There he was boasting about how clean the Vision Vancouver election for the mayoral candidate had been in contrast to the backstabbing of incumbent Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan by the NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner.
Gregor Robertson, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview and co-founder of the Happy Planet juice company, bagged 3,495 votes on the weekend, easily defeating rivals Raymond Louie, a councillor, who got 2,244 votes, and Allan De Genova, Parks Board Commissioner, who won a paltry 981 votes.
Then, without any warning to his party leaders, Robertson suddenly announced on Thursday that he will resign as MLA on July 15 to campaign full-time to try and become the next mayor of Vancouver this November.
Robertson was seen as the new face of the NDP when he won back in May 2005. He got 12,114 votes as compared to Liberal Virginia Greene’s 11,368 votes. The Green Party candidate got 2,244 votes.
Now the NDP fears that they might lose the riding that was previously represented by former Liberal Finance minister Gary Collins in the by-election that must be called within six months – something that might demoralize the party before next May’s general election. The by-election will cost taxpayers about $400,000.
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