Larry Campbell
Encyclopedia
Larry W. Campbell was the 37th Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and is currently a member of the Canadian Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...

. Starting in 1969 Campbell worked for the RCMP in Vancouver and then in 1973 as a member of the Drug Squad. Starting in 1981 Campbell worked for the Vancouver District Coroner's office and in 1996 he was appointed BC Chief Coroner, a post that he served in until 2000.

Election

Campbell was elected in 2002 under the banner of the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors
Coalition of Progressive Electors
The Coalition of Progressive Electors is a municipal political party in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia.-Origins:...

 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
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...

, his life inspired a popular CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 drama called Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. Seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes....

. The show was later followed by a spinoff, Da Vinci's City Hall
Da Vinci's City Hall
Da Vinci's City Hall is a Canadian dramatic television series, which premiered on CBC Television on 25 October 2005. The series was a spinoff of the long-running Canadian series Da Vinci's Inquest...

, in which the Da Vinci character followed his real-life counterpart into politics.

He was also dubbed the "Dapper Mayor" for his penchant for wearing fedora hats
Fedora (hat)
A fedora is a men's felt hat. In reality, "fedora" describes most any men's hat that does not already have another name; quite a few fedoras have famous names of their own including the famous Trilby....

 and long overcoats. His personality contrasted greatly with his predecessor, Philip Owen
Philip Owen
Philip Walter Owen was the mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia from 1993 to 2002, making him one of Vancouver's longest serving mayors. His father was Walter S. Owen, who was Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1973 to 1978....

, 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
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...

 by calling for a city-wide referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 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
Flip-flop (politics)
A "flip-flop" , U-turn , or backflip is a sudden real or apparent change of policy or opinion by a public official, sometimes while trying to claim that both positions are consistent with each other...

" on the issue received widespread criticism, some claim this reflected a "go with the flow" attitude.

Mayor

Campbell has publicly identified himself as a moderate centrist
Centrism
In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...

, although his actions suggest that he was a left leaning candidate. His political positions put him in conflict with some of the leftist members of his Coalition of Progressive Electors
Coalition of Progressive Electors
The Coalition of Progressive Electors is a municipal political party in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia.-Origins:...

 party who had expected Campbell to take the city's government in a more social democratic 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
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 colleagues. On December 14, 2004, Campbell and councillors Jim Green , Raymond Louie
Raymond Louie
Raymond Louie is a three term Vancouver City Councillor and a former school Trustee. Formerly a member of Coalition of Progressive Electors civic party, Louie broke away and was re-elected in 2005, and again in 2008, as a member of Vision Vancouver.-Background:Born and raised in East Vancouver,...

 and Tim Stevenson
Tim Stevenson
Tim Stevenson is a Canadian politician and United Church clergyman. He is currently an elected member of the Vancouver City Council as a member of Vision Vancouver. He is one of two openly gay city councilors in Vancouver, along with Ellen Woodsworth.-Background:He received a B.A...

 announced that they would caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

 separately from the other COPE councillors, although did not quit the party. The media quickly dubbed the bloc the "COPE Light" councillors (in contrast to the "COPE Classic" councillors).

Campbell's two main projects in office were the Woodward's building
Woodward's building
The Woodward's building was a historic building in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The original portion of the building was constructed in 1903 for the Woodward's Department Store when that area of Cordova Street was the heart of Vancouver's retail shopping district. ...

 redevelopment designed by architect Gregory Henriquez
Gregory Henriquez
Gregory Henriquez is a Canadian architect, best known for the design of community-based mixed-use, institutional and social housing projects in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada...

 and the establishment of a safe injection site
Safe injection site
Supervised injection sites are legally sanctioned and medically supervised facilities designed to reduce nuisance from public drug use and provide a hygienic and stress-free...

 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 September 2003), and the Vancouver Police Department assigned 60 officers to the Downtown Eastside in April 2003.

In 2005 the Mayor announced that he would run for a second term as an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

; 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
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

 announced Campbell's appointment by Governor General
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

 Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Louise Clarkson is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation....

 as a Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 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.

Controversy

Campbell enjoyed widespread 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.

Mayoral campaign prank

On April 1, 2008, Larry Campbell announced via a morning call-in programme on CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

 that he intended to run in the 2008 Vancouver mayoral race. Later in the day his intention to run was revealed to be a prank.

External links

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