Who is the NPA's mysterious third candidate for the mayoral nod?

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      You gotta love the NPA for the way it's choosing its mayoral candidate.

      Rather than having an open nomination process like Vision Vancouver held in 2008, it's held closed-door interviews with prospective three prospective candidates.

      The secrecy has turned some of us in the media into Kremlinologists, reading the tea leaves and working the phones to find out what's really going on.

      Mike Howell of the Vancouver Courier was the first to report that former Vancouver Sun managing editor Kirk LaPointe was one of the potential mayoral nominees.

      Jeff Lee of the Vancouver Sun was given the name Ian Robertson by one of his sources. Robertson is a former park commissioner.

      So who is the mysterious third candidate?

      In the absence of any concrete information from the NPA, here's my assessment for anyone interested in taking any bets.

      1:1 George Affleck  The one-term city councillor has emerged with a reasonably high public profile. A public-relations industry veteran and former journalist, Affleck is good at getting his name into the news. He's the odds-on favourite to be NPA board's third interviewee. Too bad he couldn't put his name forward before the membership.

      3:1 Iain Black  The president and CEO of the Vancouver Board of Trade is a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, so he has political experience. But the board of trade is trying to rebuild itself after falling on hard times in recent years, so it's unlikely that Black is ready to take on another job right now.

      7:1 John Coupar  The one-term park commissioner is a real longshot and I don't believe he's the furtive third man in the NPA boardroom. But you never know for sure, given the party's lack of transparency.

      10:1 Elizabeth Ball  The councillor and former president of the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame is comfortable on council and has never seemed eager to run for the top job.

      50:1 Robert Fung  The president of the Salient Group and former member of the UBC board of governors has a keen interest in civic issues, particularly heritage, but he's too busy with his business to run for mayor at this time. Don't count him out in the future, though.

      100:1 Gordon Campbell  He won three terms as NPA mayor, but for now, he's pretty comfortable as the high commissioner in London, where he doesn't have to sit through marathon public hearings listening to citizens complain about their government.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      RUK

      Jun 4, 2014 at 2:35pm

      Many people think he's a myth. But those who have seen him, call him "the Winter Soldier"

      Emily

      Jun 4, 2014 at 5:48pm

      I heard via the civic grapevine that Mr Affleck was turned down by the NPA Executive as un-electable. Just sayin'.

      Bill McCreery

      Jun 5, 2014 at 5:15pm

      NPA had an open nomination meeting last time. Why not now? When people are secretive, they've something to hide...

      Steven Forth

      Jun 9, 2014 at 6:25am

      The whole process seems odd at best. I guess we will learn this week. Hopefully it will be a credible candidate with policies that will force the civic conversation forward - wards? stronger local control of development? relaxing of zoning? more innovation in home and building design? new ways to finance infrastructure and transit?