Vancouver Mayor-elect Ken Sim speaks during a news conference in Vancouver on Oct. 17.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Vancouver’s mayor-elect, Ken Sim, is promising a methodical and cautious approach when he takes power next month, following an overwhelming election victory that gave control of city council to ABC Vancouver, the party he helped to create two years ago.
No top city managers will be fired, he told reporters during his first news conference since Saturday’s election, and he said there will be no decisions about next year’s budget or tax increases until the city’s financial documents are thoroughly vetted. His campaign promise to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental-health nurses will be his first priority, he added.
“It’s a brand new day in Vancouver,” Mr. Sim said, even as he stressed that carrying out his party’s 94-point platform, which emphasized controlling the cost of living in the city and boosting public safety, will take time and thought. “Things are going to get better,” he promised.
Mr. Sim defeated Mayor Kennedy Stewart, a former NDP MP who was elected to the city’s top office in 2018 as an independent. Mr. Sim received nearly 86,000 votes, which amounted to about half of the ballots cast. Mr. Stewart, who placed second, received almost 50,000.
The last time an upstart Vancouver municipal party received a similarly large mandate was in 2008, when centre-left Vision Vancouver swept into power under Gregor Robertson. The party won majorities at council, the Vancouver School Board and the parks board.
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But Mr. Robertson’s approach was very different than the one being laid out by Mr. Sim. After the 2008 election, the city manager was fired within a week and subsequently replaced by former deputy health minister Penny Ballem. Mr. Robertson outlined an ambitious agenda that included ending street homelessness by 2015 and making Vancouver the greenest city in the world.
Throughout three terms of Vision dominance, the core team around the mayor used the party’s strong election results as justification for pursuing their agenda aggressively.
Mr. Sim is taking a decidedly more low-key approach, even though he will have a supermajority on council that could allow him to be as forceful as he wishes.
Mr. Stewart did not enjoy such a strong grip on city hall. Over the past four years, he often struggled to get support for items on his agenda from the city’s 10 councillors. They represented four parties when the term started, and six when it ended.
Mr. Sim downplayed the scale of his victory over the incumbent Mr. Stewart.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters if I won by one or 50,000 votes. It’s irrelevant, it’s irrelevant. At the end of the day, the city of Vancouver, they just want great governance,” he said.
He added that there will be no bombshells as his team proceeds.
“We have a very clear platform. No one in the city is going to be surprised. Our team is aligned. We’re going to take a collaborative approach.”
He said he was pleased with the state of the city’s civil service. “Right now, I truly believe we have incredible people there.”
And he told reporters that he is convinced the Vancouver Police Department will be able to find the new officers and mental-health nurses he promised, in spite of general labour shortages that have especially impacted policing and health care.
“For the first time in a while the VPD feels supported,” Mr. Sim said. “And the VPD is a destination police service.”
He said his team has talked to many nurses who are excited about the opportunity to work with police and the city.
The party has set up a transition team that includes former Vancouver deputy city manager James Ridge, now a consultant; former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts; campaign manager Kareem Allam; and former Vancouver city councillor Tung Chan.
Mr. Sim and the seven city councillors elected with him – who include sitting councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh – will be sworn in officially on Nov. 7.