Tag Archives: Mark Halyk

#VanPoli | VanRamblings Endorsement Ballot for Vancouver Park Board

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With Mayoralty candidate Kareem Allam and his Vancouver Liberals committed to opening the City’s Capital Expenditure funds — which has pretty much lain dormant for 18 years, through Capital Expenditure Budgets having been approved by voters in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 — Kareem has told VanRamblings that he requires a Vancouver Liberals team of Park Board Commissioners to implement the Vancouver Liberals commitment to:

    • Spend $1.35 billion to restore Vancouver’s crumbling community centre infrastructure;
    • Build community pools and / or water parks in each of Vancouver’s 23 neighbourhoods. Did you know that Vancouver has fewer pools per capita than every other large and medium size city in Canada? Montréal has 77 outdoor swimming pools, 95 wading pools and 150 water-play areas; while Toronto has 50 outdoor swimming pools, 127 wading pools and 263 water-play areas. Vancouver: only 5 seasonal municipal pools (Kitsilano, Second Beach, New Brighton, Maple Grove and Hillcrest), 24 wading pools across the city, and 14 water-play areas. A Vancouver Liberals’ Park Board — working with Vancouver City Council — means to more than double the number of seasonal and outdoors swimming pools, wading pools and water play areas.;
    • Restore Park Board funding. Did you know in 2008, when Vision Vancouver took power at City Hall, parks and recreation in the city accounted for 19.3% of the City’s budget? Today, Vancouver spends a paltry 7.9% of the City’s budget on maintaining our city’s parks, and well-frequented community and recreation centres, pools, hockey rinks and golf courses;
    • Build a new 50-metre pool, as well as a new aquatic centre in the coming term of office;
    • Build more hockey rinks, while restoring and renewing the hockey rink at the Britannia Community Centre.

All of the above is just for a start. For the first time in a generation, should you elect a Vancouver Liberals municipal administration at Vancouver City Hall.

  • More reasons to Vote for the 7 Candidates for Park Board Commissioner VanRamblings has included in our Park Board Endorsement Ballot. Each of the candidates listed above have long held a One Card.
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  • The One Card allows you to use any of the facilities in the 24 community centres across Vancouver.

We can tell you for a fact that Vancouver Liberals Park Board Commissioner candidates Mark Halyk, Shayla Bird, Scott Jensen, Amanda Bains, Amir Bajehkian and Tricia Barker make regular use of their One Card, and are regular and frequent visitors to their local community centre, for working out in the gym, going for a swim (or a skate), and attending a community meeting.

The same is true for Vancouver Park Board Commissioner candidate, TEAM’s Wah Gee!

In addition, many of the candidates listed above sit on the Board of Directors of their neighbourhood community centre, and have regularly attended Park Board meetings over the past years and many many times in recent months, leading up to their run for office — and, as a consequence, are acutely aware of the issues Park Board Commissioners must address. Not to mention, the 40 – 70 hours a week that being a Vancouver Park Board Commissioner requires of our electeds. They’re ready! Sacrifice is the order of the day.

Mark Halyk is a must-must-must-elect to the Vancouver Park Board.

After spending more than a decade working inside the Vancouver Park Board as a senior leader in Commercial Services, Mark brings something increasingly rare to civic politics: real operational experience and firsthand knowledge of how the system actually works.

He has seen the challenges facing Vancouver’s parks from the inside — aging infrastructure, budget pressures, growing service demands, and the increasing need to balance environmental stewardship with affordability and accessibility. He also knows what is possible when public services are supported by practical leadership, smart governance, and responsible financial management.

Mark is passionate about maintaining an independent and financially viable Park Board, while modernizing how it operates to better serve residents across Vancouver. He believes Vancouver can protect community assets while creating new, thoughtful revenue opportunities, reducing pressure on taxpayers while improving recreation services for families.

One of Mark’s proudest accomplishments during his tenure with the Park Board was helping transform the concession portfolio into a more financially sustainable model. Projects such as the partnership with Batch at Kitsilano Pool demonstrated how creative thinking and public-private partnerships can revitalize public spaces while generating meaningful revenue to support parks and recreation programming.

A proud Strathcona resident, Shayla brings expertise in community engagement, social impact, sport and recreation, and education.

