Tag Archives: city hall

#VanPoli | Vancouver Needs a Ward System: Democracy Begins Where People Live

#VanElxn 2026, #VanPoli Civic Politics, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vancouver Liberals Mayoral candidate Kareem Allam’s proposal to place a plebiscite before voters in the 2030 Vancouver municipal election asking voters / Vancouver residents — should he become Mayor on October 17 2026 — whether they would like to see the adoption of a “ward” system / that is, elect a Councillor to represent their neighbourhood or geographic area, rather than electing 10 City Councillors at-large, deserves more than a passing mention in the 2026 Vancouver municipal campaign.

This issue goes to the heart of what democracy at the municipal level is supposed to accomplish: Is a Councillor primarily accountable to an entire city, or should there be a Councillor whose first responsibility is to the people and neighbourhoods of a particular part of that city?


Kareem Allam, the Vancouver Liberals’ Mayoral candidate, has proposed establishing a Citizens’ Assembly to examine the adoption of a ward system in Vancouver.

The assembly would make recommendations and develop the question that could go before voters in 2030, with a ward system potentially taking effect for the 2034 civic election. The Vancouver Liberals say the present at-large system makes campaigns expensive and can leave neighbourhoods without direct representation.

Wards / geographic neighbourhood representation is an idea whose time has come.

Vancouver Needs a Ward System: Democracy Begins Where People Live

Vancouver is an extraordinary city, but electing City Councillors at-large is an anachronism.

Today, Vancouverites elect the Mayor and 10 Councillors at-large.

Every voter can vote for every Councillor, and every Councillor is theoretically responsible for every resident of the city.

On paper, that sounds wonderfully democratic.

In practice, it can mean the opposite.

When everyone represents everyone, no one necessarily represents you.

That is the fundamental weakness of Vancouver’s at-large electoral system.

Imagine a resident in Killarney confronting a serious neighbourhood issue: a proposed development, traffic problems, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, a community facility under threat or a local planning decision. Under the current system, that resident has 10 Councillors to whom she or he can appeal — and, paradoxically, no single Councillor whose political job is to be that neighbourhood’s representative.

Under a ward system, there would be one.

That distinction matters.

A Councillor Who Knows, Lives In and Cares About Your Neighbourhood

In the heart of the city, Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, looking north towards the mountains

Consider what happens in federal and provincial politics.

If you have a problem with a federal matter, you know who your Member of Parliament is.

If you have a provincial concern, you know who your MLA is.

You may not agree with that person politically. You may never have voted for them. But you know that person is your representative.

There is a geographical relationship between citizen and elected official.

Municipal government should work the same way.

A Councillor representing, for example, a ward encompassing Hastings-Sunrise and Renfrew-Collingwood would have an obvious political responsibility to understand those communities: their transportation problems, housing pressures, parks, schools, businesses, community centres, development proposals and neighbourhood concerns.

That Councillor could hold regular constituency meetings, maintain an office, attend community-association meetings and become known to the people who live there.

Most importantly, residents would know exactly who to call.

That is accountability.

Vancouver is The Outlier: Every Other Major City in Canada Has Wards

Located in the NE part of Vancouver, the Killarney neighbourhood where ABC Councillor Mike Klassen grew up

The argument for a ward system is strengthened by looking beyond Vancouver.

Toronto elects 25 ward Councillors, with the Mayor elected city-wide.

Edmonton has 12 wards and one Councillor per ward. Winnipeg has 15 wards, again with one Councillor representing each. Ottawa has 24 wards, with one Councillor elected from each and the Mayor elected at-large.

These are not small communities experimenting with an untested democratic theory. They are some of Canada’s largest municipalities.

And the principle is straightforward: the Mayor represents the entire city; Councillors represent both their communities and the city as a whole.

That is precisely the model Vancouver should consider.

It is worth correcting one point, however. It would be inaccurate to say that British Columbia is literally the only Canadian province in which large municipalities lack ward systems. Canadian provincial legislation permits different electoral arrangements, and some municipalities outside B.C. also use at-large or hybrid systems.

