B.C. mayor to run for Liberal leadership

The mayor of a small Vancouver Island community says he's running to become British Columbia's next premier, joining a race to lead the governing Liberal party.

Parskville Mayor Ed Mayne plans to officially announce his candidacy at 10 a.m. PT Tuesdayat Parksvilles Beach Club Resort.

Mayne, 60,has been the mayor of Parksville since 2008. Before that, he was a vice-president with Tim Horton's Corp.

Mayne insists he has a real chance of winning, and argues his outsider statusuntouched by controversies such as the harmonized sales tax will actually help his campaign.

Little chance of winning

However, observers say outsiders like him hoping to lead the Liberals or NDP will face serious challenges as they compete against their better-connected, better-known opponents.

They say candidates such as Mayne or pot activist Dana Larson, who wants to run for the NDP leadership, have little chance of winning because they don't have the name-recognition, money or base of support as their opponents.

Political scientist Kennedy Stewart of Simon Fraser University said another class of "partial outsiders" are those candidates who aren't in caucus or cabinet but still have connections to their parties, such as Liberal cabinet-minister-turned-radio-host Christy Clark.

Stewart said candidates such as Clark or the Sierra Club's George Heyman, who is considering an NDP run, also face challenges building support among caucus and mobilizing party members, but they should still be considered serious contenders.