Shayla is passionate about investing in and revitalizing recreational centres and green spaces that reflect the diverse needs of Vancouver communities, while bringing back fun, accessible, and affordable festivals that create opportunities for connection across the city.

In her professional life, Shayla is a local educator, founder of PLANher Consulting, and a public historian specializing in Black history in British Columbia. She has spent the last several years leading work across education, sport, and community development; including developing curriculresources for the British Columbia Ministry of Education and Child Care, creating educational experiences connected to Hogan’s Alley history, advising organizations on equity and community engagement

Scott Jensen is a sitting Park Board Commissioner, and is seeking re-election with the Vancouver Liberals. When first elected in 2022, Scott became Chair of the Park Board, making him the first ever Indigenous chair. With his leadership and dedication, the Park Board has been able to implement 90% of the infrastructure plan, which includes two new community centres coming to Vancouver.

Throughout his career, Scott has been committed to building community, and supporting Vancouver as a teacher, a leader, and now as an elected official.

Scott is a proud third grade teacher with the Vancouver School Board at Lord Robert’s Elementary School. He is also a lifelong, passionate lacrosse player. As an Indigenous person, Scott sees lacrosse as the medicine game. It is a way to connect with community, to sport, and with your teammates. As a teacher, as a lacrosse player, and a devoted Vancouverite, Scott is committed to giving back to the spaces where we get to make those meaningful connections — our parks and recreation facilities.

Scott knows that Vancouver’s parks are integral green spaces, but they’re also so much more. They’re gathering places for families, for our communities, for seniors, our kids. With Scott’s leadership, they can remain places where generations to come will continue to improve their health and well-being, and connect with each other in community.

Scott Jensen is a must-must-must-elect to the Vancouver Park Board.

Amanda Bains is seeking election for Vancouver Park Board Commissioner as part of the Vancouver Liberals team. She wants to bring the perspective of a community leader to the Park Board to strengthen Vancouver’s social fabric and protect the spaces that are the most important to us.

Amanda is a fighter, and as a Park Board Commissioner will fight for you and your family, working with Vancouver City Council where she will fight for restored funding to Park Board, and is committed to ensuring that Vancouver’s increasingly dilapidated community centres are renewed, repaired and renovated.

Amanda is committed to ensuring that seasonal and community pools are constructed in every neighbourhood, committed to the provision of outdoor swimming pools, wading pools and water-play areas in every neighbourhood across our city.

Amir Bajehkian is seeking election for Park Board Commissioner as part of the Vancouver Liberals team. Amir will employ his experience in advocacy at all levels of government, and in community engagement of New Canadians, to ensure our parks and facilities flourish for existing and future residents.

Amir grew up in Iran, often wondering how he could make a difference. Amir moved to Canada after beginning studies in aerospace engineering in Iran and completed his education here in physics, mechanical systems, and aircraft maintenance engineering. Amir’s career led him to work at YVR in various capacities including ramp agent, aircraft maintenance, and finally, as a flight data analyst, where he monitored helicopter flights for operational safety.

Amir’s community activism revolves around facilitating international credential recognition, human rights, election engagement, referendum campaigns, and bringing Farsi as a second language option to British Columbia’s schools.

Amir is running for Park Board Commissioner with the Vancouver Liberals because he believes our parks and recreation facilities are main hubs for people to connect with nature and their fellow Vancouverites. They enhance the lives of our residents and cannot be an afterthought for our municipal government. Amir is an ardent supporter of the Vancouver Liberals’ $1.35B plan to renew our community centres, parks, and pools as they need to be vibrant and usable for generations to come following years of neglect.

Amir also wants to protect the independence of the Park Board, to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity so that it functions properly as a democratically elected body.

Tricia Barker is seeking re-election for Park Board Commissioner as part of the Vancouver Liberals team. A core reason for Tricia’s candidacy is to be a voice and an advocate for seniors and people with disabilities (which categories VanRamblings currently finds ourselves in — and boy oh boy, can we tell you we need Tricia Barker to advocate for us, and for every other senior who uses our parks and recreation system).

In 2018, Tricia was elected as a Park Board Commissioner for the City of Vancouver where she worked to ensure that Vancouver’s parks were accessible to all, especially the elderly and vulnerable communities that she worked with as a healthcare practitioner. Tricia continues to work in fitness training and consulting to this day.

