Another complicated Vancouver civic election campaign is entering the final stretch. When this issue of People’s Voice reaches print subscribers, advance voting will be underway for municipal elections taking place here and across BC on October 17.
Veteran Green city councillor Pete Fry has emerged as the leading candidate for mayor in Vancouver, heading up an informal alliance of three parties backed by most of the labour movement and other progressive forces – COPE, One City and the Greens. Early polling gives a lead to these parties, but the race is far from over.
In some BC communities, far-right racists linked to the BC Conservatives are making a push to win seats on local councils and school boards. These efforts had a setback on September 20 when the party’s leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned in the midst of campaigning to win a byelection to gain a seat in the Legislature. After Findlay’s caucus was deserted by at least a dozen MLAs, NDP Premier David Eby seized on the Conservative turmoil to call a snap election for October 24.
There are alarming ideological ties between the Conservatives and elements of the ABC party led by Ken Sim, which won a big majority of Vancouver city council seats in 2022. But there has been also a strong pushback against ABC and the Conservatives.
Mayor Sim and his party are regarded by many as openly corrupt pawns of big business. But even if they lose some votes this time, ABC could still win another majority thanks to divisions among opposition parties. Sim’s tactic is to accuse his opponent s of being “soft” public safety and drug use, and ABC is trying to manipulate the campaign by adding two “law and order” referendums on the civic election ballot. This hot button issue has been amplified for opportunist purposes by Eby’s NDP, and the mayor’s narrative does resonate beyond ABC’s core voter base among higher-income home owners.
In this context, the mayor’s declining popularity should have made it possible to cobble together a winning electoral alternative. But the combination of long-running subjective divisions among the progressive-backed forces, and some genuine policy differences, hindered attempts by the Vancouver and District Labour Council to broker unity on the ballot.
The process of finding a common candidate for the mayor’s office got off to a contentious start. After months of jockeying, the only result was an agreement to limit the number of overall candidates for each party. But this step to reduce vote-splitting still left more total candidates than positions to be elected. Some new “opposition” parties also popped up to muddy the waters, although these are basically pro-business slates posing as populists – these include the Vancouver Liberals, who are mostly right-wingers rather than federal Liberals, and the pro-business TEAM which longs for a return to Vancouver’s imaginary golden past.
After opinion surveys suggested that Fry was the only candidate with a chance to defeat Ken Sim, the One City and COPE mayoralty hopefuls withdrew by early September. Fry’s resulting jump in the polls (15 percent ahead of Sim) appears to have lifted all three parties. If the vote were held now, one survey released in mid-September showed the Greens on pace to elect four councillors, COPE on course to elect three, and two from One City. Sean Orr, COPE’s socialist incumbent on council, placed first overall in the survey. Only one ABC incumbent placed in the top ten.
Fry’s big lead will be hard for Sim to overcome, but the council race could become much tighter with a small swing in voter preferences. If most supporters of the “progressive” alliance cast ballots for each other’s candidates, they should win a majority on council. But if significant numbers “plump” by casting votes only for their favourite party, the more cohesive ABC voter base could still make a comeback.
In this complex scenario, People’s Voice is urging unity by Vancouver’s working class voters, especially trade unionists, low-income earners and tenants. As we stated in the 2018 and 2022 civic elections, that means voting for the strongest set of progressive candidates in order to defeat the right-wing parties. That means Pete Fry and candidates of the three parties backing his campaign for mayor.
The tactical problem is that everyone has ten votes for council, while the three parties have a total of 13 candidates on the “at large” ballot. There is no perfect answer to this problem; it’s a reality that various segments of the anti-ABC alliance will make different choices for city council.
The PV Vancouver Bureau is presenting our views on who Vancouverites should consider supporting. Events over the final couple of weeks may lead to some changes in such lists, but the important task is to campaign for those we support: Vote Pete Fry for mayor, despite our occasional differences on some issues.
We are endorsing ten names for City Council, most of whom are backed by the Vancouver and District Labour Council. These include the four candidates for COPE, the most consistently pro-working class party in Vancouver history – Sean Orr, Solomon Yi-Kieran, Chloe Leslie and Devyani Singh. Three Green candidates are on our list – trade unionist Annette Reilly, anti-poverty activist Stephanie Smith and former Parks Commissioner Camil Dumont. We urge your support for One City incumbent Lucy Maloney and two others from One City – Iona Bonamis and Caitlin Stockwell.
After difficult discussions about the nine Vancouver School Board (VSB) trustee positions, we are endorsing the four COPE candidates, a group with very strong records on public education at a time when the provincial NDP government has failed to provide adequate funding: incumbent trustee Suzie Mah, plus Derrick O’Keefe, Gwen Giesbrecht and Melanie Cheng. We also support three of One City’s excellent candidates – Steve Cardwell, Sherry Breshears and Rory Brown. Finally, we are backing the two Green candidates, who have strongly distanced themselves from the dismal record of Janet Fraser, the previous VSB chair who was a Green Party member. Alisha Masongsong and Julie Strilesky of the Greens have strong progressive platforms, although they are not endorsed by the VDLC.
Before October 17, we will say a few words about the Park Board race in Vancouver.