But Vancouver is unquestionably unusual among Canada’s major cities in continuing to elect its entire Council at-large.

And there is no compelling reason why Vancouver should remain an exception.

The At-large Election System Favours The City-Wide Political Machine

The almost always sunny Vancouver Point Grey neighbourhood, located in the western part of the city

There is another argument for wards that should not be ignored: money.

Running for one of 10 city-wide Council positions is enormously different from campaigning in a defined geographical constituency.

An at-large candidate must communicate with hundreds of thousands of voters across Vancouver. That requires money, organization, name recognition, volunteers and often the support of a political party or electoral slate.

A ward campaign would be different.

A candidate could concentrate on 50,000 or 60,000 residents rather than the entire city.

That opens the door to people who do not have the financial resources, political connections or city-wide name recognition required to mount an effective at-large campaign.

It could make civic politics more accessible to community activists, small-business owners, renters, neighbourhood advocates, younger candidates and people who have spent years working in their communities but have never contemplated a city-wide campaign.

In that respect, wards could actually democratize Vancouver politics.

Every Vancouver Councillor Must Have a Neighbourhood Constituency

Vancouver’s east side Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood, home to a thriving retail Commercial Drive

Critics of ward systems argue that Councillors should think about the entire city.

Of course they should.

A ward Councillor would still vote on the city budget, transportation policy, housing, policing, parks, taxation, climate policy and every other issue before Council.

But representing a ward does not mean abandoning the city.

It means bringing a particular community’s perspective into the debate.

Indeed, a Council composed of geographically accountable representatives could arguably produce better city-wide decisions, because Councillors would arrive at the table with a deeper understanding of the communities affected by those decisions.

Vancouver is not one homogeneous city.

The concerns of Downtown are not identical to those of Kerrisdale.

Killarney is not Kitsilano.

Marpole is not Mount Pleasant.

Renfrew-Collingwood is not the West End.

That diversity should be reflected in the composition of City Council.

Elect a Mayor At-Large + 10 Councillors Representing Wards Makes Sense

Osler Street in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, Vancouver’s richest and most well-heeled neighbourhood

Kareem Allam has not proposed simply drawing 10 arbitrary lines across Vancouver. His proposal is to establish a Citizens’ Assembly that would examine the question and make recommendations.

That is precisely the right approach.

The neighbourhood groupings suggested for discussion provide a starting point:

  • Hastings-Sunrise / Renfrew-Collingwood
  • Grandview-Woodland / Kensington-Cedar Cottage
  • Riley Park / Mount Pleasant
  • Chinatown / Strathcona / Downtown / West End
  • Fairview / Kitsilano
  • Point Grey / Dunbar-Southlands
  • Arbutus Ridge / Shaughnessy
  • South Cambie / Oakridge
  • Kerrisdale / Marpole
  • Sunset / Victoria-Fraserview / Killarney

These should not be treated as predetermined boundaries. Population equality, communities of interest, natural boundaries, transportation patterns, neighbourhood identities and future population growth would all have to be considered.

Toronto’s ward-boundary process, for example, explicitly considered population equality, communities of interest, neighbourhoods, history and physical or natural features.

That is precisely the kind of independent, evidence-based process Vancouver needs.

Creating a Citizens’ Assembly is Critical to Adopting a Ward System

Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood, incorporating towers, tennis courts, English Bay and Stanley Park

The beauty of Kareem Allam’s proposal is that he is not saying: Elect me and I will impose 10 wards.

He is saying: let Vancouverites study the question first.

That distinction matters.

A Citizens’ Assembly could hear from constitutional and municipal-government experts, community associations, Indigenous representatives, political scientists, former Councillors, election administrators and ordinary residents.

It could examine ward sizes, boundaries, the number of Councillors, campaign financing, representation of renters and homeowners, population growth and whether a hybrid system might work better than a pure ward system.

