The worst kept secret in civic politics was finally acknowledged Monday: Longtime media executive and former CBC ombudsman Kirk LaPointe confirmed he will be the NPA's mayoral candidate in the fall election.
Almost two months after the Courier revealed LaPointe was interested in seeking a seat with the NPA in this campaign, the 56-year-old former managing editor of The Vancouver Sun made his intentions known Monday morning at a Main Street coffee shop, near the 10th Avenue bike route.
"I've spent a career asking questions I think the public wants answers to and now I think I'm at an age and stage where I can find the solutions that the public wants, " LaPointe told a select group of civic affairs reporters invited to Kafka's Cafe to learn more about the NPA leader's transformation from a career in media to politician.
His announcement was followed later in the day by a more traditional campaign launch at The Jack Poole Plaza on the waterfront.
LaPointe used his first meeting with reporters not to announce any specific campaign promises but zeroed in on the need for transparency at city hall.
"I believe we have an opportunity here to have the most transparent government of any in Canada, maybe in North America," he said. "I don't particularly like the culture that now exists in which information [at city hall] is routinely withheld, budget documentation is very opaque, public servants are muzzled — I'd like all of that to change."
Though known across the country in media circles, having held senior posts at The Hamilton Spectator, National Post and CTV News, LaPointe doesn't have the public profile of the NPA's previous mayoral candidates.
In selecting a non-politician in LaPointe, who was chosen in a vote by the NPA's board of directors, the once powerful party deviated from its traditional route of choosing its mayoral candidate.
For the better part of a decade, the NPA has promoted its city councillors to run for mayor, either by nomination meeting or appointment.
Jennifer Clarke ran in 2002, Sam Sullivan in 2005, Peter Ladner in 2008 and Suzanne Anton in 2011. Only Sullivan managed to win but held power for one term before Ladner beat him in a nomination battle and lost the election.
Now LaPointe will attempt to do what Ladner and Anton have failed to do: Beat Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver team, which has dominated city hall since the centre-left party was elected in 2008.
"I'll admit I'm the underdog," he said. "I'm the outsider. I'm the person with fewer resources than my competitor. I happen to have, at this point, four months and a day before the vote a much lower recognition factor. That's what I have to work on, that's what the team will work on."
The NPA holds two seat on city council with George Affleck and Elizabeth Ball, two on park board (John Coupar and Melissa DeGenova) and Fraser Ballantyne is the party's lone school trustee; recently, the NPA booted trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo from the party for remarks regarding the school board's sexual orientation and gender identity policy.
LaPointe said the party plans to run enough candidates for council, school board and park board to win majorities. Candidates for those positions are expected to be rolled out over the next few weeks.
Up until Monday, LaPointe was the publisher and editor-in-chief of Self-Counsel Press, an adjunct professor in the journalism school at the University of B.C. and held the post as executive director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. He said he will remain in those positions, although in a reduced role at Self-Counsel Press.
LaPointe's first meeting with five reporters Monday felt more like a coffee klatch than a formal press conference. Reporters gathered around a table with no television reporters or camera operators present.
It was a move that seemed an attempt to bring reporters onside and give Vision Vancouver a subtle poke for implementing a stringent media policy at city hall.
In an email Sunday night, LaPointe told reporters he wanted to "enter the conversation with an intention of accessibility" and that he held the work of civic affairs reporters in "high regard."
LaPointe is married to Mary Lynn Young, associate dean of arts faculty at UBC. LaPointe has two adult children from a previous marriage and a stepson with Young.
The couple lives on the UBC campus.
The election is November 15.
