Will George Chow seek the B.C. NDP nomination in Vancouver-Langara?

This week, the Straight reported on a looming contest for the nomination in Vancouver-Langara of the surging B.C. NDP. The article mused about a “dark horse” potentially entering the race. Interestingly, a reader posted a comment online, saying that George Chow should consider this constituency.

Is Chow going to be the dark horse? At time of posting, the former two-term councillor hadn’t returned a call to confirm either way.

What’s clear is that when the city’s ruling party, Vision Vancouver, held its nomination meeting last summer for the November 2011 municipal election, Chow and then park commissioner Raj Hundal didn’t put in their papers. Less than a month later, on July 10 of that year, Hundal won the nomination to represent the B.C. NDP in Surrey-Tynehead.

Chow eventually declared his interest in Vancouver-Fraserview. However, in November, he lost the race to Gabriel Yiu.

In that B.C. NDP nominating contest, Yiu was backed by community activist Meena Wong, who is now considering Vancouver-Langara. When Wong ran in the last federal election in Vancouver South in May 2011, Chow supported then incumbent Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh.

But going back to the 2011 civic election, two of Chow and Hundal’s colleagues in Vision went on to win new terms: councillor Geoff Meggs and park commissioner Constance Barnes. Meggs and Barnes recently announced their intentions of jumping into the provincial scene on the B.C. NDP bandwagon.

If Meggs and Barnes win seats in the legislative assembly, this may trigger by-elections, which Mike Klassen, a former council candidate with the Non-Partisan Association, says is the last thing the funds-starved city needs.

“That’s money that would otherwise spent on important services for the city,” Klassen told the Straight today (June 15) .”If you’re a park commissioner, you’re always wishing to find money to make sure that grass gets cut and that you have staff hours for summer programs. And that money is hard to come by these days.”