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#VanPoli | Kareem Allam | Unifying Vancouver

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, Canada, City Development Planning, Kareem Allam, Park Board, Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

According to the last census, there are 662,248 citizens who call Vancouver home.

54.5% of Vancouver’s population, or 354,615 people, belong to one of Vancouver’s 201 visible-minority communities.

The Chinese community is by far Vancouver’s largest single ethnic/cultural-origin group, with 159,080 people — roughly one Vancouver resident in four. The latest census puts the Chinese population at 168,385, or 25.9% of the long-form population.

There are another 378,000 citizens in Vancouver whose ethnic origins are not part of the visible minority population: with the largest of these non-visible minority  populations represented by the English (84,370), Scottish (69,200) and Irish (65,695).

Taken together, those four origins account for more than 378,000 reported origins, although, again, many people report more than one origin.

According to the latest census, as above, Vancouver has 354,615 people identified by Statistics Canada as belonging to a visible-minority population, again (as reported above) representing 54.5% of Vancouver’s 662,248-person overall population.

The disparity in numbers between Vancouver’s Census Canadian population of  662,248 Vancouver citizens, and the 742,615 figure that is a combination of the visible and non-visible ethnic populations may be accounted for by the fact that many Vancouverites who reported out in the most recent Statistics Canada census identified as being members of more than one ethnic community.

Chinese residents accounted for 159,080; South Asians 44,850; Filipinos 38,605; Southeast Asians 20,585; Latin Americans 18,080; West Asians 12,100; Koreans 10,895; Japanese 10,990; and Black residents 8,515.

The chart below shows Vancouver’s visible minority populations by ethnic group, the Vancouver neighbourhoods where most reside, the population numbers, and the percentage of the population each community comprises within the City of Vancouver.

Rank Ethnic/cultural origin Population % of Vancouver
1 Chinese 159,080 24.02%
2 English 84,370 12.74%
3 Scottish 69,200 10.45%
4 Irish 65,695 9.92%
5 German 45,215 6.83%
6 Filipino 38,885 5.87%
7 Canadian 33,685 5.09%
8 French, n.o.s. 30,625 4.62%
9 Indian (India) 27,765 4.19%
10 British Isles, n.o.s. 21,545 3.25%
11 Italian 21,155 3.19%
12 Ukrainian 20,000 3.02%
13 Vietnamese 17,450 2.63%
14 Polish 15,900 2.40%
15 Russian 14,135 2.13%
16 Dutch 13,330 2.01%
17 Japanese 13,320 2.01%
18 European, n.o.s. 11,990 1.81%
19 Spanish 11,605 1.75%
20 Jewish 11,555 1.74%
21 Korean 11,470 1.73%
22 Asian, n.o.s. 11,330 1.71%
23 Caucasian (White), n.o.s. 11,105 1.68%
24 Norwegian 10,125 1.53%
25 Iranian 9,440 1.43%
26 Taiwanese 9,355 1.41%
27 Welsh 9,255 1.40%
28 Hong Konger 8,560 1.29%
29 Swedish 8,270 1.25%
30 Mexican 7,855 1.19%
31 American 7,565 1.14%
32 Portuguese 6,535 0.99%
33 Punjabi 6,100 0.92%
34 Hungarian 5,615 0.85%
35 Greek 5,475 0.83%
36 Danish 4,890 0.74%
37 Austrian 4,710 0.71%
38 French Canadian 4,070 0.61%
39 Croatian 3,580 0.54%
40 Persian 3,510 0.53%
41 Romanian 3,370 0.51%
42 Sikh 3,225 0.49%
43 Finnish 2,775 0.42%
44 Hindu 2,685 0.41%
45 African, n.o.s. 2,660 0.40%
46 Icelandic 2,525 0.38%
47 South Asian, n.o.s. 2,460 0.37%
48 Turkish 2,350 0.35%
49 Belgian 2,160 0.33%
50 Eastern European, n.o.s. 2,065 0.31%

In 2022, turnout at the polls in the last civic election, 36.3% of eligible Vancouver voters cast a ballot at the polls during the last municipal election.

Looking specifically at Vancouver civic elections using the City’s/BC CivicInfo’s reported turnout among eligible or registered voters, the trend is quite clear: turnout rose sharply from 2011 to 2014, fell in 2018, and fell again in 2022.

