With one week to go until the civic election, the NPA's disarray and infighting should make voters think twice about a group of candidates who lack experience or solutions to Vancouver's toughest challenges.
"Suzanne Anton and the NPA can't even keep their campaign together, which should be a red flag for any voter considering them in this election," said Vision councillor Geoff Meggs. "The NPA's group of rookie candidates is already fighting amongst themselves, making wild promises, and contradicting each other.
"This is a negative, out-of-touch group of NPA candidates that isn't ready for prime time."
The NPA's list of contradictions and infighting continues to grow. These include:
- Suzanne Anton supports a proposed mega-casino in False Creek, while NPA council candidate Sean Bickerton recently said of the casino "I opposed it then, I oppose it now, and I will oppose it in the future."
- Seven NPA candidates issued flyers and mock ballots promoting themselves, at the expense of Suzanne Anton, without her knowing about it. This prompted another NPA school trustee candidate Sandy Sharma to say the rest of the team "wasn't impressed."
- NPA council candidate Bill McCreery issued a press release demanding a moratorium to laneway housing, calling them an "unwanted addition" to neighbourhoods. Suzanne Anton has described laneway housing as her "baby" from EcoDensity program and there are promises for more laneway housing in the NPA platform.
- While Suzanne Anton has promised to put a moratorium on downtown bike lanes, NPA council candidate Ken Charko is calling for seasonal separated bike lanes, which would result in costly road construction twice a year.
- Suzanne Anton has repeatedly opposed any possible alternatives for the future of the viaducts, while NPA council candidate Sean Bickerton has called for the viaducts to come down and let "a thousand parks bloom in their place."
"The NPA candidates contradict each other on an almost daily basis, and would bring back the dysfunctional, ineffective infighting we saw three years ago with the Sam Sullivan council," said Meggs. "Vancouver needs a strong, stable Vision team on council that will stay focussed on tough issues like affordable housing and public transit."
The NPA's recent contradictions pile on to Suzanne Anton's own history of policy changes, including:
- Voting to oppose, then supporting, a mega-casino in False Creek;
- Voting to support the Hornby bike lane, then issuing a statement the next day rescinding her vote;
- Voting in favour of the greenest city action plan four separate times, then opposing it
The Vision Vancouver platform, which all Vision candidates support, is available at http://votevision.ca.