Vancouver, June 4 — The Green Party of Vancouver is pleased to announce that their representatives have reached an agreement with Vancouver District Labour Council (“VDLC”) toward the objective of electing a progressive Vancouver City Council, School Board and Park Board in the October 2018 Vancouver civic election.
“This agreement still needs to be ratified by our membership later this month,” says Green Party Chairperson Anthony Hughes. “Our representatives will be recommending the agreement to our members. We approached our discussions with the VDLC with numbers we were confident we could elect, based on recent electoral outcomes and recent polling. The numbers of Green candidates the VDLC has agreed to endorse are consistent with the numbers we believe we can successfully elect. We appreciate the dedication and hard work of the VDLC executive and affiliates in stick-handling through what has been a complicated process.”
The agreement sees the VDLC agreeing to endorse three Green candidates each for City Council, Park Board, and School Board in the October 20 general election. The VDLC will not be endorsing a majority for any party for any office. The VDLC’s endorsement for mayor will be a separate and later process.
“We went into these discussions with the VDLC with the position, consistent with our approach in the 2014 civic election, that no party should run a majority for any office. We are pleased that the VDLC has agreed it will not endorse any party for a majority for any office, inclusive of mayor and council,” says Green Party of Vancouver VDLC Agreement Discussions Lead Representative, Jacquie Miller.
“We saw in the 2017 by-election how too many progressive candidates allowed a former BC Liberal candidate, Hector Bremner, to win a seat on Council with less than 28% of the vote,” adds Pete Fry, who placed a strong third as the Green Party’s candidate in the October by-election. “We respect and appreciate the intent of the VDLC’s suggested endorsement numbers to avoid a repeat of October’s outcome.”
The agreement between the Greens and the VDLC commits that the VDLC will not endorse a majority for any party for any office, which, for the purposes of this agreement, is defined as more than four candidates if a party is running a mayoral candidate or more than five if it is not.
This will be the first VDLC endorsement of a Green since 2008, when they endorsed Park Board commissioner and current Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon.
The Greens hope to ratify the agreement with their membership at a special general meeting to nominate candidates on June 27.
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