Vancouver: Canada’s drama industry may not be generating a galaxy of stars yet, but it is helping mayors get elected.

Larry Campbell, the inspiration for the long-running CBC drama series Da Vinci’s Inquest, was sworn in as Vancouver mayor Dec. 2 as part of a civic swing to the political left. The former cop and coroner championed solutions to Vancouver’s drug problem, proposed a vote to host the 2010 Olympics and leveraged his personal charisma to win twice as many votes as his nearest opponent.

Film was not top of the election issues, but since taking office, Campbell (no relation, political or family, to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell) has said that the industry is key to the city’s economic health through its environmental friendliness, cash benefits and tourism perks.

‘For the city’s perspective, we are going to do everything we can to remove the barriers [to production],’ says Campbell, elected as part of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) party. Funding, over which he has little sway, and location angst, which he can tackle directly, will occupy some of his time, he says.

‘I haven’t had a formal meeting with the premier, but I will bring the issue [of funding] up,’ says Campbell. ‘This is the first time in years that volumes have dipped below $1 billion. Investment in film is returned many-fold.’

With Campbell in office, the film industry has an advocate with insider knowledge. His friendship with Da Vinci’s Inquest creator Chris Haddock started years before the series when the producer went to Campbell looking for forensics advice on scripts and stories. The lead character – played by star Nicholas Campbell (again not related to the new mayor or the premier) – is loosely based on Campbell, though he is quick to say he ‘is still married to the pathologist and never lost his Jeep because of excessive drinking.’

Mayor Campbell, meanwhile, has written or co-written nine episodes of Da Vinci’s Inquest, being nominated with Haddock for a Gemini in the first year of the series and winning a Leo Award in 2000. He was the forensic consultant on the NBC miniseries First to Die, about a serial killer attacking newlyweds, which wrapped Oct. 23.

Consequently, Campbell understands the need to keep locations in Vancouver accessible for production. With Da Vinci’s Inquest, he was aware of the ‘occasional’ complaint about locations.

‘We’ll be sitting down with people who aren’t comfortable [with the location shooting],’ says Campbell, noting that some people will be ideologically opposed to some production and others merely inconvenienced. ‘We’ll gauge those complaints against the overall benefits to the city. We don’t want citizens upset, but the industry helps to offset taxes.’

Campbell’s film connections helped him with the election, too. Haddock, he says, consulted on a television ad produced and aired during the campaign. ‘[The ad] had the touch of a Haddock project,’ says Campbell.

And, as much as he points to the civic platforms, Campbell recognizes that the success of the series was an advantage with voters. ‘It would have been foolish for me to ignore the connection,’ he says. ‘It was a nice cache.’

The Campbell campaign printed pins with ‘Mayor Da Vinci’ as a joke, says the mayor, to show the ‘playfulness’ of his candidacy.