In the 25 years that I have been a member of COPE, there has always been a tension between the left wing of the organization and the forces that want to move COPE more to the centre. It has been kind of like the yin and yang of Vancouver civic politics.

Tim Louis's spectacular victory at COPE's nomination meeting on Sunday (September 18) is, in a way, a kind of re-balancing of the yin and yang within the coalition. Louis, along with Ellen Woodsworth and Rafael (RJ) Aquino, won the three spots to run for city council. Unsuccessful were incumbent city councillor David Cadman and challengers Terry Martin and Colin Desjarlais.

At the COPE general meeting on June 26, close to one third of the membership rejected an electoral alliance with the centrist Vision Vancouver. Unfortunately, since 2007, much of the focus within COPE has been on excluding and defeating those within the organization who have been perceived as not supporting a Vision-COPE alliance. This included, in 2009, knocking Louis himself off the COPE executive board.

This has been an unhealthy situation for COPE and has been very much at odds with the concept of what a "coalition" of progressive electors should be. Louis's stunning comeback on Sunday, the result of months of work, is a way of bringing the left wing of COPE, the so-called "COPE Classic", back into the organization.

This will be a much healthier situation for COPE heading towards the November 19 municipal elections. It gives the marginalized and excluded elements in COPE (probably at least one third of the traditional membership base) a chance to be part of the organization again and to get involved in working on, and donating to, the upcoming campaign.

The fact that all those nominated on Sunday, except for Louis, supported the COPE-Vision electoral alliance also gives a reason for that group to stay firmly in the fold. They may not like Louis's opposition to the arrangement with Vision, but they cannot abandon all their nominated candidates who toed the line and did support the COPE-Vision alliance.

Likewise with labour, many unions may want the COPE alliance with Vision, but I cannot see labour abandoning its support for COPE simply because one nominated candidate has not supported the COPE-Vision marriage of convenience. Also, frankly, Louis was nominated fair and square according to the rules of the COPE constitution and by-laws. Labour certainly does, or at least should, believe in fair rank and file electoral process. Louis also has a record of being solidly pro-labour.

It appears that David Cadman may have gone into this nomination race over-confident, assuming that his incumbency status would naturally buoy him to a nomination victory. The results proved otherwise: Ellen Woodsworth, 534; Tim Louis, 345; RJ Aquino, 316; David Cadman, 309; Terry Martin, 240; Colin Desjarlais, 98.

Interestingly enough, if COPE had chosen to disobey the Vision edict to run only three for city council and, instead, had decided to run four or more, David Cadman would have secured a nomination. Cadman deserves to be honoured for the heroic part he played in re-building COPE in the late 1990s, especially for personally loaning large sums of money to the organization. However, it appears that many at the meeting perceived Cadman as having lost interest in city issues and being more focused on his international work.

Nominated by acclamation to run for park board were Brent Granby and Donalda Greenwell-Baker. The four nominated for school board were: Allan Wong (263 votes), Jane Bouey (254 votes), Gwen Giesbrecht (242 votes), and Allen Blakey (237 votes). Unsuccessful was COPE newcomer Ian Bushfield who garnered 80 votes.

I believe that the newly minted COPE candidates will do well in the upcoming civic election. COPE's popularity has been on the rise; Vision's has been declining. Vancouverites are starting to see through Vision's soft, fuzzy, environmental, "fun city" veneer and realizing that Vision is no different than the traditional NPA in its alliance with big developers. This Vision-developer partnership has heightened the already grave problem of lack of affordable housing in the city.

We need a politician like Tim Louis on city council, not simply to expose inconsistencies in the Vision record and platform, but because he is a politician with integrity who believes in taxpayers getting good value from their city government. Voters also get mighty tired of programmed politicians who are forever talking in double-speak. It's refreshing to have a politician, like Louis, who speaks directly and honestly. In many ways, Louis fills the role formerly occupied by politicians like Harry Rankin and George Puil. You may not have liked what they said all the time, but at least they had the guts and honesty to speak out.

Paul Houle has been a member of COPE for 25 years and served on the COPE executive board from 2000 to 2007.