Vision's Three Would-Be Kings

Voters won't go to the polls until November, but the contest to become the mayoral candidate for Vancouver's newest political party is already as fiercely fought -- and likely as expensive -- as entire municipal elections run elsewhere in the province.

All three candidates for the Vision Vancouver nomination are experienced politicians born and bred in Vancouver. But that's where the similarities end.

It's an only-in-Vancouver field that includes a Chinese candidate who grew up in an Italian neighbourhood, a Swiss-Italian candidate who learned to speak some Chinese in order to sell restaurant supplies, and a former organic farmer who -- saddled with too many unsold carrots -- wound up becoming B.C.'s smoothie king.