Vancouver's lone Non-Partisan Association city councillor Suzanne Anton says she'll try to take Mayor Gregor Robertson's job in this fall's municipal election.

Anton, the lone NPA council member, made the announcement surrounded by NPA council candidates and former mayor Sam Sullivan Wednesday morning.

The Duncan native, who has been in council since 2005, says she wants to bring accountability, responsibility and smart financial planning back to the city's decision making.

Her announcement was peppered with promises of capitalizing on future opportunities, but wasn't above making subtle digs against her opponent.

"I believe this city can be even better than it will be today. No longer a city that tries to make it by good looks alone," she said, eliciting laughs from the audience.

"No more Olympic Village fiascos that the Vision Cope alliance created and Gregor Robertson made worse. No more of the chicken coop thinking that we've had for the past two-and-a-half years."

By the numbers

More than half of Vancouver residents – 53 per cent – said they approve of Gregor Robertson's performance, in a telephone poll of 420 randomly selected people conducted by Vancouver-based firm Justason Market Intelligence between April 26 and May 11.

Pollster Barb Justason said the popularity boost can be attributed to Robertson's recent attachments to some popular decisions, including the city's decision to turn down the original plan for the mega-casino planned in the Plaza of Nations location.

"He was the one who spoke out on that. He came forward on that and made some strong statements," she said.

But the survey also found that support for Vision Vancouver has fallen since February to 41 per cent of decided voters.

Justason said 30 per cent of voters would support the NPA – a level consistent with August 2010 numbers.

"What we found was a steady decline in Vision Vancouver and the NPA seems to have kept a steady base," she said, adding that the current gap between the NPA and Vision Vancouver is the narrowest recorded since last summer.

"There is no question that the fortunes of the NPA are changing," Justason said.

"It may be a challenge to unseat the mayor; but I'd be surprised not to see more representation from NPA in Council after the November election."

Anton will be acclaimed as the NPA's mayoral candidate at their June 4 nomination meeting. Vancouver's municipal election is on November 19.

Justason Market Intelligence claims an error margin of ±4.8 percentage points 19 in 20 times.