Challenging Politics: COPE, Electoral Politics and Social Movements

• Published in: Labour (Halifax) 2004, Vol.53 (53), p.284-286
• Main Author: Magnusson, Warren
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• Subjects: Canada; Councils; Elections; Government; Industrial relations; Local elections; Native rights; Political activism; Power; Reviews/Comptes Rendus; School boards; Social activism; Social history; Social movements
• ISSN: 0700-3862; 1911-4842
• DOI: 10.2307/25149465

The fact that there is any sort of party in control of its municipal council makes Vancouver unusual. The city has had a party system of sorts since the late 1930s, although there have been long periods in which the right-wing NPA (Non-Partisan Association) has been overwhelmingly predominant. [Donna Vogel]'s book focuses on a period of great hope and massive disappointment for the Left in Vancouver. In 1990, Jim Green of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) ran for mayor under the COPE banner and gave the incumbent, Gordon Campbell, a close race. COPE took half the seats on Council, and hoped to build on that strength in the next election. The following year, the NDP took control provincially under Mike Harcourt, who, although never part of COPE, had worked closely with it as Mayor of Vancouver in the early 1980s. Unfortunately for COPE, the NDP provincial government lost popularity very quickly, and COPE itself suffered disastrous defeats in the 1993 and 1996 municipal elections (it only slightly recovered in 1999). Vogel began her research in 1992, when COPE was trying to open itself up to the new social movements in hopes of establishing a wider and more effective coalition. She brought her study to an end after the new-style COPE suffered its second great defeat in 1996.