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Over the years, Patrick Condon has spoken about and written a lot about issues affecting Vancouver.

As an urban planner, his opinions regarding housing and transportation are valued and often sought.

Nobody is perhaps more qualified to run the city as Condon, founding chair of the urban design program of the School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture at UBC.

This is the reason why the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) and the team of anti-poverty warrior Jean Swanson are discussing with Condon the prospect of him running for mayor of Vancouver in the October 2018 municipal election.

“He’s intelligent enough to be able to come up with a lot of policy on his own,” COPE co-chair Connie Hubbs told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview Wednesday (April 4).

According Hubbs, she, along with Swanson and other representatives of the two groups, have been holding talks with Condon.

“At this point, we’re both interested, and we’re both pursuing it, and we’re seeing if we can make it work,” she said.

Hubbs said that it was former COPE city councillor Anne Roberts who brought the idea to Condon.

“She reached out to him and asked if he would be interested, and it turned out that he was,” Hubbs said.

While there is common interest to continue talking, Hubbs said that “it doesn’t mean there is a decision being made on both sides”.

Condon had previously talked about the need to engage the citizenry in order to produce a citywide plan to guide the development of Vancouver.

Condon is not a fan of costly transportation projects like the planned subway underneath Broadway, preferring instead trams and trolley buses.

"In an ideal situation, he would get support from the [Vancouver] Greens and OneCity as well, but of course, we can’t speak for them,” Hubbs said.