Then, in 2030, Vancouverites could decide.

That gives the proposal democratic legitimacy.

Electing  Vancouver’s Mayor Through The At-Large System Should Remain

Vancouver’s welcoming, family friendly east side Riley Park neighbourhood, bounded by 16th Avenue to the north, 41st Avenue to the south, Cambie Street to the west, and Fraser Street to the east

There is a strong argument for retaining a city-wide Mayor.

The Mayor is the one elected official whose mandate should encompass the entire city.

The Councillor’s job is different.

The Mayor should speak for Vancouver.

The Councillor should speak for Vancouver, and for their respective neighbourhoods.

That creates a healthy balance between city-wide leadership and local accountability.

It is already the model used in Edmonton and Ottawa, among other cities. Edmonton explicitly describes its system this way: the Mayor is elected by all Edmontonians, while Councillors are elected by voters in their individual wards.

Why shouldn’t Vancouver do the same?

Changing the Vancouver Charter: The Province Can Accommodate Wards

Vancouver’s east side Victoria-Fraserview neighbourhood, current home to ABC Councillor Mike Klassen and the love of his life, Stacey, Mike’s lovely bride, who together celebrated 28 years of marriage in July

There is an important misconception about this debate.

The Vancouver Charter already contemplates Councillors being elected on a neighbourhood-constituency basis.

Section 138 currently provides that Councillors are elected at-large unless Council adopts a by-law establishing neighbourhood constituencies. Such a by-law must receive approval from the Lieutenant Governor in Council before it can take effect.

In other words, the idea of geographically based representation is not foreign to Vancouver’s governing legislation.

The Province ultimately has the authority to approve the change.

The Vancouver Charter is provincial legislation, and the Province describes it as the statute that governs Vancouver’s structure, elections and principal municipal powers.

So, Kareem Allam’s proposal would ultimately require co-operation between Vancouver and Victoria.

That is entirely appropriate.

A Better, More Representative Democracy in Vancouver is Worth Pursuing

Dunbar, one of Vancouver’s oldest west side neighbourhoods, adjacent to the University of British Columbia

There is no electoral system that guarantees perfect representation.

Ward Councillors can become overly parochial. They can favour their own neighbourhood at the expense of the wider city. Boundary-drawing can become contentious. Population changes can make wards unequal unless boundaries are periodically reviewed.

These are arguments for designing a good ward system — not preserving a flawed one.

Toronto has undertaken independent ward reviews specifically because population growth can make some wards substantially larger than others.

Vancouver can learn from Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg and other municipalities.

The central question is remarkably simple:

When a Vancouver resident has a problem with City Hall, a citizen should be able to look at a map, identify their Councillor and say, “That’s my representative”?

The Sunset and Marpole neighbourhoods of Vancouver, the Sunset neighbourhood home to Vancouver’s thriving Indo-Canadian population, Marpole bounded by the Fraser River, British Columbia’s longest river, to the south

The answer should be yes.

For too long, Vancouver has treated city-wide elections as synonymous with democracy.

But democracy is not merely the ability to vote for 10 Councillors.

Democracy is also representation, accessibility, accountability and proximity.

A ward system would bring City Hall closer to the people it serves.

It would give neighbourhoods a recognizable voice.

It could lower the barriers to entering municipal politics.

It could make Councillors more accountable to their constituents.

And it could ensure when a resident knocks on the door of City Hall, there is a Councillor whose political responsibility begins with the community where s/he lives.

Kareem Allam is right to put the question on the table.

The final decision should not belong to Kareem Allam, COPE, OneCity, ABC, TEAM, Vote Vancouver, the Greens, the Vancouver Liberals or any other political organization.

The decision on whether to adopt a ward system must belong to Vancouver’s citizens.

Let the Citizens’ Assembly do its work. Let the experts and residents debate the alternatives. Draw fair and transparent boundaries. And then let Vancouverites vote.