Election Ballots cast Eligible/registered voters Turnout
2022 171,494 472,665 registered 36.3%
2018 176,450 448,322 estimated eligible 39.4%
2014 181,707 429,390 estimated eligible 43.4%
2011 144,823 — 35.0%

In 2022, The City of Vancouver’s official final results report 171,494 ballots cast from 472,665 registered voters, producing a 36.3% turnout. The City’s subsequent election review confirms the 36.3% figure.

If you’re looking at this in the context of the 2026 Vancouver election, the really interesting question is what the turnout would look like if members of the city’s 201 visible minority ethnic/cultural communities voted at anything approaching the participation rates of the broader electorate. That could materially change the electoral math.

That is the subject matter of today’s VanRamblings post: in 2026, what would the election outcome in the City of Vancouver look like were members of the alienated, disenfranchised visible minority population of our city to cast their ballot at the advance polls on October 3rd, 7th, 10th and 13th, and on Election Day, Saturday, October 17th?

Which is not to say that Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals have not reached out to members and Vancouver citizens in all 264 distinct ethnic communities, as can be seen in the chart above, from persons whose heritage hails from Great Britain / the British Isles / Scotland / Wales / and Ireland. Not to mention, France, the western European countries, Poland and the other countries in the Eastern Bloc, as well as citizens who lives originated in South America, Australia,  and across the globe.

Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals want  your vote next month!

East Vancouver Voter Turnout in 2022

Defined by the City of Vancouver local areas east of Ontario Street, where most of the visible minority ethnic populations reside — Strathcona, Grandview-Woodland, Hastings-Sunrise, Downtown Eastside, Mount Pleasant East, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Renfrew-Collingwood, Riley Park East, Sunset, and Victoria-Fraserview — voter turnout, on average, was anywhere from 22% to 28%, with some polls reporting voter participation, ranging from 38% to 42%.

The list of Vancouver political candidates drawn from minority communities seeking elected office in Vancouver in 2026, by party affiliation, was compiled by the Coalition Against Bigotry-Pacific

Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals are working towards getting out the vote on Vancouver’s east side, and in south Vancouver, setting a new record for voter participation in these neighbourhoods, to give every community a voice at Vancouver City Hall. That is the solemn commitment the Vancouver Liberals are making to the citizens of Vancouver in the 2026 municipal election, as they reach out to members of the 264 distinct ethnic communities who live across Vancouver, to young people, to seniors, to folks who are members of the New Democratic Party, the Conservatives, the Green Party, and more.

West Side of Vancouver Turnout in 2022

The lowest participation rate on Vancouver’s West Side occurred in Fairview and Marpole, where voter turnout drops to 31%–35%. This reflects lower homeownership rates and a higher proportion of transient renters compared to the single-family enclaves further west.

As reported in The Georgia Straight, based on data provided by the City of Vancouver, in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election, the single highest voter participation percentage on the West Side recorded occurred in Shaughnessy and Dunbar-Southlands, peaking at 52%–55% on average in each Vancouver municipal election since 2011.

In 2022, a full 63.7% of eligible voters failed to cast a ballot in that year’s Vancouver municipal election.

What would happen if a Vancouver municipal party, and a candidate for Mayor of the City of Vancouver, set out 15 months ago to meet with representatives of the alienated and disenfranchised voters in these communities, specifically on Vancouver’s East Side, meeting with members of each of these 201 visible minority communities who, traditionally, have not voted in Vancouver’s civic elections?

Well, that is exactly what Kareem Allam, the Vancouver Liberals Mayoral candidate in the 2026 Vancouver municipal election set out to do 15 months ago.

Over the course of the past 457 days, Kareem Allam and his Vancouver Liberals campaign staff have met with representatives of these alienated, disenfranchised 201 visible minority communities, in their homes and at their community gatherings, and have built a Get Out The Vote (GOTV) army of more the 2,000 Vancouver citizens — across all 264 distinct ethnic communities — who have committed to Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals that each will get 10 or more members of their nuclear and extended families, as well as their friends, neighbours and work colleagues who constitute members of their community, to the polls to cast a ballot for Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals.

