Allan De Genova is so confident he’ll bag the Vision Vancouver mayoral nomination that if he wins, he says, “I’ll ask for a recount.”

In an interview with the Georgia Straight, the former Non-Partisan Association member talked about what it’s like to be in a new party and what his new associates can expect from the 51-year-old park-board commissioner.

“It’s been a bit of a challenge,” De Genova responded when asked about the reception he has received so far from Vision Vancouver. “They can’t quite figure me out, I don’t think, yet.”

De Genova noted that although Vision Vancouver founding member and former mayor Larry Campbell has endorsed his bid for the party’s nomination, and former Vision mayoral candidate Jim Green has been “very supportive”, he still doesn’t have anybody within the party’s executive who is identified with him.

“Gregor has people; Raymond has people,” he said, referring to declared mayoral hopeful and Vancouver-Fairview MLA Gregor Robertson and city councillor Raymond Louie, who is widely expected to join the party’s nomination derby. “That’s okay. I’m the new boy on the block. I have to pay my dues. Give me a chance and I’ll prove to you that I will probably be the best thing that could happen to your party.”

He may be the new kid, but the long-time politician isn’t shy about taking shots at Robertson, who has already secured the endorsement of Vision councillors Tim Stevenson and Heather Deal.

“Gregor can go out and convince them that he’s the right guy who’s going to come in and run the city, which he doesn’t know; to find his way around town, he needs a map,” De Genova said. “I like the guy, [but] he has no experience. He doesn’t know his way around.”

As for himself, De Genova declared: “The difference about me over other candidates is my experience and [knowing] my way around this town and knowing every department and every department head.”

It’s not City Hall experience that really matters for a mayoral candidate, Robertson countered.

“City Hall needs some new energy and different kinds of experience to complement the experience that our current Vision councillors have,” Robertson told the Straight. “I bring experience at the provincial level and the business community and as a community activist—all of which I think are useful at City Hall.”

De Genova is not impressed with Robertson’s claim that he “reached a turning point” upon hearing about a homeless man who burned to death while trying to keep warm in cold weather nine blocks from City Hall.

“Everything is all about generalities,” De Genova said. “We need to end homelessness; of course we do. We all know that. Let’s get a solution going here, not a goal.”

De Genova also took offence at the claim by Coalition of Progressive Electors councillor David Cadman that if he wins Vision Vancouver’s nomination, the party’s progressive bloc will make an exodus to COPE.

“I view Vision as a centrist party, not a…party for political labels,” he said. “Look at my record. There may be some extremists that may not be comfortable with my centrist view, but my view is that there’s going to be more moderate people that will come to the party than people that will leave.”

Both De Genova and Robertson claimed they haven’t commissioned polls to gauge their chances of winning against incumbent NPA mayor Sam Sullivan, who is facing a serious challenge from councillor Peter Ladner for the NPA nomination.

“The people of Vancouver are the best poll I get,” De Genova said, referring to continuing dialogues with various sectors of the city.

It might do him well to talk to Bill Saunders, president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, which endorsed COPE and Vision candidates, including Green, in the 2005 civic election.

“De Genova seems to me to be a little bit on the conservative side for some people,” Saunders told the Straight, noting that he doesn’t really know much about the politician. “If I was to try to take the man seriously, I would have to sit down with him and find out what he really thinks.”