A film that was never finished. A mayor that Vancouver almost had. Vancouver, 1986. The Expo World's Fair has just ended and the future of the city is at stake. Harry Rankin - World War II veteran, criminal lawyer, city councillor and outspoken socialist - is running for mayor against a young, right-wing upstart named Gordon Campbell. Decades later, director Teresa Alfeld unearths reels of 16mm footage of Harry's campaign, filmed for a documentary by lawyer-turned-filmmaker-turned-lawyer Peter Smilsky. Peter's documentary was never completed and the abandoned footage sat in Harry's son's basement for decades. Teresa decides to pick up where Peter left off and attempts to complete the film about the Vancouver legend. The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical chronicles Harry's nearly fifty-year career beginning with his World War II military service as a soldier, twice wounded in combat. His worldview altered by his wartime experience, Harry sets out to build a working-class political movement in Vancouver that puts power in the hands of the people. Finally elected to city council in 1966 after eleven tries, Harry's career as both a civic politician and a talented criminal lawyer takes off. Not even years of surveillance by the RCMP for alleged ties to the Communist Party - which he denies - can slow him down. What can we learn from the successes - and failures - of Harry Rankin?