If, in 2030, the people of Vancouver decide that they want Councillors who actually represent where they live, then the 2034 election should mark the beginning of a new era in Vancouver democracy.

The city should elect its Mayor at-large. But those of us who live in one of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods deserve Councillors of our own to represent our voices at City Hall.

#VanPoli | The Villages Plan | An Open Letter to Vancouver City Council

#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, City Development Planning, Housing, Politics, Vancouver, Vancouver Development, Vancouver Votes 2026, , , , , , , , , , ,

Open letter to Vancouver City Council on the “Villages Plan”
Patrick Condon, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia
UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Subject: Serious Concerns with Vancouver’s Villages Plan

Dear Mayor and Council,

I write to challenge key elements of Vancouver’s Villages Plan Programme.

Together with the recently approved Official Development Plan and Broadway Plan, the City is now granting private owners of more than 80,000 parcels the right to build roughly 700,000 new housing units.

This represents enough capacity to house an extra 1.4 million people — more than double Vancouver’s current population of 670,000.

At today’s 1% annual population growth rate, this single decision delivers over 100 years of future housing supply. Yet even the projects already in the approval pipeline (roughly 78,000 units) would satisfy 30 years of trend growth.

Contrary to this city’s long standing policies for new density approvals, this massive landowner entitlement is being provided free of charge, with no expectation of payment for these new land rights.

These land rights are worth many billions of dollars.

The City is giving them away for free in the hope that this will somehow make housing more affordable.

This is an odd notion for our planners to hold. If adding hundreds of thousands of new units to existing neighbourhoods truly lowered prices, Vancouver would have North America’s cheapest housing.

It has North America’s most expensive housing. (charts below)

It defies logic to expect an “unleashing of the housing market” — the primary justification provided for the Villages Plan — to produce affordable housing when we have spent decades trying to do just that. Vancouver has tripled its housing stock since the 1960s, all within a city where virtually every private parcel was in urban use. This is a higher percentage increase of infill development than that of any other North American centre city. If adding housing to existing city districts was the sure fire path to affordability we would have seen positive results by now.

Based on this evidence, it is clear: if affordability is the main justification for this plan, it obviously fails the test.

Massively over-zoning a city above reasonable expectations for population growth serves little purpose. The only purpose it serves is to support the false narrative that only “restrictive zoning” stands in the way of affordable housing. It doesn’t. It never has. It can’t.

The claim is false.

On the contrary, if any city proves that it is possible to use zoning as a positive public policy tool, it is the City of Vancouver. We tripled housing units city-wide. No other centre city did that — an unheard-of achievement.

While this sadly did not make the city more affordable, as we had hoped, it did make the city better. Much better.

How was this 200 percent growth accomplished? By working with residents, not against them. Community planning with local communities was the means to this achievement. Planning with communities was not an impediment, as some now claim. It was the democratic path to a better city.

But sadly it is now obvious that our decades-long effort to encourage the housing market, in the hope that housing would stay affordable, has failed us. Given this evidence, it seems foolish to upzone so aggressively, hoping against hope that, in 30 or 40 years, housing will be more affordable.

Achieving durable affordability much sooner than this requires a major change in direction. We don’t lack housing; we lack affordable housing. Given this fact, we should follow a path that other similar cities have charted — one where the bulk of new housing built is affordable to average wage earners. This can be done by reviving the Vancouver tradition of building non-market housing at scale, largely financed through “land lift” taxes as applied in Yaletown.

Our own internationally famous False Creek South serves as a storied precedent. Service workers to business owners have found homes in that lovely, self-sustaining community.

The pattern is obvious. Reuse it.

Unfortunately, the Villages Plan moves us in exactly the wrong direction. It virtually rules out any form of land value capture tax, based on the mistaken fear that it would raise home prices. It won’t — and it can’t.

A properly designed land-lift tax simply reduces the inflated “land price residual” that now funnels unearned speculative windfalls into private pockets. A properly designed “land lift” tax channels those gains into public benefit — without increasing the price buyers ultimately pay.

