The head of a union local representing more than 5,000 Vancouver public-sector employees said he cannot imagine his group backing park-board commissioner Allan De Genova for the mayoral nomination of Vision Vancouver.

Neither does Paul Faoro, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 15, expect De Genova to win the nomination, saying that it will be a toss-up between councillor Raymond Louie, a former labour organizer, and NDP Vancouver-Fairview MLA Gregor Robertson, a successful entrepreneur.

“I can’t see CUPE 15 supporting Al De Genova,” Faoro told the Georgia Straight.

But don’t expect De Genova, a former long-time member of the ruling Non-Partisan Association, to give up so easily in trying to win over the labor unions. According to the seasoned civic politician, he has had recent meetings with Faoro and other labor-union leaders in the city, like Alex Youngberg, the president of CUPE Local 391, which represents library workers, and Mike Jackson, president of outside city workers under CUPE Local 1004.

The five-term park-board commissioner related that he also made it a point to meet Bill Saunders, president of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, “less than 24 hours” after the Straight quoted Saunders on March 13 as saying that he if was to take De Genova seriously, he would have to sit down with the park official to find out how he thinks.

“You can call him [Saunders] again and ask him what he thinks about De Genova,” the park-board commissioner told the Straight.

But according to Saunders, whose organization supported Vision Vancouver and the Coalition of Progressive Electors in the 2005 civic election, De Genova didn’t actually make a splash.

“He’s [De Genova] a pretty dynamic person but I’m not impressed about his positions,” Saunders told the Straight. “He seems to be development-oriented and that’s not what Vancouver needs. Developers already have too much influence in the city.”

Saunders and NDP Vancouver–Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan will co-emcee COPE’s 40th-anniversary bash Friday (March 28) evening at the Maritime Labour Centre.

COPE executive member Rachel Marcuse doesn’t want to attach any significance to Saunders’s appearance at the political party’s anniversary. “The VDLC is one of the founding groups of COPE,” Marcuse told the Straight. “It seems appropriate that our friends in labour would be there to celebrate the 40 years of progressive politics that we’ve done together in Vancouver.”

De Genova stressed that he has been dealing with the various city unions throughout his 15-year career in civic politics. “Some of them said that they don’t always agree with me but they admire my points and principles and that I’ve been very fair,” he recalled of his recent meetings.

He said he will meet with Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, but “only if there’s interest” on the part of Sinclair to talk to him. “I’m not there to chase them,” De Genova said, noting that Sinclair isn’t actually involved in city affairs.

Such distance from Vancouver civic politics is precisely what Sinclair is declaring, saying the B.C. Fed doesn’t get involved in such matters.

“I’m not taking sides at this point or doing any of that,” Sinclair told the Straight in a brief phone interview.

Vision Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson dismissed suggestions that the party’s left-leaning supporters, particularly labour unions, would gravitate to COPE if De Genova actually manages to win the mayoral nomination.

But that’s not because Stevenson believes that the unions will stick it out with Vision Vancouver should De Genova become the party’s mayoral candidate.

“I think in the final analysis that scenario is not going to happen because I do believe that Gregor [Robertson] will win the nomination, and in the end he will have labour’s support and will have Raymond Louie’s support,” Stevenson told the Straight.

Stevenson explained that the principal reason he is backing Robertson is that only Robertson can win COPE’s endorsement.

“There’s so much greater possibility that COPE people will be able to endorse Gregor than certainly Al De Genova,” Stevenson said. “Gregor can reach out in a way that I certainly couldn’t, because I was involved in the [COPE–Vision Vancouver] split, in a way that [COPE councillor] David Cadman certainly can’t, because he was involved [in the split] and has been very vocal about it, and Raymond [Louie] as well. If he [Robertson] wins the nomination, I think that COPE will then very seriously look and say, ‘You know, we’ve got someone who we can endorse; do we really want to go ahead and split the left?’ ”

A De Genova mayoral nomination is something Stevenson doesn’t want to contemplate. “Al comes out of a very different perspective than I’ve had, and he has belonged to the NPA for many, many years.”

Jim Green, who ran for mayor under Vision Vancouver in 2005, had this to say about De Genova and the unions: “Al has very good labour contacts himself. Most of the progressive unions have had it. I don’t think they’re going to support COPE at all.”

Former B.C. Fed executive director Geoff Meggs is seeking Vision Vancouver’s endorsement to run as a candidate for council. Meggs doesn’t buy into the scenario that the party will lose labour support if De Genova captures Vision’s mayoral nomination.

“The whole point of this mayoralty race would be to see which of the candidates has the best appeal to the entire membership, and that goes for people who are in unions and people who are not in unions,” Meggs told the Straight. “You can’t make a monolithic statement about any particular vote, whether it’s a Chinese vote or an Indo-Canadian vote or a West Side vote or an East Side vote. There’s a very diverse membership in Vision right now.”