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#VanPoli | The Election is Over | Meet Vancouver’s Next Mayor: Kareem Allam

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

There are moments in the political life of a city when an election becomes about more than choosing a Mayor.

October 17, 2026, is one of those moments.

Vancouver is not simply deciding whether to give Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver another four years. Vancouver is deciding what kind of city it wants to become — and, more importantly, who the city is actually going to work for.

For the past four years, City Hall has too often appeared preoccupied with grand announcements, expensive projects, political theatre and the interests of the well-connected while the everyday infrastructure of neighbourhood life has deteriorated.

Libraries have faced cuts. Community facilities are aging. Swimming pools are disappearing. Parking meters have appeared around community amenities. Families are struggling with the cost of living. Seniors are wondering where affordable recreation opportunities are going to come from. Young people increasingly question whether they can afford to remain in the city in which they grew up.

Kareem Allam, Vancouver Liberals | The next Mayor of Vancouver

Into that vacuum comes Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals.

There  is a compelling case to be made that Kareem Allam could become Vancouver’s most progressive Mayor in more than half a century.

Not because he comes from the traditional left.

Not because he comes from the traditional right.

But precisely because he doesn’t fit neatly into either category.

Kareem Allam’s political proposition is something Vancouver has desperately needed: a government organized around people rather than ideology.

The Vancouver Liberals’ stated goal is refreshingly straightforward: create a Vancouver where young people can stay, work, build a career and raise a family. Their platform combines affordability, public investment, stronger frontline services, parks and recreation, public safety, accountability and neighbourhood infrastructure.

That is progressive municipal government in its most practical form.

Kareem Allam: The Vancouver Mayor Who Will Get To Work on Day One

For Vancouver voters looking for a Mayor who can begin governing on the morning after the 2026 civic election, rather than spending the first year learning how City Hall works, Kareem Allam presents a compelling case.

The Vancouver Liberals’ Mayoral candidate is not simply a political newcomer with an attractive platform. He is a lifelong Vancouverite who has spent more than 25 years working in and around municipal, provincial and federal government, public policy, Indigenous relations, health care, transportation and infrastructure.

Kareem’s career has given him something that is extraordinarily rare among candidates for municipal office: an understanding of government not merely from the outside, but from inside the machinery of government itself.

Kareem Allam is not entering Vancouver’s 2026 Mayoral race as a political novice. Far from it. Kareem has worked for elected politicians, inside government, in public institutions, on political campaigns and, critically, inside Vancouver’s Mayor’s office itself.

There is no other Mayoral candidate in 2026 who can match his breadth of experience.

Over his 25-year professional life, Kareem Allam has worked in government relations and public affairs, holding positions involving consequential policy areas facing British Columbia: energy, health care, transportation, infrastructure and Indigenous relations.

Kareem Allam worked with the Fraser Health Authority. He served on public and advisory boards. He became Director of Public Policy at the Vancouver Board of Trade. He developed extensive relationships with First Nations and worked on Indigenous economic-development issues.

Vancouver Magazine placed Kareem Allam among British Columbia’s 50 most powerful people, recognizing him as one of the province’s most sought-after political minds.

A Mayor must understand municipal bureaucracy, the Vancouver Charter, budgeting, procurement, zoning, permitting, capital budgets, collective agreements, infrastructure financing, development approvals, labour relations, intergovernmental negotiations, civic infrastructure, regional government, provincial jurisdiction and the relationship between elected officials and the professional bureaucracy.

Kareem Allam has spent his entire professional career learning precisely those systems.

Indeed, it is difficult to identify another 2026 Mayoral candidate who has worked so extensively across the federal, provincial and municipal spheres while also gaining experience inside Vancouver’s own Mayoral office. His career has included government-relations positions, senior policy work, public boards and direct municipal executive experience. He has served on the TransLink screening panel, and other public and advisory bodies. He currently serves on advisory bodies associated with the University of Victoria and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

The Mayor of the City of Vanncouver has to interact with Metro Vancouver.

With TransLink.

With the provincial government.

With Ottawa.

With developers.

With unions.

With neighbourhoods.

With First Nations.

With a bureaucracy employing thousands of people.

And then the Mayor has to get 10 Councillors to agree on what should actually happen.

This is not theory. It is governing.

And Kareem Allam has spent decades learning how to do it.

Kareem Allam’s political career is unusual because he has worked across ideological and partisan boundaries. Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, civic politicians, business leaders, public servants and Indigenous governments have all been part of his professional world.

It means Kareem Allam understands that government is not about finding people who agree with you.

It is about finding a way to get things done among people who don’t.