I urge you to revise these plans by deeply involving residents from every corner of the city in a highly collaborative, bottom-up, neighbourhood-focused planning process. One that might arrive at much stronger inclusionary zoning requirements.

The people of Vancouver would rally behind such plans — plans that ensure that their sons and daughters, and the workers who keep this city running, can afford to live in the very neighbourhoods they serve and call home.

Do not pass this plan.

Let us turn instead to plans that are sustainable in scale, equitable in outcome, and shaped not for the market alone, but for the people who live and work here.

Yours truly,

Professor Emeritus Patrick M. Condon
University of British Columbia

More voices weigh in on ABC Vancouver’s Villages Plan development proposal

Steve Jedreicich — principal of Vancouver’s SJ Development Ltd., brings over 30 years of local urban planning and real estate consulting experience to the housing discussion —  weighs in on ABC Vancouver’s contentious Villages Plan proposal.

WBN News Vancouver publisher Karalee Greer’s published article on the impact of the Villages Plan development proposal currently before Vancouver City Council, in particular its impact on Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. At present, well more than 1000 speakers are set to address the controversial Villages Plan proposal, in meetings that thus far have lasted well into the night at Council.

Randy Helten and Steve Bohus, the good, hard working, dedicated folks behind the informative CityHallWatch website offer a backgrounder on Vancouver’s Villages Plan proposal, suggesting the plan “was born in the USA.” CityHallWatch offers six more Villages Plan articles the site published in the months of June and July. Click on the multi-coloured links below to access the articles.

Yes, there are even more Villages Plan articles available to you.

As is his wont — and thank goodness for that — The Daily Hive’s well-respected, incredibly hard working urban affairs reporter Kenneth Chan, early in July, published a thorough and well-researched article on Vancouver’s Villages Plan proposal.

Well worth a read.

#SaveOurParkBoard | A Passionate, Reasoned, Well-Attended Town Hall

#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Environment, Food & Health, News, Park Board, Politics, , , , , ,

This past Thursday afternoon, Green Party of Vancouver City Councillors Pete Fry and Adriane Carr, and One City Vancouver Councillor Christine Boyle organized a spirited Town Hall — with more than 200 passionate, reasoned citizens in attendance, who oppose the elimination of an independent, elected Park Board — the event taking place in the Joe Wai Room, on the main floor of Vancouver City Hall.


Vancouver City Councillors, l-r:  the Green Party’s Pete Fry and Adriane Carr + OneCity Vancouver’s Christine Boyle

One of the most compelling speakers of the afternoon was Terri Clark, Vancouver Park Board’s Public Affairs Communications Manager from 1973 through 2008.

“In all my years at Park Board, our General Managers worked productively with Vancouver City Managers Fritz Bowers (1977-1990), Ken Dobell (1990-1998) and Judy Rogers (1999-2008). Ours was a relationship of mutual respect and co-operation.

Necessary funds were always provided by the City for the upkeep and maintenance of Vancouver’s parks, pools and community centres, in order to best serve the public interest.

               Photo credit: Elvira Lount
First row, above: l-r, Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby | John Coupar, former Park Board Chair | Tricia Barker, Commissioner, last term | Laura Christensen, current independent Commissioner; Bottom row, l-r. Michael Wiebe, former Commissioner, former City Councillor | Sarah Blyth, former two term Commissioner | Brennan Bastyovanszky, current independent Park Board Chair.

Recent maintenance problems at the Aquatic Centre or Kits Pool would never have been allowed to happen in Mr. Bowers’,  Dobell’s and Judy Rogers time as City Manager at Vancouver City Hall.

In September 2009, before Susan Mundick, Park Board’s General Manager (1998-2009), announced her “retirement“, City Manager Penny Ballem had stripped Ms. Mundick of all her duties, stating she would “help park board choose Ms. Mundick’s replacement”, a selection process City Hall had never previously been involved in.

