The president of the NPA remains coy about who will be the party’s mayoral candidate but witnessed a mayoral-like speech Wednesday night from his own vice-president.
Peter Armstrong stood to the side of a stage at the Vancouver Convention Centre while developer Robert Macdonald delivered a passionate address to about 400 people at an NPA fundraiser.
From a podium festooned with purple and white balloons, Macdonald began by responding to the party’s “angry, old men” tag given to the NPA by Mayor Gregor Robertson over the weekend.
“Of course that is just false — it’s divisive, it’s part of their political propaganda,” Macdonald said to guests who included former mayor Philip Owen. “The fact is we’re an inclusive party of every gender, age, race and religion. And as you can see here this evening, 50 per cent of this room is filled with hundreds of talented women of every age.”
Macdonald, who operates Macdonald Development Corporation and rumoured to be a party mayoral candidate, said people want a change from Robertson and Vision Vancouver, which have held power at city hall since 2008.
He said Vancouverites deserve a city that is operated by people with high moral values and professional standards, “and not run by fanatics and bullies," a reference to Vision Vancouver's environmental agenda (greenest city by 2020, separated bike lanes) and its rapid pace to adopt new and controversial community plans for neighbourhoods.
“You can hear it in the coffee shops, the pub, the offices, the soccer fields, the shop floors, the community centres — you can feel the desire for change in every corner of the city because the people know there is something that does not smell right at city hall,” he said, before affecting a Scottish accent. “As my father would have said, ‘Aye Robbie, they’re trying to sell us beef stew with black bean sauce. But it’s really just a bucket of shit.’”
Macdonald was the party’s chief fundraiser in the 2011 campaign and donated an unprecedented $960,000 of his own money in the race.
His name was mentioned back then as a possible mayoral candidate but the NPA chose to run former councillor Suzanne Anton, who is now the province’s justice minister.
Macdonald left immediately after his speech to catch a plane before the Courier could ask him whether he intended to take on Robertson.
When asked about Macdonald as the party’s choice for mayor, Armstrong would only say the NPA will choose “someone who wins in November.” He was equally coy to his guests in a speech before dinner, saying “it’s going to be somebody you’re going to be proud of.”
He confirmed that former Liberal cabinet minister Colin Hansen, who attended the gala, will not be the party’s mayoral choice. He also joked how the party lost out to former Canuck Trevor Linden, who was recently named president of the NHL hockey team.
Armstrong reminded the crowd that Larry Campbell was only nominated two months before he ran with COPE in 2002 and won a landslide victory.
Former mayor Owen added to Armstrong’s history lesson, telling the Courier his mayoral victory in 1993 came after he announced his candidacy in July.
“It’s not too late,” he said. “Don’t underestimate the voters, don’t underestimate how the media is going to treat it. At this stage, you can’t predict what’s going to happen in November.”
In what appeared to be a symbolic response to Robertson's characterization of the party as angry, old men, Wednesday's fundraiser opened with a lion dance followed by performances by aboriginal and bhangra dancers. Robertson twice referred to the NPA as angry, old men in a speech he gave at Vision's AGM Sunday.
The NPA will not hold a nomination meeting for this campaign and will not say when all its candidates will be announced. Presently, the party holds two seats on council, three on school board and two on park board.
The NPA says its membership has gone up 500 per cent in the past two years and could have sold out the 350-seat dinner three times over.
Companies paid $5,000 to $7,500 a table, including The Vancouver Taxi Association, B.C. Maritime Employers’ Association, Rocky Mountaineer and Concord Pacific, whose table included former B.C. Lottery Corporation head Michael Graydon, who has since joined a company with direct ties to Paragon Gaming.
Other guests at the gala included Vancouver Board of Trade CEO Iain Black, former NPA mayoral candidate Jennifer Clarke, businessman Lorne Segal, two members of the Vancouver Firefighters Union and Glen Chernen of the Cedar Party, which launched a lawsuit against Mayor Gregor Robertson and his caucus over a lease deal with Hootsuite. Robertson has since denied the allegations.
The NPA also launched an online fundraising drive Wednesday, with donations reaching $1,800 by 8 p.m. that night. The party spent more than $2 million in the 2011 campaign.
The election is Nov. 15.
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