Former B.C. cabinet minister Michelle Mungall has joined his campaign as an honourary co-chair, while Arminder Randhawa, a former B.C. NDP executive member and former Vancouver Board of Variance member, has described Kareem Allam as a thoughtful and pragmatic leader who brings people together.

Those are precisely the qualities Vancouver should be looking for.

Vancouver doesn’t need a Mayor who believes governing means announcing initiatives.

Vancouver needs a Mayor who understands implementation.

Consider housing.

Kareem Allam’s approach is revealing. Rather than simply promising to build more housing, he has focused on the regulatory machinery that determines whether housing actually gets built — including municipal permitting, building codes and bureaucratic duplication.

That is the language of someone who understands government.

The problem isn’t always that government doesn’t know what Vancouver needs.

The problem is that government often makes it extraordinarily difficult to deliver it.

Kareem Allam knows where the levers are.

He knows which government controls which lever.

He knows who has to be at the table.

And, having spent years dealing with senior governments, he knows how to pick up the telephone and get the right people on the other end.

Imagine a Mayor walking into City Hall on the first day of his administration already familiar with the bureaucracy, already understanding municipal government, already possessing relationships with provincial and federal officials, already knowing the political terrain and already having spent time inside the Mayor’s office.

That is a fundamentally different proposition from electing someone who will spend the first year learning the job.

The choice facing Vancouver voters is larger than a choice between political parties.

It is a choice between experience and apprenticeship.

Between knowing what government should do and knowing how to get things done.

Between another four years of political theatre and the possibility of a Mayor who can walk into the Mayor’s office on Day One and immediately begin governing.

Vancouver voters can rest assured that Kareem Allam understands the machinery required to turn an idea into policy, policy into a decision, and a decision into something residents can actually see, touch and use.

After the experience of the past four years, that distinction should matter enormously.

Kareem Allam may not be the loudest candidate in the 2026 Vancouver Mayoral race.

He may not be the candidate with the largest political organization.

But he may very well be the best-informed.

And when the doors of City Hall open on the morning after October 17, Vancouver doesn’t need another Mayor learning how to govern.

We need someone who already knows how.

An Affordability Agenda That Actually Reaches People’s Daily Lives

Of all the Mayoral campaigns seeking Vancouver’s vote, Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals have put forward one of the most comprehensive affordability agendas.

Consider something as mundane — and as revealing — as parking.

The Vancouver Liberals would remove parking meters in front of beaches and community centres throughout Vancouver within their first year in office.

That may sound like a small issue.

It isn’t.

For a senior taking a child to a community centre, a parent bringing children to a neighbourhood programme, a family visiting the beach, or someone using a recreation facility because they cannot afford a private gym, another municipal fee can be the difference between participating and staying home.

Public spaces should actually feel public.

Vancouver’s parks and beaches are, for hundreds of thousands of residents, the closest thing they have to a backyard. They are playgrounds, fitness centres, meeting places, swimming areas, outdoor classrooms and places of refuge.

They should not be treated as revenue opportunities.

That philosophy runs through the Vancouver Liberals agenda.

Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals are proposing an historic $1.35 billion investment in parks, recreation, pools and community infrastructure, accompanied by 400 new unionized frontline workers. The party explicitly argues that investing in parks, libraries and community spaces is part of creating safer neighbourhoods.

This is an important departure from the simplistic notion that public safety begins and ends with policing.

Of course Vancouver needs police.

But a child who has a safe place to play, a teenager who has somewhere to go after school, a senior who has an affordable fitness programme, a family with a functioning community and recreation centre nearby, and a neighbourhood with a well-maintained park with facilities in the park are all components of a safer city.

Community infrastructure is crime prevention infrastructure.

Fix The Community Centres — And Stop Governing Through Neglect

The Auditor General has already identified a serious problem.

A 2025 audit by Vancouver’s auditor general, Mike Macdonnell, found that Vancouver’s 46 recreation facilities face an infrastructure funding deficit of approximately $33 million a year, with many building systems already extended beyond their intended useful life.

That is not an abstract accounting problem.

It is what happens when a city delays maintenance until maintenance becomes reconstruction.

Kareem Allam understands this.

The Vancouver Liberals are proposing major investment in community centres, pools and parks rather than allowing these facilities to continue deteriorating. Kareem Allam has argued that failing to invest in capital infrastructure actually drives up operating costs because aging buildings become more expensive to maintain.

That is precisely the kind of municipal economics Vancouver needs.

Spend money where it makes people’s lives better.

Repair what is broken.

Build what communities need.

And stop confusing expensive government with effective government.

