More Alliances
In 1988, COPE entered the election an equal partner with the newly-formed Civic New Democrats, a party directly affiliated with the BC NDP; led by anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson, the coalition made few gains but under the leadership of Jim Green in 1990, it came close to winning the election. But while all COPE council candidates were elected, no Civic NDP candidates were (since a 1983 byelection, COPE had consistently out-performed all other leftist candidates on the concurrently elected School and Parks Boards). At this point, Vancouver's civic left conceded that the COPE brand was now more popular than any more centrist group. Thus, following the 1990 election, COPE officially merged with the Civic NDP, changing its name from the Committee of Progressive Electors to the Coalition of Progressive Electors. At this time, COPE made an official overture to the Green Party of Vancouver, the local affiliate of the Green Party of British Columbia, offering the group some minor policy concessions, joint billing in the party's ballot name ("COPE-Green '93") and assurances that important party members would ensure some Greens were nominated. The Greens turned the deal down.
Since 1993, COPE has nominated candidates for all civic offices (Mayor, City Councillor, School Board Trustee, and Parks Commissioner) but its closer affiliation with an incumbent provincial NDP government and inability to negotiate a deal with the Greens, who began siphoning votes in increasing numbers, resulted in flagging performance. Rankin's retirement from council also damaged the party. In 1993, COPE's representation fell to only one councilor, future MLA Jenny Kwan. COPE did not win any seats in 1996, thanks to a strong showing for the Greens and a left-right coalition called VOICE, led by Rankin's wife Connie Fogal and 1984 mayoral candidate Jonathan Baker. With this fragmentation of the civic left, the NPA won all 27 contested seats in that election with only 43% of the vote.
Following COPE's 1996 defeat, the provincial Greens, reversed their policy of opposing coalitions with COPE and, over the strong objections of many longtime Vancouver Greens, pushed through a controversial plan to negotiate with COPE (this plan was a key factor in the 2000 defeat of party leader Stuart Parker). COPE ultimately accepted the Greens' proposal. (A factor in this acceptance may have been premier Glen Clark's backing of this deal and a similar one in Victoria.)
In 1999, COPE regained its footholds on School Board and City Council and the Greens gained a seat on Parks Board under the leadership of mayoral candidate David Cadman. The two independent candidates who had also joined the coalition were defeated, although former NPA councilor Nancy Chiavario came close to keeping her council seat after being pushed out by supporters of Jennifer Clarke at the NPA nominating meeting.
Read more about this topic: Coalition Of Progressive Electors
Famous quotes containing the word alliances:
“’Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)
“An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)