Quite simply, Wah Gee is one of our favourite people who live in the City of Vancouver. For months, Wah and a group of friends, each Sunday, went for a delicious and sumptuous dim sum lunch after church. Wah was always a favourite around the table.

Wah believes that essential to the livability of a city are safe, inclusive parks, streets, and community recreation facilities that are welcoming to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Wah is committed to the restoration commitment made by Vancouver Liberals Mayoral candidate, Kareem Allam, and will work with his fellow Park Board Commissioners to ensure funding is restored to Park Board, ensure that community pools are built in every neighbourhood across our city, and the Vancouver’s community centres — adjudicated last year by Vancouver’s Auditor General, Mike Macdonell that 11 community centres are in a severe state of disrepair, and require the immediate attention of Park Board Commissioners, and the elected officials at Vancouver City Hall.

Wah has undergraduate degrees in marine biology and elementary education, and a Master’s degree in educational leadership and administration, all from the University of British Columbia. Wah teaches in the Surrey school district, where he is active coaching and sponsoring extracurricular activities, and is an Indigenous Lead Teacher. Wah also holds staff and union leadership positions in the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation.

#VanPoli | Kareem Allam | Unifying Vancouver

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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.

 

#VanPoli | Mark Halyk for Park Board Commissioner | Vancouver Liberals

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Mark Halyk, a former Vancouver Park Board manager responsible for / transforming the concessions operated by the Board of Parks and Recreation, is running for the position of Vancouver Park Board Commissioner with the Vancouver Liberals.

 After spending more than a decade working inside the Vancouver Park Board as a senior leader in Commercial Services, Mark brings something increasingly rare to civic politics: real operational experience and firsthand knowledge of how the system actually works.

One of Mark’s proudest accomplishments during his tenure with Park Board was helping transform the concessions into a more financially sustainable model. Projects such as the partnership with Batch at Kitsilano Pool demonstrated how creative thinking and responsible public-private partnerships can revitalize public spaces while generating meaningful revenue to support parks and recreation programming.

Batch at Kitsilano Pool, the licensed Kits Beach concession stand, joint and patio — featuring great food

Mark — the must-elect candidate for Park Board in the 2026 Vancouver municipal election — believes that Vancouver’s Park Board can be both fiscally responsible and community-focused — a recreation and parks system in Vancouver that maintains pools, fields, community centres, and green spaces, while ensuring families in every neighbourhood across our city has access to modern, affordable recreation. Vancouver’s iconic amenities, including beloved destinations like Kitsilano Pool, deserve practical long-term planning that balances fiscal responsibility, climate resilience, and community access.

Today, VanRamblings features a ‘Hey Dad’ video, filmed by Mark’s young son — as you’ll see, an up-and-coming Spielbergian master of the cinematic arts — which will provide you with insight into the issues of concern to the must-elect Vancouver Liberals candidate for Vancouver Park Board, the entirely tremendous Mark Halyk.

As a follow-up to what Mark Halyk has to say above, in Wednesday’s VanRamblings post we will publish an indictment of current Mayor Ken Sim, and each of the civic administrations that have formed municipal government in Vancouver dating back to 2008, as each successive Mayor and Council has utterly failed to provide Vancouver’s parks, gardens, arboretum, swimming pools, hockey rinks, community centres, playing fields and community recreation facilities with the necessary sustained investment they require to function properly and in the interests of those of us who live in one of the twenty-three, diverse neighbourhood communities, who elect Vancouver’s next Mayor and Council each election cycle.

Mayoral Candidate Kareem Allam’s Bid to Rebuild Vancouver’s Social Fabric

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Kareem Allam, 47, Vancouver Liberals’ Mayoral candidate  | Photo credit: Katie Hyslop, The Tyee

For over two decades, Kareem Allam has been the man behind the curtain in Canadian politics.

Kareem is a self-described “policy nerd” and a master campaign strategist who has navigated the highest corridors of municipal, provincial, and federal power.

Yet, for all his time spent steering others to victory, in 2026 Kareem Allam has stepped out from the shadows of backroom strategy to mount his own campaign.

As the founder, leader, and Mayoral candidate for the newly formed municipal party, the Vancouver Liberals, Kareem Allam is running a well-funded, high-stakes campaign to unseat Mayor Ken Sim, in the October 2026 civic election.