Vancouver Needs Community Pools — Not Smaller Ambitions

Perhaps nowhere is the difference between the Vancouver Liberals vision and the ABC vision more obvious than swimming pools.

The Vancouver Liberals have committed to a 50-metre pool, rather than accepting a 25-metre replacement for the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. Their platform argues that Vancouver already has among the lowest levels of public swimming-pool provision per capita in Canada.

Why should Vancouver settle for less?

A city of more than 600,000 people should be building recreation infrastructure for the next generation, not shrinking its ambitions to fit yesterday’s budget.

Kareem Allam’s agenda also envisions additional neighbourhood pools and water facilities, including a long-overdue community pool in Mount Pleasant.

This is what a “programme for the people” actually looks like.

It looks like children learning to swim.

It looks like seniors exercising.

It looks like families having somewhere affordable to spend an afternoon.

It looks like hockey rinks, libraries, community centres and parks that are maintained, accessible and welcoming.

It looks remarkably like the kind of people-centred municipal agenda that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has brought to the international political conversation.

Save the Park Board, Restore the Park Board, Fund the Park Board

The Vancouver Liberals unapologetically defend Vancouver’s elected Park Board.

They argue that Vancouver needs a strong, independent and properly funded Park Board — not its elimination.

That is about more than institutional nostalgia.

The Park Board represents an important democratic principle: Vancouver’s parks belong to Vancouverites.

Restoring stable funding for parks and recreation means acknowledging that these services are not luxuries.

They are municipal necessities.

And the $1.35-billion Vancouver Liberals commitment would give the city an opportunity to address the accumulated infrastructure deficit while creating better parks, pools, community centres and recreational opportunities across all 23 neighbourhoods.

Finish What Vancouver Civic Governments Have Already Promised

A re-imagined Marpole Community Centre approved in a 2008 Capital Expenditure referendum. Not complete more than 18 years later. Only the Vancouver Liberals will complete the project.

There is another essential principle here: if government makes a commitment to a neighbourhood, government should keep it.

The long-planned renewal of the Marpole Community Centre is finally under construction, with completion expected early to mid 2027. The project will provide a renewed centre, childcare, a field house and new outdoor amenities.

But Vancouver’s broader history is filled with promises that have taken far too long to become reality.

A Vancouver Liberals administration would adopt a rule:

No more indefinite delays.

Where projects have been approved, promised or negotiated — as they were when voters went to the polls to approve the proposed Capital Expenditure budget, in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 — residents deserve a clear timetable, transparent financing and a government prepared to get the work done.

That includes ensuring that the community amenities associated with major developments actually materialize.

At Oakridge Park, QuadReal and Westbank are responsible for a major redevelopment that includes a community centre, library, performance area and childcare.

At River District, Wesgroup’s long-term plan includes a community centre as an important public amenity.

A government led by Kareem Allam would insist developers honour those commitments.

That is not anti-development.

It is pro-community development.

Food Security is Affordability, and Necessary in the City of Vancouver

Perhaps one of the most innovative elements of the Vancouver Liberals agenda is the proposed Food Hub Programme.

As VanRamblings has previously reported, Kareem Allam’s food-security vision draws inspiration from the University of British Columbia’s Community Food Hub, where the Food Hub Market operates as a not-for-profit community space offering affordable groceries and culturally diverse foods.

The concept is deceptively simple.

Use public resources and partnerships to make nutritious food more affordable.

Create neighbourhood-based food hubs.

Connect residents with community organizations.

Make food security part of a civic affordability policy rather than treating hunger exclusively as a charitable problem.

That matters because food insecurity is not confined to people without jobs.

It increasingly affects working families, students, seniors and people whose incomes simply cannot keep pace with Vancouver’s extraordinary cost of living.

Food security is affordability.

And affordability is the defining municipal issue of 2026.

A Vancouver Liberal Commitment: Taxes People Can Actually Afford 

Kareem Allam has committed to limiting annual property-tax increases 3.8%, or less, per year.

That is an important commitment because Vancouver citizens deserve predictability.

Under Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver, the Vancouver Liberals point out, property taxes have risen by 23.3%. Kareem Allam has argued that the city’s budget grew from approximately $1.7 billion when Sim inherited it to approximately $2.4 billion, without a corresponding improvement in frontline services.

The question Vancouver voters should be asking is simple:

If taxes keep rising, where is the improvement in our daily lives?

Kareem Allam’s answer is to redirect spending toward frontline workers and core services.

Four hundred new frontline employees.

Better garbage collection.

Better road maintenance.

Better parks.

Better recreation facilities.

Better basic services.

No property taxes levied on medical centres.