Which means that in 2026, Vancouver could see the highest turnout / voter participation rate ever in a Vancouver civic election, emerging as the difference maker in 2026 that will thrust Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals into civic power at Vancouver City Hall, post this year’s October 17th Vancouver municipal election.

In 2015, in the Canadian federal election, 17,711,983 Canadian voters out of a total of  25,939,742 eligible voters — or 68.3% of eligible Canadian voters cast a ballot in that critical federal election — thrust Justin Trudeau into office as the 43rd Prime Minister of Canada, and the Liberal Party of Canada into comfortable majority government status, dramatically defeating Stephen Harper and the Conservatives after 10 years in power.

Average percentage voter turnout over Harper’s 10 years in power was 58.8%.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected to 184 seats in Parliament in 2015, while Stephen Harper’s Conservatives secured only 99 seats, 67 fewer seats than when the Conservatives won 166 seats in 2011 and Stephen Harper won a majority government.

According to Research Co., Angus Reid and other polling companies, 62.7% of Vancouver voters want change.

Vancouver Liberals | The most ethnically and politically diverse group of candidates in Vancouver

Change. VanRamblings believes, as was the case in the 2015 federal election, that is exactly what we’re going to get come the evening of Saturday, October 17, when the percentage of eligible voter participation rate in this year’s Vancouver municipal election will rise from the 36.3% turnout rate in 2022, to more than a record 45% voter participation rate in the 2026 Vancouver civic election — based on a radically increased turnout of previously alienated and disenfranchised voters in Vancouver’s visible minority population, who will flood to the polls to elect a Vancouver unity government of civic reconciliation, thrusting Kareem Allam into the Mayor’s office and electing a majority Vancouver Liberals civic government at Vancouver City Hall come the evening of Saturday, October 17, a responsible and responsive, activist civic administration, delivering services for the people of Vancouver, while keeping taxes low.

Vancouver, then, may look forward to a Kareem Allam-led “let’s get ‘er done” Vancouver Liberals civic administration serving the interests of all of us who call Vancouver home, a Kareem Allam-led government delivering for us, holding power and gaining the respect of Vancouver residents in every one of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods through until Vancouver’s next municipal election in 2030 — and, perhaps, beyond.

 

#VanElxn2022 | 2022 Civic Election Wrap-Up, Part 1

#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2022, , , , ,

Vancouver voters ovewhelmingly elected a new, centrist, common sense municipal government, at Vancouver City Hall, Park Board and School on Saturday night, electing ABC Vancouver’s Mayor-elect Ken Sim with highest vote total in the city’s history, with 85,732 Vancouver citizens having cast a vote for Mayor-elect Sim.

All seven ABC Vancouver Council candidates — including Sarah Kirby-Yung, who topped the polls, along with her Council colleagues Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh, elected to a 2nd term on Vancouver City Council — now includes, ABC Vancouver Councillor-elects Brian Montague, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner and Lenny Zhou, all of whom will be sworn into office on Monday, November 7th.

Joining the ABC Vancouver majority on Council, three returning City Councillors, who barely squeaked into office: the Green Party’s Adriane Carr, elected with a paltry 41,831 votes, a full 20,562 votes behind Councillor-elect Zhou. For the first time in Vancouver municipal electoral history a Councillor was elected to civic government with less than 40,000 votes: that would be OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle, garnering only 38,465 votes — 6,990 fewer votes than were cast for her in 2018.  Councillor Pete Fry — along with Sarah Kirby-Yung, the best communicator on Council, was elected to a 2nd term on Council, dropping from a second place finish in 2018, having garnered  61,806 votes first time out, dropping almost out of sight in 2022 with a miserly 37,270 votes — for a jaw-dropping loss of 24,536 votes.

VanRamblings will take pains to remind our readers that in our State of the Race column published on Wednesday, October 12th, we predicted — or at least held out the possibility of — a sweep of Council by candidates running for office at City Hall with ABC Vancouver, missing out only on naming Councillor-elect Lenny Zhou.

