OTTAWA — Rachel Greenfeld seemed like the ideal Conservative candidate to go up against Liberal veteran Hedy Fry in Vancouver.
She’s multilingual, a former producer with big-name broadcasters CNN and Fox, a member of the Vancouver Board of Trade, and has progressive conservative views that might resonate well on the “Left Coast.”
But after nearly two years as the Tory candidate in Vancouver Centre, Greenfeld suddenly packed it in — at least the second party candidate to drop off in the past month.
“It wasn’t a happy ending for sure,” Greenfeld said.
She said she was asked to resign because she wouldn’t agree to run in two consecutive elections, a commitment she didn’t feel she could make emotionally or professionally after so long as candidate already.
She also believes she was regarded as a “loose cannon” because she spoke to the media when she felt like it.
“(I) said I really would like to go through one election, I’ve worked really hard at this, I’m $150,000 invested, I’ve put a team of people to work for over a year-and-a-half ... but I can’t commit to another four years.
“And I had tendered my resignation effective April, in the event that we didn’t go through an election because I have taken on the position of CEO of a company, and they said: ”Resign now or you’re fired.“’
A Conservative source who spoken on condition of anonymity said the party felt it couldn’t run the risk of being without a candidate should an election be triggered past Greenfeld’s March 31 deadline — a view Greenfeld says she totally understood.
Greenfeld, who started up the trendy Campoverde Social Club in Vancouver and is now the head of a personal coaching firm, said she’s more put off by the treatment she got from party officials. She wasn’t impressed when Jenni Byrne, the Conservative party’s director of operations and national campaign manager, assigned an underling to deliver the ultimatum.
“She didn’t have the respect for me to make the call herself. And I found that to be very unfortunate.
“They’ve got the right person in the right job for the way that they need to run their organization, it’s just that there’s no humanity, no soul, there’s no kindness, there’s no femininity — the things that give people the greatest pleasure in life are absent.
“Feeling acknowledged, feeling understood, feeling respect, they’re just not there.”
The Tory source said the party found it easier to accept her resignation because of Greenfeld’s demands for “special attention.” The source said she had complained on various occasions that party policies had been developed without taking into account their potential impact in her riding.
Greenfeld spoke glowingly of other B.C. Conservatives and said she continues to be a party member. She felt the party had a good shot at taking the riding in the next federal election.
“We’re very concerned with our environment here, we care about the homeless situation, we care about the mental health issues that we see people suffering from in the downtown east side,” she said.
It’s that kind of off-message talk that Greenfeld suspects put her on the naughty list of some in the party. She said party brass were unhappy when she gave some interviews when she first won the nomination in 2009, without their blessing.
Conservative party spokesman Fred Delorey said he could not discuss internal party matters. Byrne did not respond to a request for comment.