At the final mayoral debate Wednesday night, both Vision Vancouver candidate Gregor Robertson and NPA hopeful Peter Ladner said they would take a lie detector test about the possible leak of confidential loan documents.
"It sounds bizarre," says Robertson. " But Vision councillors are committed to doing that."
With possible lie detector tests and now an upcoming police investigation, no one could call the upcoming Vancouver civic election boring.
At the request of current mayor Sam Sullivan, the Vancouver Police Department are now investigating the leak of sensitive documents outlining the city's $100 million bailout to the developer of the Olympic village.
Related article: Mayor calls for police investigation into missing documents
The deal was approved unanimously Oct. 14 in an in-camera meeting. A document assigned to Ladner disappeared after the meeting, and reappeared on NPA councillor B.C. Lee's desk two days later -- after the information was leaked to media.
"We also need our citizens to have confidence in the behaviour of the people who represent them and I think this has definitely raised a bunch of questions," outgoing mayor Sam Sullivan tells CTV News.
Posturing on position
At Wednesday night's debate, Peter Ladner defended the city's handling of the loan guarantee, saying it is impossible to conduct real estate deals in the public.
"All I'm doing is sticking to a decision that 11 people made," says Ladner. "And if that puts my political career on the line, I'm there."
Vision candidate Gregor Robertson promised that if he is elected mayor, within 30 days of taking office he would hold a public council meeting on the financial details of the project.
"We need to get to the bottom of this and we need to get on with being transparent and the public having confidence in the project and city hall and getting the Olympic village built," he says.
In another twist, it was revealed Wednesday that Millennium -- the project developer -- made campaign donations to both Vision and the NPA party. Both candidates say they have rejected those campaign contributions.
Voters get to have the final say on Sat. Nov 15. As of Thursday morning, more than 15,000 people cast advance ballots in the civic election.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jason Pires