The only member of the Green Party of Vancouver to both run for office and be elected in the 2008 civic election wants his party to run more candidates in 2011.

“I would prefer more candidates, absolutely,” park board commissioner Stuart Mackinnon told the Straight by phone. “I think we should be running at all levels.”

Mackinnon later stopped short of saying his party needs a mayoral candidate. “That is a tough question,” he said. “A mayoral candidate brings with it higher profile, but also eats up vast amounts of scarce financial resources, so I would leave that up to the members.”

Mackinnon’s call for more candidates echoes that of his party’s deputy chair, Desmond Rodenbour, who told the Straight in August that he thought the Greens were well placed to capitalize on the next election.

John Boychuk, former president of the Vancouver Pride Society and 2009 B.C. Green candidate in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, told the Straight, “I am looking at it, yes.”

Boychuk said he can’t “commit” right now to the civic Greens, but said there will be sit-down talks to hash out his possible candidacy with them. He garnered 8,093 votes as an independent council candidate in 2008.

“I will be, in one facet or another, myself running in the next civic as well as the next provincial election,” Boychuk added.

Mackinnon said it is still “wide open” as to how many candidates the Greens will run municipally and whether or not “we will run in conjunction with other parties”, which he said “will certainly be up to the membership”.

Mackinnon also expressed dissatisfaction with his Vision Vancouver colleagues.

“Certainly to my point of view, I am looking at parks, and I haven’t been happy with the direction of the park board under this administration,” he said. “We’ve had serious cutbacks. They tried to close the Bloedel and the children’s farmyard. One of the issues that’s close to my heart, the trees on the street program, was cut back.

“This year I’ve had so many e-mails and calls from people about the parks in their neighbourhood not being as well looked after, and that’s a direct result of budget cuts,” Mackinnon added. “I’ve had outdoor employees from the park board talking to me about the amount of work that they are being asked to do, and just not having enough hours in the day to do it.”