Three to tango in Vancouver-Quadra?

Unfortunately, none of them is Neve Campbell. But Public Eye Online's Sean Holman reports there may soon be a third entrant for the Conservative nomination in Vancouver-Quadra, and the chance to take on Liberal Joyce Murray:

In an interview with Public Eye, Howard Jampolsky - who recently lost the Tory nomination race in Richmond to Alice Wong - confirmed he's thinking about putting his name on the ballot.

If he tosses his chapeau into the ring Howard would be facing some stiff competition in the form of former BC Cancer Foundation president and CEO Mary McNeil and UBC business lecturer Deborah Merideth. He’s also be entering into a heated atmosphere: Harper loyalist John Reynolds is touting McNeil as a ‘star candidate’ while old Tory Senators Gerry St. Germain and Pat Carney are backing Merideth. There were even rumours last week that McNeil’s supporters were pushing for a cabinet spot for their candidate.

And even if Jampolsky got past all that he’d still face an uphill battle against a former provincial environment minister in Murray in a riding Liberal Stephen Owen carried handily last time.

So, if I were Howard I’d think twice about getting in the middle of this dust-up. Particularly given that he just ran for, and lost, the Conservative nomination in Richmond.

I’ve never been a big fan of this kind of riding shopping. Between elections is one thing; Murray ran in a New Westminster-Coquitlam for the Liberals in 2006. Conservative star Peter Kent is moving to a riding seen as more winnable within the GTA for the next election.

But two ridings within the same election cycle? It just doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t like the message it sends to the constituents of either riding, which is that it’s much more about getting elected then it is about representing them.

It can be tough when a good candidate narrowly loses a tight nomination battle and there’s an open riding next door, but I feel the right thing to do is wait until next time. A very desirable Liberal candidate in the Toronto area lost a tough nomination battle a few months back, and there was talk of running her in another riding. As much as I’d like to see her on a ballot I was against it, I don’t think it’s right, and it’s wrong for Jamplosky too.

Anyway, even if he gets into the race it will probably be all academic, I’d bet on McNeil at this point. Of course, this is all assuming Harper ever bothers to call the by-election…

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Quadra is getting interesting...fall by-election?

Long-time Liberal MP Stephen Owen announced today he will be vacating his seat in Vancouver-Quadra at the end of the month to take an academic post at UBC.

Owen had already announced his intention not to run again so that’s not a surprise, but with Owen resigning with no general election in the offing it does set the scene for a very interesting by-election, and one that will be very important for both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

While the riding has been Liberal for some time (John Turner ran and won there as PM) and Owen carried the riding handily in 2006 (by some 12,000 votes over a high profile Conservative candidate, Stephen Rogers) it’s has been Conservative in the fairly recent past and it’s a riding that the Conservatives, and others, view as poachable. Often described as “tony”, while it includes UBC it also has Point Grey and it’s a wealthy and highly educated riding.

The Liberals already have a candidate selected in the riding in Joyce Murray, a former provincial environment candidate that ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in New Westminster-Coquitlam in 2006.

According to the Sun the Conservatives don’t have a candidate yet. John Reynolds, the former Conservative MP, campaign co-chair and current lobbyist (who I guess is banned from the Conservative war room) is touting businesswoman and BC Cancer foundation chairman Mary McNeil as a star candidate, but unless she gets an appointment (or they pull a Cutler) she’ll face a challenge from UBC professor Deborah Meredith, who has a lot of old Conservative backing in Senators Pat Carney and a bbq-less Gerry St. Germain, plus the past candidate and even everyone's favourite reformer, Deborah Grey.

So before we even get to a by-election it looks like a rather interesting battle for the Conservative nomination, with some Conservative titans battling it out in the backrooms. We’ll have to watch and see how it plays -- or isn’t allowed to play -- out.

And when we do get to a by-election the results could be quite telling. Even though it is currently a Liberal riding, a by-election win in a riding the Conservatives are targeting would be a big boost, and getting Murray into parliament would be great. For the Conservatives, a win in an upper middle class riding like Quadra (and taking it from the Liberals) would help boost their desire to portray themselves as a new kind of CPC.

Let the campaigning begin. The only question is when will Deceiven’ Stephen pull the trigger? He has six months from July 27^th. There’s also Jean Lapierre’s riding in Quebec to be filled, the clock is ticking there too...

P.S. No matter who wins in Quadra the odds look good that the HoC will be gaining another female MP, and that's a good thing.

UPDATE: Dan raises a highly plausible conspiracy theory.

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