Coming challenges put to municipal party fundraiser that draws more than 500
Frances Bula
Sun
VANCOUVER – Mayor Sam Sullivan emphasized his plans for increased density throughout the city and housing for the homeless in his first speech as mayor to his party’s annual fundraiser.
Both of those will be challenging issues, acknowledged Sullivan at the Non-Partisan Association event Wednesday night.
“There are two things that Vancouverites dislike,” he said. “One is sprawl and the other is density.”
To help resolve that contradiction, he said Coun. Suzanne Anton will lead local residents through a process of “deciding how much eco-densification and what form it will take.”
Sullivan also made a point of talking about the roles and strengths of each of the other NPA councillors and how well they all work together as a team.
That is a theme carried over from the election campaign last fall, when the party emphasized its unity compared to the divisions in the previous Coalition of Progressive Electors council, whose nine councillors ended up splitting into two parties.
Sullivan said the NPA needs to start gearing now to fight the 2008 election, when it may face two opposition parties, COPE and the new Vision Vancouver party that currently has four councillors.
More than 500 people attended the fundraising dinner at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, which was sold out in only three weeks.
Last year, the party had more than 900 people at the Hyatt Regency.
Notable by their absence at this year’s banquet were park board commissioner Allan De Genova, former mayor Philip Owen and former NPA board member Alex Tsakumis.
De Genova, who sold the most tables at last year’s banquet, has been suspended from the party for not cooperating with his caucus. His daughter Melissa, who worked on Sullivan’s campaign, was not invited.
Owen, who introduced Sullivan at last year’s banquet and supported him aggressively during the election campaign, was one of many party regulars who didn’t get an invitation to the dinner this year.
Owen said he was told that was because the NPA went first to people who bought tables at last year’s function to fill the room.
Tsakumis, who has been publicly critical of Sullivan in recent months, said he chose not to go because he is a political commentator.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006