Kareem Allam’s transition from kingmaker to candidate marks a massive shift in Vancouver’s civic landscape.

In 2022, Kareem Allam was the mastermind who successfully guided Ken Sim and the ABC Vancouver party to a historic sweep of City Hall, the Park Board, and the School Board. After steering ABC Vancouver to a sweeping majority at all three levels of civic government, he served briefly as Mayor Sim’s Chief of Staff before a highly publicized falling-out led to his departure in February 2023.

@jessforvancouverWe are still in a housing crisis – but we have a real solution to get Vancouver out of crisis mode. #vanpoli @vancouverliberals♬ original sound – jessforvancouver


Now, disillusioned by what he views as a broken social contract and a deeply divided city, Kareem Allam has built a political vehicle of his own.

With a platform focused on a massive infrastructure injection, an aggressive front line service plan, and a return to consensus-driven, big-tent governance, Kareem Allam aims to execute an activist civic agenda not seen since the 1970s.

Upbringing, Roots, and the Great Canadian Social Contract

To understand Kareem Allam’s political philosophy, one must look to his family history, which he frequently cites as the bedrock of his world view.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Richmond, Kareem is the son of an Egyptian colonel — who spent 11 months as an Israeli prisoner of war — and a Sudanese mother whose family was expropriated during a revolution. His mother spent two grueling years living in a refugee camp in Lebanon before arriving in Canada.

Though his father, Mahmoud Allam, would eventually return to Egypt to manage the Al Ahly football club, the family’s formative years in the Lower Mainland left an indelible mark on Kareem.

Speaking with reporter Katie Hyslop for an extensive feature profile in The Tyee, Kareem Allam reflected on how Vancouver served as a safe harbour where his family could heal, plant roots, and ultimately thrive:

“My family history defines a lot of how I perceive this place… [Vancouver] was a welcoming place, a place of refuge and a place where they were able to thrive, raise their children. It wasn’t always prosperous. But over the arc of time, the family has done well.”

This personal history forged Allam’s deep belief in what he terms the “great Canadian social contract” — the idea that a booming economy must directly fund world-class social programming, and that each generation bears a strict responsibility to build winning conditions for the next.

Kareem Allam’s formal education took him away from the West Coast for high school and graduate studies, including a stint in Ottawa where he cut his political teeth working on Parliament Hill for the federal Canadian Alliance party.

But the pull of Vancouver was permanent.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kareem Allam (@kareemformayor)

Outside of politics, his career spanned public, private, and non-profit sectors. He served as the Director of Public Policy for the Vancouver Board of Trade, sat on the Fraser Health Authority’s Board of Directors, worked with major energy corporations like TransCanada and FortisBC, and served on the TransLink screening panel and the College of Massage Therapists of B.C.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kareem Allam (@kareemformayor)

Professionally, his primary focus for the last two decades has been as a partner at Richardson Strategy Group (formerly Richardson Strategies), working closely alongside prominent Indigenous leaders like Haida nation leader Miles Richardson on complex title, rights, and economic development negotiations.

The Campaign Veteran: 40 Races and the Road to Kingmaker

Before launching his own mayoral bid, Kareem Allam compiled a legendary résumé as a political strategist, managing or advising on roughly 40 political campaigns across the ideological spectrum.


Kareem specializes in taking complex policy ideas and distilling them into simple, powerful promises that resonate with everyday voters.

His track record as a backroom general is elite:

  • The 2005 Surrey Municipal Race: He helped guide Dianne Watts to an upset victory as Mayor of Surrey, reshaping the politics of BC’s fastest-growing city;
  • Federal Conservative Leadership (2020): Kareem Allam played a critical role in successfully securing the federal Conservative Party leadership for Erin O’Toole, navigating a complex, multi-ballot ranked voting system.;
  • Provincial BC Liberal Leadership (2022): He served as the campaign manager who secured the leadership of the provincial Liberal party (later renamed BC United) for Kevin Falcon;
  • ABC Vancouver Municipal Sweep (2022): In his most (in)famous local victory, Mr. Allam masterminded Ken Sim’s mayoral campaign. He engineered the easily digestible pledge to hire “100 police officers and 100 nurses,” a message that fundamentally shifted public safety discourse and handed ABC a total majority.

