Vancouver-Burrard MLA Lorne Mayencourt says he has not been acclaimed as the Conservative Party candidate for Vancouver Centre in the next federal election, despite rumours to the contrary circulating in Vancouver’s gay community.
When reached by phone, Mayencourt says the information is simply not true. He has not been acclaimed, nor has he won the party’s nomination. In fact, he says, he’s still not sure whether he wants to run for the Conservative Party at all.
“I’ve been asked to consider it, and I have been for a little while now, but I really haven’t made up my mind,” he says.
Mayencourt is currently far from the BC legislature and his provincial home riding. “I’m working on this therapeutic community thing that I’ve got up in Prince George right now. That’s really the focus of all my activity except for a few bills that I have in the spring.”
He is converting the former Baldy Hughes army base near Prince George into a long-term recovery centre for alcoholics and drug addicts. The project is operating as the BC New Hope Recovery Society.
Nothing in British Columbia’s electoral law prevents Mayencourt from accepting a federal party’s nomination while still a provincial Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). However, the law states that no person can sit as an MLA at the same time as he or she is sitting as a federal Member of Parliament.
Xtra West’s repeated attempts to reach someone from the federal Conservative Party to ask if a candidate has been selected for the Vancouver Centre riding were unsuccessful by press time.
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