Editing Non-Partisan Association (section)

=== Early years ===
The NPA was established by Vancouver's business leaders on November 13, 1937, to counteract the growing influence of the CCF.<ref name="MacKie">{{cite news |last1=MacKie |first1=John |title=THIS DAY IN HISTORY: NOVEMBER 13, 1937 |url=https://vancouversun.com/News/Metro/this-day-in-history-november-13-1937/amp/ |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=The Vancouver Sun |date=November 13, 2012}}</ref> Fearful of a CCF victory in the Vancouver municipal election on December 8, 1937, provincial politicians from the then-ruling [[British Columbia Liberal Party|BC Liberal Party]] launched an initiative to create a pro-business municipal party to challenge the CCF.<ref name="MacKie"/>{{sfn|Smith|1982|p=59}} The NPA's first chairman was [[Victor Odlum]], a prominent member of Vancouver's business and political elite who had served as a Liberal [[Member of the Legislative Assembly|MLA]] from 1924 to 1928.<ref name="MacKie"/> Other founding members of the NPA include W. C. Woodward of Woodward's department store, Victor Spencer of Spencer's department store, and industrialist [[Austin Cotterell Taylor|Austin Taylor]].<ref name="MacKie"/> Despite its party connections, the NPA claimed it was not a party, but rather a "free enterprise coalition"{{sfn|Miller|1975|p=4}} which "oppose[d] the introduction of party politics into Vancouver's civic administration".<ref name="MacKie"/>

The NPA first fielded candidates in the December 9, 1936, municipal election, which saw their mayoral candidate, [[George Clark Miller|George Miller]], elected to office. Miller later ran in provincial elections for the [[Conservative Party of British Columbia|BC Progressive Conservative Party]].<ref name="MacKie"/> Prior to the 1939 election, a member of the NPA's executive, [[Nelson Spencer]], broke away from the party and ran independently after the NPA chose the then-incumbent Miller as its mayoral candidate instead of Spencer. The result was that the right-wing vote was split, and CCF candidate [[James Lyle Telford|Lyle Telford]] was elected.<ref name="MacKie"/> Telford would only serve one term before NPA candidate Jack Cornett was elected in the 1940 election, beginning a decades-long period of NPA dominance on Vancouver City Council.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Paulsen |first1=Monte |title='New' NPA to consider name change |url=https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Municipal-Politics/2010/04/27/New-NPA-to-consider-name-change/ |access-date=April 10, 2020 |work=The Tyee |date=April 27, 2010 |language=en}}</ref>