However, Kareem Allam’s political alignment experienced a dramatic shift.

In the 2024 British Columbia provincial election, the lifelong conservative strategist publicly broke ranks to endorse and re-organize and energize the BC NDP campaign — steering the party and their moribund campaign for re-election, from an almost certain defeat to majority status — stating to The Tyee’s Katie Hyslop that the modern center-right movement had abandoned its traditional values of climate action, reconciliation, and social cohesion, veering instead toward populism.

“I’m not sure that I left the center-right movement,” Kareem Allam observed. “I think the center-right movement left me.”

The Vancouver Liberals and the Fight for a Council Majority

The Vancouver Liberal Electors Association — commonly known as the Vancouver Liberals  — was officially founded on July 3, 2025. The Vancouver Liberals are a strictly municipal political party, entirely independent of both the federal Liberal Party of Canada and the former provincial B.C. Liberals.

Kareem Allam’s strategy for the 2026 election hinges on building a true coalition party that rejects extreme polarization. He has intentionally recruited high-profile candidates from across the political spectrum to build a team capable of seizing a majority on the 11-member Vancouver City Council.

Vancouver Liberals 2026 Civic Team (Key Figures)

├── Mayoral Candidate: Kareem Allam

City Council Candidates:

Dr. Moira Stilwell, a Vancouver Liberals Council candidate, one of VanRamblings two favourites in 2026

│ ├── Dr. Moira Stilwell (Physician; former B.C. provincial cabinet minister)
│ ├── Jessica Walton (Front line government worker, socialist, NDP stalwart)
│ ├── Michael Wu (30-year entrepreneur & former RCMP Auxiliary Constable)
│ ├── Devin Clemens (UBC Graduate Programs Manager, School of Economics)
│ └── Armor Valor (South Vancouver community advocate, front line worker)
│ ├── Victoria Jung (current Vancouver School Board Chair)

└── Park Board Candidates:

Shayla Bird, Vancouver Liberals candidate for Vancouver Park Board

├── Brennan Bastyovanszky (Sitting Park Board Commissioner)
├── Scott Jensen (Sitting Park Board Commissioner; first Indigenous Chair)
├── Mark Halyk (transformed Park Boards concession services for the better)
└── Shayla Bird (Educator, consultant, Black public Historian)

By bringing over sitting heavyweights like Victoria Jung, Scott Jensen, and Brennan Bastyovanszky — who actively opposed Ken Sim’s efforts to dismantle the democratically elected Park Board — Kareem Allam has positioned the Vancouver Liberals as protectors of civic democracy and neighbourhood infrastructure.

The Mayoral Platform: From Infrastructure to Pest Control

Kareem Allam’s platform represents a highly activist approach to municipal government. Rather than scaling back, Kareem proposes using the city’s financial levers to aggressively address long-ignored public deficits.

Service to the People of Vancouver: Rebuilding Civic Infrastructure

The centre-left anchor of Kareem Allam’s platform is a monumental $1.35 billion capital fund commitment aimed at thoroughly renovating 11 Vancouver community centres.

These facilities were explicitly flagged by City Auditor General Mike McDonnell as being in an advanced state of disrepair. Kareem Allam argues that by neglecting neighbourhood pools, libraries, and community hubs, the current administration is eroding the literal spaces where social cohesion is formed.

As part of this infrastructure push, Kareem Allam has rejected “half-measures,” pledging to build brand-new hockey rinks and aquatic facilities — headlined by a premium 50-meter Olympic-standard swimming pool designed to train future Canadian athletes, rather than standard 25-meter alternatives.

Ridding Vancouver of Rats That Are Infecting Every Neighbourhood

 

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On the public works front, Kareem Allam has targeted a quality-of-life crisis that many politicians avoid: the city’s exploding rodent population.

With regional data frequently placing Vancouver among the most rat-infested cities in Canada, Kareem Allam has made a firm mayoral commitment to implement coordinated, science-based eradication strategies across all city neighborhoods, treating pest control as a core public health responsibility of City Hall.

Core Policy Positions: Decentralization, Compassion, and Anti-Laundering

 

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Kareem Allam has carved out distinct, highly detailed policy positions on the most polarizing crises facing Vancouver today:

Homelessness and the Downtown Eastside (DTES)

Kareem Allam has been a vocal critic of the encampment clearances on East Hastings Street executed by the current administration.