  • ABC Vancouver sweeps the election, running on their common sense platform, with  prominent Vancouverites Chip Wilson and the Rocky Mountaineer’s Peter Armstrong supporting the party’s bid to assume city government —  with a panoply of financial backers contributing enough money, so that ABC could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on television, radio, social media and ethnic press advertising to ensure a Ken Sim victory on Saturday night —  are running ABC Vancouver Council candidates, incumbents Sarah Kirby-Yung — who we predict will top the polls — Rebecca Bligh and Lisa Dominato, who’ll be joined by “newcomers” Mike Klassen — a rock solid lock to be elected to Council — and fellow ABC Vancouver Council candidates, Peter Meiszner, Brian Montague and Lenny Zhou. The icing on the cake for ABC: when Peter Armstrong left the Non-Partisan Association, he had the NPA voter and membership lists in his possession. In addition, we understand that — as is the case with Mayor Kennedy Stewart and his Forward Together team, who the BC NDP are pulling out all the stops to re-elect Mr. Stewart — Kevin Falcon’s B.C. Liberal party is only too happy to turn over the party’s provincial membership and voters list to the ABC Vancouver campaign — which lists don’t count for much on Vancouver’s east side, but make a world of difference on getting out the vote on Vancouver’s west side.

VanRamblings will address the lack of generosity in 2nd term Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle’s tweet, published the day after the election. Believe us when we write that it wasn’t all that long ago that VanRamblings was quite as partisan as the good Ms. Christine Boyle: left, good; right, evil. Not a great construct we’ve come to believe, counter-productive, and dehumanizing, if truth be told.

Better not to demonize those who hold centrist views — in civic government that means: keeping tax increases low, prioritizing core spending initiatives, laser focusing on creating a safe, clean city, while ensuring the provision of services for citizens that includes timely snow removal, regular garbage pickup, maintenance of the transportation system that includes the filling of potholes, maintaining Vancouver’s water distribution and sewage systems, and processing applications at City Hall in a timely manner, all to serve the interests of Vancouver citizens.

Truth to tell, there’s not a right-winger among the elected ABC Vancouver Councillor-elects. Sarah Kirby-Yung is, by far, the most progressive Councillor at Vancouver City Hall, closely followed by Lisa Dominato, the author of British Columbia’s SOGI 123 programme — that helps educators make schools inclusive and safe for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI) — and Rebecca Bligh, long a leading light and fighter within the LGBTQ2+ community.

As we wrote last week, Councillor-elect Mike Klassen is …

“Fair-minded, possessed of an umatched personal and professional integrity, and as a former première civic affairs columnist with the Vancouver Courier newspaper — his writing possessed of an integrity, a heart and a humanity that spoke both to his professionalism as a journalist, and to how Mike has always brought himself to the world.

In his work as a vice-president with the B.C. Home Care Providers Association, Mike Klassen gained a rapport with members of the New Democratic Party caucus that is second-to-none, each member of that caucus having come to respect Mike as someone who gets things done, someone with whom it is easy to work towards change for the better, someone who does his homework, and someone who is non-partisan in the interests of better serving the needs of British Columbians.”

Now, we’ll give you that VanRamblings, at this point in time, doesn’t know a great deal about Peter Meiszner — as it happens, though, Peter played an invaluable role in VanRamblings’ coverage of #VanElxn2022, offering needed advice and succour to us, as a writer and journalist, interacting with us always with heart, humanity and respect — Brian Montague and Lenny Zhou. Give us time, though.

And, no, ABC Vancouver Councillor-elects will not be bulldozing the tent encampments along East Hastings, but have committed to working with the provincial and federal governments that would see those currently housed in tents along East Hastings housed in comfy one-bedroom apartments, and the tents removed.

On election night, Mayor-elect Ken Sim told the Daily Hive’s Kenneth Chan that ABC Vancouver fully intends to implement their 94-point platform plan over their first 100 days in office, tackling crime and public safety issues, as the new majority Council commits to hiring 100 police officers and 100 mental health nurses, expanding the existing Car 87/88 programme of pairing a police officer and mental health nurse in an unmarked vehicle for non-emergency mental health calls.

ABC Vancouver will also target help for Chinatown’s ailing business sector, while supporting the neighbourhood’s cultural organizations, and its residents.

Despite facing increasingly frequent instances of violent attacks, property damage, theft, public disorder issues, and other incidents that are anti-Asian in nature, the Chinatown community’s pleas for effective help went unheeded by the Kennedy Stewart administration, which largely ignored the problem.