Fewer managers and more people doing the work Vancouverites pay City Hall to do.

That is not austerity.

It is prioritization.

A City Hall That Isn’t Afraid of But Actually Welcomes the Public

A progressive government must also be a transparent government.

The Vancouver Liberals have proposed cheaper public access to government records, a stronger Integrity Commissioner and greater accountability at City Hall.

That should include reducing or eliminating Freedom of Information fees for journalists and members of the public wherever possible.

Government records belong to the public.

Journalists should not have to fight City Hall to discover what City Hall is doing.

And citizens should not have to pay excessive fees to learn how their own government spends their money.

Transparency isn’t an administrative courtesy.

It is democracy.

Even The Rats Living in Our Neighbourhoods Are Telling us Something

And then there is the rat problem.

Yes, the rat problem.

The Vancouver Liberals have made tackling Vancouver’s growing rodent infestation a public-health priority, proposing a blue-ribbon panel of experts to develop a comprehensive strategy.

It might sound almost comical.

It isn’t.

A city that cannot keep its streets, parks and public spaces clean and safe cannot call itself well governed.

The rat problem is about sanitation, waste management, infrastructure, construction practices and public health.

Sometimes the most progressive thing government can do is simply do the basics properly.

The Remarkable Coalition Allam’s Vancouver Liberals Have Built

Perhaps the strongest argument for Kareem Allam is not simply his platform.

It is the coalition he has built.

The Vancouver Liberals are attempting something Vancouver civic politics has rarely seen: bringing together people from dramatically different political traditions around a shared municipal agenda.

Their candidates include people with labour and NDP backgrounds, progressive activists, businesspeople, academics, former BC Liberals and former Conservatives.

Jessica Walton, for example, brings years of feminist, environmental, labour and political activism to the campaign, along with experience as a BCGEU shop steward and frontline government worker.

John Coupar brings 11 years of Park Board experience and a long record of advocacy for Vancouver’s parks and cultural institutions.

And the coalition continues to expand.

On August 27, former BC NDP cabinet minister Michelle Mungall and former BC NDP executive member Arminder Randhawa were announced as honorary co-chairs of the campaign. Ms. Mungall served as B.C.’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources under John Horgan, while Ms. Randhawa has extensive experience in municipal politics and advocacy concerning intimate-partner violence, policing and women’s and children’s safety.

Their presence says something important.

This isn’t simply another ideological faction fighting another ideological faction.

It is an attempt to build a unity government for Vancouver.

As Ms. Mungall put it, she was impressed by Kareem Allam’s emphasis on frontline workers and by the work ethic of the candidates.

Ms. Randhawa described Mr. Allam as a pragmatic leader who brings people together.

And that may be precisely what Vancouver needs.

A Municipal Government of Civic Reconciliation and Unity

Vancouver is an extraordinarily diverse city.

Vancouver Liberal Armor Valor of Filipino descent running for a seat on City Council

The 2021 Census counted 38,605 Filipino residents in the City of Vancouver alone, while Filipino Canadians represented the third-largest racialized group in the Vancouver census metropolitan area.

That diversity deserves political representation.

But reconciliation also means something larger than ethnicity.

It means reconciling competing political traditions.

Labour and business.

Progressives and conservatives.

Social democrats and Liberals.

Immigrants and people whose families have lived here for generations.

Young people and seniors.

Renters and homeowners.

Downtown residents and suburban neighbourhoods.

People who disagree profoundly about politics but agree that Vancouver should be affordable, safe, clean, vibrant and welcoming.

That is the Vancouver Liberals experiment.

And it is a worthwhile experiment.

Why Kareem Allam Needs a Majority at Vancouver City Hall

But there is a final point Vancouver voters need to understand.

Electing Kareem Allam as Mayor will not be enough.

If Vancouver wants the programme described above — the pools, community centres, parks, food hubs, frontline workers, public-space investments, tax discipline, transparency reforms and neighbourhood improvements — Kareem Allam needs Councillors and Park Board Commissioners who share that agenda.

A Mayor Kareem Allam cannot govern alone.

A Mayor Kareem Allam needs a Council capable of passing budgets.

A Mayor Kareem Allam needs Park Board Commissioners committed to rebuilding Vancouver’s recreation system.

A Mayor Kareem Allam needs School Board trustees who understand the needs of families and children.

And a Mayor Kareem Allam needs a political team capable of turning campaign promises into municipal policy.

That is why Vancouver needs to elect a majority Vancouver Liberal civic administration on October 17.

This is not about giving Kareem Allam a blank cheque.

Quite the opposite.

It is about giving Vancouver voters the opportunity to hold an entire governing team accountable for a coherent programme.