If our pools and community centres are in disrepair today, as Mayor Sim has pointed out, such a circumstance arises from City Hall’s decision to cut Park Board out of any and all maintenance decisions, ceding those responsibilities to the City, which over the past dozen years has largely ignored the needs of what was once a world class parks and recreation system of which we were proud.”

Several past and current Park Board Commissioners addressed those who had gathered at City Hall last Thursday, including: Michael Wiebe, who spoke about the role of Park Board Commissioners in preserving the natural environment; past Park Board Chair, John Coupar, who addressed the role of Park Board in creating a livable city;  both Sarah Blyth and Tricia Barker reminded those present that “Ken Sim and his ABC Council were not given a mandate to abolish the Vancouver Park Board”; while formerly ABC Vancouver but now independent Park Board Commissioners Brennan Bastyovanszky, Scott Jensen and Laura Christensen committed to continuing their work in the community to preserve the invaluable 135-year legacy of an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board that serves the interests of all British Columbians and “those who visit our beautiful city”.

Several speakers referenced an article in The Vancouver Sun, written by Canadian gardening legend Brian Minter, who writes …

“The Vancouver Park Board maintains 242 parks that comprises 11% cent of Vancouver land. In addition, Park Board maintains 22 kilometres of seawall at Stanley Park, and walkways along False Creek. Park Board’s mandate includes 10 ocean beaches and a freshwater lake beach. Not only are they responsible for the city’s recreation programmes, services and community centres and facilities, park infrastructure comes under their jurisdiction.

In a time of significant climate change with the huge challenges of heat and drought, and the drive to expand green spaces, a high priority must be placed on the viability of parks. The importance of green spaces, the many proven benefits to both our health and wellness are well-documented, as our needs continue to grow.

The Vancouver Park Board is one of our region’s most important public assets and needs dedicated people and citizen engagement to ensure the long-term viability of  B.C.’s, and indeed, Canada’s, most spectacular green spaces, for generations to come.”

And then there’s the disposition of the 242 Vancouver’s parks, one hundred of which do not a have a protected park designation.


Former ABC, now independent PB Commissioners, l-r: Laura Christensen, Brennan Bastyovanszky, Scott Jensen

Perhaps the most articulate and moving participant in Thursday afternoon’s Town Hall was Laura Christensen’s month-old daughter, who cried throughout most of the proceeding, voicing the despair clearly felt by her mother — to whom Mayor Ken Sim had committed his support, when he asked her to run as a Park Board Commissioner on his ABC Vancouver slate — and the despair and frustration of those who had gathered together in common cause to, as one speaker, said “fight ABC’s undemocratic initiative to abolish our cherished, independent Park Board.”

#VanPoli | Meet Vancouver’s Next Mayor | Jody Wilson-Raybould

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

Vancouver’s next Mayor, Jody Wilson-Raybould, principled and a voice for our city, and our nation

The woman pictured above, former federal Liberal Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould — although something of a polarizing political figure, and although she has yet to announce her bid to become Vancouver’s next Mayor — come Saturday, October 15th, 2022 will become Vancouver’s 41st Mayor.

Possessed of great integrity — for which she is justly famous, and highly regarded — incredibly bright, accomplished, articulate and human in a way one rarely finds in the political realm, Jody Wilson-Raybould will likely announce her bid for the Mayor’s chair in early 2022, not out of any cynical calculation, but because Ms. Wilson-Raybould is a protector of our land, our city, and possessed of the kind of integrity that is all too rare in Vancouver politics — which is to say, she’s not involved in politics to enrich her bank account, or find herself beholden to developer interests — but honestly believes that she possesses the innate knowledge on the functioning of government and how best to achieve one’s policy goals, the heart, the humanity and the wit essential to emerge not just as the leader of our city, but a leader across our nation, as Vancouver’s necessary voice on the national stage.

