The NPA is still claiming that it's not a political party

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      Last night (April 28), the Vancouver Non-Partisan Association held its annual general meeting at the Vancouver Museum.

      For anyone interested in the details, former NPA council candidate Michael Geller offered a review on his blog. The biggest news is that NPA members voted to consider changing the name of the organization. They also decided against creating policies, according to Geller.

      He came away from the event convinced that the NPA is not a political party. He reiterated the party line--oops, the association line--that the NPA is an association that merely recruits good people to run for civic office.

      In fact, according to Geller and the NPA, the association, opposes the introduction of party politics into the elected boards of the city.

      I've sometimes been amused by how forces on the centre-right like to characterize their actions as nonpolitical, whereas they characterize those of their opponents as often being driven by politics.

      Premier Gordon Campbell is a big fan of this approach. If he's cutting rich people's taxes, he will argue that this is not a political act. It's driven by purely economic considerations, even though this nonpolitical act can result in less money being available for public services.

      The NPA might not have policies (which are often not followed by parties that have them), but its members operate within a somewhat narrow ideological bandwidth. None of them opposed hosting the Olympics. They all favoured development of the Canada Line. They tend to like public-private partnerships and they don't attend protest rallies demanding action on aboriginal land claims. They may not vote in unison on every issue that comes before council, but sometimes Vision Vancouver councillors vote differently.

      In my books, when somewhat like-minded people come together under the same tent to help themselves get elected as a group, that constitutes a political party. But not according to members of the NPA purple Kool-Aid club, who still operate under the delusion that they don't belong to a political party.

      Nobody except members of the NPA are going to believe that it's not a political party. If Geller and other NPA members want to avoid future ridicule in the media, they should just own up to it. It's not a sin to belong to a political party.

      Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.

      Comments

      5 Comments

      Sean Bickerton

      Apr 29, 2010 at 1:28pm

      I confess to being a little disappointed in Charlie Smith's take, which I think misses the point. Civic politics don't lend themselves to the convenient prism of federal and provincial ideological battles, much as Vancouver media seem to want them to. I understand why. It's easier to reduce all arguments and policy differences to a typical, formulaic "he said" "she said" equation in which no one wins to the point of reductio ad absurdum.

      The statement that NPA members operate within a narrow ideological bandwidth is not true. A vast majority of NPA members are committed environmentalists - Councillor Anton believes global warming to be one of the most important issues facing government - yet I know of several members and commentators that happen to be skeptics.

      In addition, the writer ignores inconvenient facts in making this sweeping statement, such as the fact the NPA has traditionally run quite a diverse group of candidates, including NDP members on their slate. Al De Genova was certainly not part of the narrow political bandwidth Charlie talks about, yet he was a highly successful NPA Park Board Commissioner. The NPA also ran the first openly gay councillor and first openly gay Park Board Commissioner. I certainly don't consider myself part of any ideological grouping. The city badly needs more independent thought, not more parties like Vision bound in lock-step.

      Yet because the NPA refuses to go along with this more simplistic view of issues, because we refuse to stand in for provincial party politics in the same way our political opposites do, because we don't allow the media their nice, neat little equation - this group is good, that group is bad - they tend to punish the NPA for being different.

      But anyone at the NPAs AGM last night would have seen something quite remarkable taking place - real, town-hall style democracy in action - members standing up one after another in an orderly fashion and speaking passionately but respectfully about highly divisive issues regarding who we are and what we stand for.

      I celebrate the fact that there is room in the NPA for a wide divergence of views including my own. We certainly heard a wide variety of views expressed last night and there is great strength in that diversity. There is also strength in being part of such an intelligent, thoughtful group of people committed to making Vancouver a better place to live for all.

      a duck is a duck

      Apr 30, 2010 at 1:44pm

      No one except the NPA is fooled.

      neocon

      Apr 30, 2010 at 1:46pm

      At the end of the day, if you're a right wing party and you claim you are not isn't that simply dishonest?

      It seems like the usual Campbell trick - lying.

      Sean Bickerton

      May 1, 2010 at 1:10pm

      @neocon - does a right-wing party undertake the largest social housing initiative in Vancouver's history, leading to the building of more than 2400 units of socially-assisted housing? The NPA did.

      Does a right-wing party insist on the greenest building standards in North America over the objections of many developers? The NPA did.

      We're not pretending to be anything other than what we are, which is good government for the city of Vancouver. The NPA has elected 11 of the city's last 17 mayors and the city we live in today is largely a result of their policies.

      Civic government just doesn't lend itself well to left-right reductionism.

      Anonymous

      May 8, 2010 at 6:30pm

      Sean just called the NPA a party!