Peter Ladner grabs NPA nomination

Vancouver City Coun. Peter Ladner has thrown Mayor Sam Sullivan off the Non-Partisan Association ticket, narrowly winning nomination as the NPA's mayoral candidate in this November's civic election.

Ladner's victory was a stunning upset for Sullivan, who -- with 15 years experience on city council and an estimated half-million dollars in his campaign war chest -- was able to turn out only 986 supporters.

Fearful that the Anti Poverty Committee might monkey-wrench their event, NPA organizers convened the long-awaited debate an hour earlier than scheduled. As a result, there were less than 100 people in the Marriott Pinnacle ballroom when Ladner and Sullivan squared off on stage.

Ladner was generally more upbeat than he'd been during the preceding week's radio debates, but nonetheless delivered his "Sam can't win" message.

"All the polls have said that the voters want a change in the mayor's office," Ladner warned. "If the NPA does not deliver that change, Vision and COPE quite happily will."

An eclectic assortment of NPA members paraded up the marble gauntlet, ranging from party Brahmin such as developer Rob Macdonald and investor Lorne Segal, to large Indo-Canadian families dressed in traditional garb.

Ladner's team had employed the same political software used by presumed U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama, and had been blasting near-daily e-mails to the roughly 1,400 new NPA members they'd recruited. But the day was carried by Ladner's low-tech team of 100 volunteers working the phones and driving supporters to and from the downtown hotel.

Just as the polls were about to close at 4 p.m., Ladner volunteer Reg Tupper came running out of the elevator, hollering for his fellow party members to make way as he raced a wheelchair-bound elderly woman down the hall at high speed. The woman appeared to be enjoying the ride; it was undoubtedly the campaign's final push.

An eclectic assortment of NPA members paraded up the marble gauntlet, ranging from party Brahmin such as developer Rob Macdonald and investor Lorne Segal, to large Indo-Canadian families dressed in traditional garb.

Ladner's team had employed the same political software used by presumed U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama, and had been blasting near-daily e-mails to the roughly 1,400 new NPA members they'd recruited. But the day was carried by Ladner's low-tech team of 100 volunteers working the phones and driving supporters to and from the downtown hotel.