Liberal incumbent for Vancouver Centre. Hedy Fry.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Jennifer Clarke, a three-term city councillor who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2002, will be the federal Conservative candidate in Vancouver Centre, taking on veteran Liberal incumbent Hedy Fry.
Ms. Fry has held the riding through five elections since 1993, fending off challenges from the left and right presented by such candidates as Tory leader Kim Campbell and New Democrat Svend Robinson.
Ms. Clarke, an infrastructure development consultant, whose nomination was announced Monday night, replaces Tory candidate Rachel Greenfeld.
After two years as Tory candidate in the riding, the head of a personal coaching firm dropped out this month, suggesting she was asked to resign because she would not commit to run in two consecutive elections and was also regarded as a loose cannon.
As mayoral candidate for the Non-Partisan Association, Ms. Clarke was defeated by former B.C chief coroner Larry Campbell in the 2002 mayoral race, running for the centre-left Coalition of Progressive Electors.
She was not available for comment Monday night.
However, Ms. Fry welcomed Ms. Clarke to the race.
"It took a while for the Conservatives to get a candidate. Now they have one. Let the games begin," Ms. Fry said.
"I have never taken a single election for granted because you never know."
She said she would run on her record and work hard. "I am not looking at any particular strategy against Ms. Clark. I am not taking anything for granted."
In the 2008 federal election, Ms. Fry won the riding by 5,214 votes over her nearest challenger, Lorne Mayencourt, a former MLA for the BC Liberals running federally for the Conservatives. New Democrat Michael Byers, a professor of global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia, came third.
The NDP candidate in the riding Karen Schillington, an anti-poverty activist who has previously run federally and provincially for the Green Party.
The Green candidate is the federal party's deputy leader Adriane Carr.