new city councillors.
The NPA is also running six park board candidates and five for park board.
Incumbent Green Party councillor Adriane Carr is joined by two new contenders for city council, two for park board and two for school board.
COPE has seven aspiring city councillors, four commissioners and five trustees. The Cedar Party has three more city council candidates, and Vancouver First has two known candidates for school board and two for park board.
The election is Nov. 15.
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