Hector Bremner confirms he wants the NPA's nomination to run for mayor of Vancouver

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      Vancouver’s youngest council member has announced he wants to run for mayor.

      In a Facebook post published today (February 19), Hector Bremner wrote that he’s running for the nomination of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA).

      “I’m excited today—with the support of my wife Virginia and two kids Carlo and Gianluca—to confirm that I am seeking the NPA nomination for mayor of our great city Vancouver,” Bremner said there.

      Bremner, age 37, is also the newest face on Vancouver city council. He was elected last October in a by-election that was held to fill a seat left vacant after Vision Vancouver’s Geoff Meggs left civic politics to become the premier’s chief of staff.

      From October 2014 to December 2015, Bremner worked as executive assistant to B.C.’s  then minister responsible for housing and the deputy premier, Rich Coleman. Before working in Coleman’s office, Bremmer spent a year and a half as executive assistant to the provincial minister of international trade.

      Since early 2015, he has worked in public relations with the Vancouver-based Pace Group. In 2013, he ran unsuccessfully as the B.C. Liberal Party candidate for New Westminster.

      Bremner’s Facebook message makes clear he intends to focus on every Vancouver resident’s hot-button issue: housing.

      “Our city is facing major challenges, and we will be talking a lot about them over the coming months,” he wrote there. “The biggest challenge, by far, is our housing crisis. I am both proud and humbled to be part of the #LetsFixHousing movement. Our movement is full of people who love Vancouver. We have all committed to identify and implement the changes needed to make it possible for middle class working people to live in and enjoy our city again.”

      That message also states Bremner intends to run his campaign on four guiding principles: “stop playing politics,” “take good ideas,” “get things done,” and “bring people together.”

      Vancouver’s next election for mayor, councillors, parks commissioners, and school board is scheduled for October 2018.

      Bremner is the first politician to publicly declare he wants to run for mayor with the NPA, but that doesn’t mean he’ll receive the party’s nomination.

      On January 30, the NPA issued an open call for potential mayoral candidates.

      “We’re making every effort to improve diversity in our candidate selection by reaching out to a wider group of Vancouver residents,” NPA president Gregory Baker said in a release announcing the call for candidates. “We want to get it right and have the best candidate represent a new, revitalized NPA.”

      On February 13, the NPA’s 2014 candidate for mayor, Kirk LaPointe announced he had ruled out competing again in 2018.

      The NPA currently holds four council seats. In addition to Bremner, those are occupied by George Affleck, Elizabeth Ball, and Melissa De Genova.

      Affleck has said he won’t run for re-election in 2018. De Genova has said that she will seek another term on council. On February 1, Ball told the Straight that she would support Bremner if he did decide to run.

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