Many of the candidates for the four parties running against ABC in Vancouver’s April 5, two-seat council byelection call it the same thing: a referendum. Read More
Dan Fumano: This weekend’s byelection in Vancouver sees seven candidates endorsed by five civic parties, as well as six Independents, facing off for two council seats.
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Many of the candidates for the four parties running against ABC in Vancouver’s April 5, two-seat council byelection call it the same thing: a referendum.
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Saturday’s vote, they say, is a chance for residents to weigh in on the performance of Vancouver’s reigning party and Mayor Ken Sim.
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Vancouver’s left-leaning parties — the Greens, OneCity, and COPE — are attacking ABC as a party that serves the interests of the wealthy at the expense of everyone else, and describe Sim as a leader distracted by things most people don’t want, like abolishing the park board and investing city money in bitcoin.
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TEAM, not generally considered a left-wing party, differs starkly from the right-leaning ABC on at least one major issue: Housing.
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Sunrise
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ABC won the 2022 election in a landslide, promising to fix a dysfunctional city hall and improve public safety. Now, ABC’s two byelection candidates aim to convince voters Vancouver has been heading in the right direction and the party deserves an even-larger majority on council. The party has significant advantage in money and visibility.
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ABC candidate Jaime Stein said ABC “has had a lot of positive momentum” on its 93-point platform from the 2022 election, “but there’s a lot more work to do.” Stein believes his background in tech makes him well-suited to “help modernize our city operations.”
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ABC’s other candidate, Ralph Kaisers, spent 34 years with the Vancouver police, including six years as union president. Kaisers was the public face of the Vancouver Police Union’s decision to break with tradition and endorse ABC in the last municipal general election.
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This time the police union has decided not to endorse ABC, Kaisers, or anyone else.
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Kaisers isn’t disappointed about the decision, he said. The union felt compelled to “take a very unique stance” in 2022 because members felt unsupported by the then-mayor and council, he said, but “currently, a lot of positive things have happened for the department and there isn’t really the need to step out and endorse one party or another.”
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TEAM has the only byelection candidate with experience on Vancouver city council: Colleen Hardwick, a councillor from 2018 to 2022 and unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 2022.
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Hardwick says many voters in 2022 were trying to decide between ABC and TEAM, and people “freaked out,” and figured Sim’s ABC seemed the best bet to unseat then-mayor Kennedy Stewart.
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“Now they have buyer’s remorse,” Hardwick said. “And we won’t get fooled again.”
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Historically, homeowners are more likely to vote than renters, but Hardwick predicts more tenants at the polls this week for one reason: The Broadway plan.