Says ABC Vancouver Mayor-elect Ken Sim in his interview with The Daily Hive …

“We will take a very pragmatic approach to all the challenges and opportunities that are presented to us, and adopt a science-based approach, while meeting and consulting with healthcare providers and professionals, teachers, parents —  just about anyone can contribute to a solution to the problems Vancouverites have faced in recent years. Quite simply, we’ll  make better decisions, decisions that serve the interests of the community.”

Having read the above, do you have the impression ABC Vancouver is right wing?

VanRamblings believes that referring to the ABC Vancouver Councillor-elect team as “right wing” is not only dismissive and dehumanizing, it’s just plain, dead wrong.

Cyclists ride on a separated bike lane in Stanley Park

What VanRamblings could not possibly have predicted was that ABC Vancouver would sweep both Vancouver School Board, and Vancouver Park Board.

Vancouver’s incoming ABC Vancouver Park Board Commissioner-elect majority are laying out priorities for their next four years in office.

“At the end of the fall we’re going to remove the temporary bike lane and restore full car access to the park. But then we’re going to spend the winter to come up with an engineered solution to maintain access to both bikes and cars,” Commissioner-Elect Laura Christensen told Global News.”

Park Board Commissioner-Elect Scott Jensen  told CKNW’s Jill Bennett that the lane removal will coincide with the arrival of winter weather, expected to result in fewer cyclists. The plan would involve re-opening vehicle access to Beach Avenue. and a return to a “pre-pandemic Stanley Park configuration” over the winter.

Going forward, Jensen said the Board will look at “areas where we can provide a protected permanent bike lane so that cyclists who choose to use the interior bike route will be able to have areas where they will have that protection.”

“We talked a lot to cyclists, and the ongoing message  we heard was that cycling up the hill from the bottom portion of the the roadway up to Prospect Point was an area of concern where they felt that was necessary to have a divided protected lane,” he said.

Jensen told CKNW that whatever solution the Board delivers will prioritize access to parking lots and the needs of businesses in the park.

The new Park Board will also move to make the city’s pilot project allowing alcohol in some parks permanent, and launch a new pilot looking at the city’s beaches.

As to the most contentious issue facing the Park Board Commissioner-elects, Christensen said the new majority would take a measured approach.

“The B.C. Supreme Court has been very clear that people have the right to camp in parks when there is no housing available, and we have no plans to evict them at this time,” she said. “However, in the meantime we’d like to increase maintenance and safety in the park, increasing cleanup, garbage pickup, things like that. “And we’ll be working with our ABC majority on council to provide housing options in the future, so that’s housing options with wraparound services and support.”

Vancouver’s new park commissioners will be officially sworn in on Nov. 7.

In a discussion with ABC Vancouver Board of Education trustee-elect, and a former Chairperson at Vancouver School Board, Christopher Richardson, last evening, VanRamblings was told that ABC Vancouver’s school trustee-elects have not, as yet, met to discuss implementation of the Board’s “new priorities”, but as Mayor-elect Ken Sim told the media yesterday, one School Board priority under an ABC Vancouver administration will include the return of the police liaison programme.

The successful police liaison programme — which ran for some ran for 50 years in Vancouver secondary schools — was cut last year by the current and outgoing Board. Mayor-elect Sim was passionate in his defense of the Vancouver School district’s police liaison programme which, as he told the press, kept students like him out of the clutches of the gangs who all but ran secondary schools across the Vancouver school district when he was growing up.

Another ABC Vancouver priority for implementation by the new Board, Mr. Richardson believes: re-instatement of the Honours programmes in Vancouver schools, cut by the current and outgoing Board last year in an attempt to provide lowest-common-denominator “equity” for students enrolled in Vancouver secondary schools. In cutting the Honours programmes in Vancouver secondary schools, the Board may have been well-intentioned in the taking of the decision to cut the Honours programme but were, VanRamblings believes, wrongheaded to deny secondary school students enrolled in the Vancouver school district access to such educational opportunities as the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme, that seeks to “provide an internationally acceptable university admissions qualification suitable for the growing mobile population of young people whose parents were part of the world of diplomacy, international and multinational organizations” by offering standardized courses and assessments for students aged 16 to 19. The IB programme is but one of the invaluable Honours programmes (such as the Honours Math programme at Templeton Secondary School) that were cut by the current and outgoing Vancouver Board of Education last year.