Vancouver councilor Jean Swanson to lead COPE into coming municipal election

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Vancouver council incumbent Jean Swanson will lead a team of nine Coalition of Progressive Electors candidates in the fall’s municipal elections.

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COPE held its nominations conference on Friday, and on Monday reported Swanson, Breen Ouellette, Nancy Trigueros and Tanya Webking would be seeking council spots.

Incumbent Gwen Giesbrecht and Maria Hassan and Chris Livingstone aim for election to Vancouver parks board, while Suzie Mah and Rocco Trigueros hope to be on the Vancouver school board.

VSB incumbent Barb Parrott will not seek re-election, while parks board’s John Irwin wants to run again but has switched allegiance from COPE to Vision Vancouver.

COPE and Vision Vancouver have a tortured relationship. In the 2002 municipal election, COPE — led by Larry Campbell — swept aside the Non-Partisan Association. During his term however, Campbell led a revolution, creating Vision Vancouver and leaving COPE with debt from its 2002 campaign.

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In 2005, the NPA’s Sam Sullivan was elected mayor, narrowly beating Vision’s Jim Green — after a little-known independent candidate called James Green also decided to run for mayor and came in third.

The NPA then had a messy turn, with Peter Ladner seizing control of the party, and subsequently getting wiped out in the 2008 election that Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson won.

Robertson held office for three terms, before Vision was wiped out in the 2018 election after corporate donations were banned. Until that point, Vision Vancouver had been very effective at fundraising.

COPE co-chair Tristan Markle said Swanson was COPE’s “moral and practical leader” and would be taking the party into the election — set for Oct. 15.

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“Over the past four years we’ve seen what a huge difference it makes to have even a few COPE candidates in municipal government,” Markle said.

“COPE fought for the rent freeze, the renovic- tions ban, and for appropriate housing for people previously denied it, including those with no option but to sleep in parks.”

Markle said the party wanted citywide rent control, a mansion tax to end homelessness, safe supply to save lives and action on reconciliation and climate change.

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