VanRamblings believes that Ms. Wilson-Raybould will announce her candidacy for Mayor in the new year, following a series of meetings with the membership of the Coalition of Progressive Electors — represented by Jean Swanson on Council — and OneCity Vancouver, represented on Council by Christine Boyle.

Given that Ms. Wilson-Raybould is known for doing her homework, and given that affordable housing and human-scale development in Vancouver are key issues of concern for the voting electorate, Ms. Wilson-Raybould will also seek out the learned counsel of Patrick Condon, the James Taylor chair in Landscape and Livable Environments at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, among a host of other academics who care deeply for our city, including Simon Fraser University’s Andy Yan and Josh Gordon, and UBC’s Scot Hein, a highly-regarded former city planner.

Calgary’s new and first woman Mayor, Jyoti Gondek

Calgary’s new Mayor Jyoti Gondek — the first female Mayor in the city’s history, who on her way to victory, defeated 26 challengers to replace outgoing Mayor Naheed Nenshi; Montréal’s re-elected Mayor Valérie Plante, who defeated incumbent mayor Denis Coderre in 2017, trouncing him again last month.

In Nunavut, the Nunavut News stated a new trend had emerged in the territory of young women in politics, as 24-year-old Ningeolaa Killiktee was elected Mayor of Kimmirut, and Pam Gross as Mayor of Cambridge Bay. In the Northwest Territories, one media outlet stated that “Female candidates swept the municipal elections in the NWT,” and the CBC reported the victories of female Mayoral candidates in Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife.

Canadian feminist and Mayor of Ottawa, Charlotte Whitton, was the first woman Mayor of a major city in Canada, serving from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1964. Whitton was a Canadian social policy pioneer, leader and commentator, as well as a journalist and writer.

Janice Rhea Reimer became the first female Mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, serving in that capacity from 1989 until 1995. Saskatchewan Mayor Sandra Masters was sworn in as Regina’s 35th Mayor, after having swung to victory as the next year city’s first elected female Mayor, on November 23rd, 2020.

Kate Rogers elected as Mayor of Fredericton in 2020, the first woman to hold the position

Toronto Mayors June Rowland & Barbara Hall, Montréal’s Valérie Plante, Edmonton’s Janice Reimer, Regina’s Sandra Masters, Calgary’s Jyoti Gondek, Ottawa’s Charlotte Whitton, Cambridge Bay’s Pam Gross & Kimmirut’s Ningeolaa Killiktee, Halifax’s Moira Leiper Ducharme (1991-1994), Charlottetown’s M. Dorothy Corrigan, St. John’s Suzanne Duff, and Fredericton, New Brunswick’s current Mayor, Kate Rogers — all duly-elected Mayors of Canadian cities.

Whither Vancouver?

Every Mayor of Vancouver, from Malcolm A. MacLean in 1886, through until Kennedy Stewart today, have been white men of privilege more often than not elected to serve the monied interests of our city. Why is it that in 135 years, the good citizens of Vancouver have never seen fit to elect a woman as Mayor of our city, when almost every other city in Canada has seen fit do do so?

In all likelihood, Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick will throw her hat into the ring to become Vancouver’s next Mayor.

Rumour has it, too, that former Vision Vancouver Councillor Andrea Reimer is considering a bid to become Vancouver Mayor. VanRamblings’ sources have told us Coalition Vancouver’s Wai Young is set on running for office, as Mayor, in next year’s Vancouver civic election.

Andrea Reimer, former Vision Councillor (l); Adriane Carr, Green Party; Wai Young, Coalition Vancouver

The Green Party of Vancouver’s Adriane Carr is also reportedly considering a run for Vancouver’s top elected office next year.

And there remains to this day, the persistent rumour that current populist and well-schooled Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung may also run for office as Mayor in next year’s municipal election.

A surfeit of qualified women candidates for Mayor of Vancouver, any one of whom would well represent our city, should she be elected to the office of Mayor in the 2022 Vancouver civic election, only 321 short days from today.