In an interview with CBC, Kareem Allam publicly apologized for his own past role as Chief of Staff during the early stages of those policy discussions, noting that the final execution violated a fundamental commitment to not decamp vulnerable residents without providing adequate, permanent housing.

 

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Kareem Allam argues that forced decampments simply push the crisis into surrounding neighborhoods and sever the vital connections between unhoused individuals and healthcare workers. His strategy shifts away from displacement, focusing instead on collaborating with non-profits and utilizing surplus city land to build supportive housing networks.

Mr. Allam’s deep ties to the front lines are underscored by his volunteer work on the Board of the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) in the Downtown Eastside.

Countering Our City’s Food Security Crisis | Kareem’s Civic Food Strategy

 

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To counter the food security crisis, Kareem Allam has proposed a municipal food strategy modeled directly after the UBC Food Hub.

Rather than using taxpayer funds to purchase commercial grocery stores, Kareem Allam’s plan involves donating unused city buildings and surplus municipal land to non-profit organizations to distribute low-cost, high-quality groceries directly into underserved communities.

Crypto, Bitcoin, and Money Laundering

Kareem Allam has positioned the Vancouver Liberals firmly against alternative financial systems that complicate public safety.

Labeling money laundering as the financial engine of international drug cartels operating out of luxury downtown penthouses, Kareem Allam’s platform includes an outright ban on Bitcoin ATMs across Vancouver.

His policy pledges to gradually eliminate unchecked private currency exchanges and actively replace predatory payday loan shops with trusted, community-focused institutions like Pigeon Park Savings.

Furthermore, Kareem Allam has explicitly mocked what he terms “ridiculous, tech-bro ideas” championed by political opponents, such as attempting to heat public swimming pools using commercial Bitcoin servers, arguing that public spaces must remain focused entirely on community utility.

Prose Poetry: A Fit for Activist Office | The Architect of Change

To look upon Kareem Allam is to see a man forged in the crucible of institutional statecraft, an operative whose life has been an extended masterclass in the levers, gears, and quiet pulleys of Canadian governance.

Kareem Allam does not approach City Hall as a starry-eyed idealist or a corporate outsider fluent only in the language of balance sheets; he arrives as an architect who knows exactly where the foundational pillars are buried.

His decades spent navigating the fierce currents of federal ministries, provincial cabinets, and complex Indigenous title negotiations have granted him a rare, battle-tested wisdom. He understands a city is not a business to be managed down to the lowest dividend, but a profound, living trust that must be fiercely protected.

Should Kareem Allam emerge as Mayor on the evening of October 17th, Vancouver will witness its most radical, activist executive since Art Phillips and the TEAM movement revolutionized local politics in the 1970s.

Like Art Phillips — who created the south False Creek neighbourhood of co-operative and social housing, watefront parks and pedestrian pathways; introduced neighbourhood planning and advisory committees, public consultation, and community involvement in major planning decisions; protected parks and public waterfronts; restructured municipal governance by making elected officials — not unelected administrators—the primary drivers of policy, Kareem Allam possesses the rare, panoramic vision required to build a grand coalition from a fractured electorate, drawing voices from the left, the right, and the forgotten centre into a unified civic project.

Kareem Allam is the only Mayoral candidate in the current Vancouver civic election, who recognizes that true strength lies not in top-down edicts or institutional closures, but in rebuilding the public squares — the community centres, the Olympic pools, the local libraries — where citizens of every race, age, and economic station cross paths and recognize their shared humanity.

Kareem Allam stands uniquely equipped to wield the power of City Hall as an instrument of profound social repair.

Kareem Allam is a leader who wakes up hungry for the complex, grinding work of structural reform, ready to deploy a billion-dollar capital fund with the precise, sweeping ambition of a true city-builder.

In an era defined by division and retreat, Kareem Allam’s Mayoral bid represents an audacious return to bold, interventionist municipal leadership — a promise to restore the fracturing social contract and ensure that Vancouver remains, above all else, a sanctuary where future generations can truly belong.

For the remainder of the summer through until Labour Day, VanRamblings will publish Mondays and Thursdays only — unless there is breaking news demanding our attention — and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on an occasional basis.

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