Larry Campbell
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Larry W. Campbell, MBA (born February 28, 1948, in Brantford, Ontario) is the former Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and a Member of the Canadian Senate.
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[edit] Election
Campbell was elected in 2002 under the banner of the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors party. He was the city's first Mayor to be elected from the party.
Much of Campbell's success with voters was attributed to his charismatic personalty and colorful background. As the city's former chief coroner, his life inspired a popular drama on the CBC called Da Vinci's Inquest (later followed by a spin-off, Da Vinci's City Hall). He was also dubbed the "Dapper Mayor" for his penchant for wearing fedora hats and long overcoats. His personality contrasted greatly with his predecessor, Philip Owen, who was seen by many as being quite stiff and boring.
Campbell was also popular for his opposition to the provincial government, led by BC premier Gordon Campbell (no relation). Mayor Campbell sought to check the premier's eagerness to host the 2010 Winter Olympics by calling for a city-wide referendum on the bid. The mayor felt that the people needed a say about the Olympics, and since Gordon Campbell refused a provincial-wide referendum, Vancouver was only allowed to hold a non-binding, city-wide plebiscite. Though Mayor Campbell had originally portrayed himself as critical of the bid, he eventually joined the "yes" side and began actively campaigning for it. The "yes" side ultimately won the vote, but only after a long and often highly polarized debate. His decision to "flip-flop" on the issue received widespread criticism, and this reflected his "go with the flow" attitude throughout his term.
[edit] Mayor
Campbell has publicly identified himself as a moderate centrist, although his actions suggest that he's a left leaning candidate. His political positions put him in conflict with the majority of the more left-leaning members of his Coalition of Progressive Electors party who had expected Campbell to take the city's government in a more progressive direction once elected.
Shortly after Campbell's election, infighting broke out within his COPE party between the moderate Mayor and his like-minded city councillors versus some of their further left colleagues. On December 14, 2004, Campbell and councillors Jim Green, Raymond Louie and Tim Stevenson announced that they would caucus separately from the other COPE councillors, although did not quit the party. The media quickly dubbed the bloc the "COPE Light" councilors (in contrast to the "COPE Classic" councilors).
Campbell's main project in office was the establishment of a safe injection site to help curb Vancouver's injection drug problem. He had championed the idea of a "four pillars" approach to ending drug abuse. With the 1999 signing of the Vancouver Agreement, the Four Pillars was characterized as "Prevention, Treatment, Law Enforcement and Harm Reduction." Campbell promoted the implementation of the safe injection site (opened in Sept. 2003), and the Vancouver Police Department assigned 60 officers to the Downtown Eastside in April of 2003.
In 2005 the Mayor announced that he would run for a second term as an independent[citation needed]; however on June 30, 2005, Campbell changed his mind and announced that he would not run for re-election at all in the fall municipal elections that year.
On August 2, 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Campbell's appointment as a Liberal Senator. Campbell completed his term as mayor before taking up his seat in the Canadian Senate. Critics condemned Campbell's acceptance of the Senate post as hypocritical, as the Mayor had previously cited the fact that he was "not a politician" as a key reason for leaving his job at City Hall.
[edit] Abrasive, confrontational style
Larry Campbell is described by many activists and members of his former party, COPE, as an over-bearing bully. His temper often got the better of him, whether in public settings or in private caucus meetings. Responding to a public protest by members of the Bus Riders Union, Campbell gave the middle finger to activists and taunted them as "losers". He is also reported to have engaged in screaming fits and tantrums during a number of private COPE meetings.
[edit] Controversy
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Campbell enjoyed wide-spread popularity with the public during his time as mayor of Vancouver, but some critics believe he showed little patience for the detailed creation of civic government policy. In addition, as noted above, although being the candidate for COPE (Coalition of Progressive Electors), he had no history of association with that party, and after his election, had conflicts with the more left-wing elements of COPE. Although COPE controlled, for the first time in Vancouver history, most of the seats on the Vancouver city council, it became clear that not all COPE members shared common views with the Mayor.
As also noted above, the cornerstone of his platform was to pursue the "four pillars" approach to Vancouver's drug addiction problem, and in particular to create a safe injection site on the Downtown Eastside, a region that would be called skid row in other cities, but is also a centre of civic political activism in Vancouver. In this respect, the voters of the city were largely united in their opinion that this idea deserved to be tried.
| Preceded by Philip Owen |
Mayor of Vancouver 2002–2005 |
Succeeded by Sam Sullivan |
| Preceded by Edward M. Lawson, Independent |
Senators from British Columbia 2005– |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
