How convenient.

The Vancouver park board has asked staff to report back by May 15 with an amendment to the parks control bylaw.

The deadline is less than a week after the B.C. election.

According to last night's vote at the park board, the wording of this amendment would ban the importation and display of cetaceans in Vancouver parks.

Animal-welfare advocates cheered the move, even though the next provincial government could easily ensure that whale and dolphin displays resume at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Section 489 of the Vancouver Charter, which is provincial legislation, gives the park board authority to regulate the exhibition of animals in its parks.

There's nothing stopping the next B.C. government from amending that legislation to take this power away from park commissioners.

In other words, whoever wins the B.C. election could reverse the board's decision with a simple housekeeping bill and allow belugas to return.

Suzanne Anton could play a key role

The Attorney General Act designates the attorney general, Suzanne Anton, as the official legal adviser to cabinet.

When Anton was an NPA park commissioner from 2002 to 2005, she was a strong supporter of the Vancouver Aquarium.

When anti-captivity advocates came before the board on July 21, 2003 seeking to close a loophole on the importation of cetaceans, Anton and the other commissioners did not take their advice. The status quo was fine with them.

This raises a question how Anton might react if the Vancouver Aquarium asks her, as the cabinet's official legal adviser, to amend the Vancouver Charter.

Anton's upcoming opponent in Vancouver-Fraserview, the NDP's George Chow, was also never known as an opponent of keeping whales on display during his three terms on Vancouver city council.

And how will another NPA politician of that era, Vancouver–False Creek B.C. Liberal MLA Sam Sullivan, react if he's approached by Vancouver Aquarium officials to push to amend the Vancouver Charter? 

Sullivan demonstrated his solidarity with the aquarium when he was mayor by pushing park commissioner Al De Genova out of caucus. It came after De Genova suggested that the park board chair of the day might have been in a conflict of interest with regard to voting on an issue involving the aquarium.

To clear the air before May 9, both sides in the captivity debate can get provincial candidates on the record. The provincial media can also do this.

While it appears to the public that the Vancouver park board has jurisdiction over this issue, that's not really true.

Ultimately, it's the B.C. government and the courts that will have the final say.