For too long, Vancouver has been governed through fragmented politics, institutional conflict and competing agendas.

Kareem Allam is offering something different.

A plan.

A team.

A coalition.

And, most importantly, a willingness to govern.

Vancouver’s Choice: Vote Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals

The choice facing Vancouver on October 17 could hardly be clearer.

One path leads back to four more years of the politics and priorities of the past four years.

The other asks Vancouver to try something fundamentally different.

A city where parks are treated as public assets rather than revenue opportunities.

A city where libraries are strengthened rather than diminished.

A city where community centres are repaired before they become catastrophes.

A city where children have swimming pools.

A city where seniors have affordable recreation.

A city where families can buy groceries without being pushed to the edge.

A city where property taxes are predictable.

A city where developers are required to deliver the amenities they promised.

A city where City Hall welcomes scrutiny rather than resists it.

A city where public safety means police, yes — but also clean streets, functioning neighbourhoods, recreation, mental-health services, public spaces and communities in which people actually know one another.

A city where government works for the people who live here.

That is why Kareem Allam represents something larger than another Mayoral candidacy.

Kareem Allam represents the possibility of a progressive, pragmatic, people-first government that breaks with the politics of the past half-century.

The Vancouver Liberals are not perfect. No political party is.

But in 2026, they have something increasingly rare in municipal politics:

An Action Plan That Will Transform Vancouver Into a Livable City

And on October 17, Vancouver voters have an opportunity to put that plan into action.

If Vancouver wants the change we so desperately need, we cannot settle for changing the Mayor while leaving the political machinery of City Hall essentially unchanged.

Vancouver needs a government capable of delivering.

We need a government willing to invest in people.

We need a government willing to listen.

We need a government willing to cross partisan boundaries rather than deepen them.

We need a government that believes public spaces belong to the public.

We need a government that understands that affordability is not a slogan but something measured in grocery bills, parking fees, property taxes, recreation fees and whether a family can afford to stay in the city it calls home.

And above all, Vancouver needs a Mayor who understands that government exists to serve the public — not the other way around.

That Mayor of Vancouver, in 2026, should and must be Kareem Allam.

And the government he needs with him is a majority Vancouver Liberal administration.

October 17 is Vancouver’s opportunity to choose a different future.

Vote for Kareem Allam.

Vote Vancouver Liberal. And give Vancouver the government we have all been waiting for.

#VanPoli | Vancouver Starved Its Parks — Then City Hall Declared the Park Board the Problem

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There is a remarkable piece of political chutzpah unfolding at Vancouver City Hall.

For nearly two decades, successive City Councils have failed to provide Vancouver’s parks, swimming pools, community centres, playing fields and recreation facilities with the sustained investment they require.

Now, after years of deferred maintenance and inadequate capital funding — funding that was approved by voters at each election in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 — Vancouver City Hall has decided that the institution responsible for those assets, the Park Board, is the problem.

It isn’t.

City Hall is, as are all the Mayors and City Councils elected since 2008.

Mayor Gregor Robertson, who served as Vancouver Mayor from 2008 to 2018, cut Park Board funding

The modern history of this sorry affair begins with Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver, elected in 2008. Robertson’s administration inherited one of the world’s great urban parks and recreation systems.

Instead of establishing a long-term funding strategy to preserve it, the Vision Vancouver Mayor and Council imposed cuts.

In December 2010, the Vision Vancouver-led City Council approved more than $700,000 in reductions to the 2011 Park Board budget, with the consequences falling directly on parks: fewer flower beds, reduced lawn mowing and less street-tree pruning. Business in Vancouver subsequently reported that the cuts were visibly tarnishing the city’s parks.

The Park Board chairs during the opening years of the Robertson era — Raj Hundal in 2009 and Aaron Jasper in 2010–11 — were left attempting to manage an increasingly difficult financial situation. Constance Barnes chaired in 2012, Sarah Blyth from 2012 into 2013, and Jasper again in 2014.

And this is where the political responsibility becomes complicated.

John Coupar, who served as a Vancouver Park Board Commissioner from 2011 through 2018

From 2014 to 2018, the Non-Partisan Association controlled Park Board, with John Coupar serving as chair 2014–15, followed by Sarah Kirby-Yung in 2016, Michael Wiebe in 2017 and Stuart Mackinnon in 2018.

Yet the Mayor remained Gregor Robertson and Vancouver City Council remained ultimately responsible for the municipal purse.

The NPA cannot credibly claim it was merely an innocent bystander, although it fought like hell to have funding for Vancouver’s Board of Parks and Recreation increased. While the NPA controlled the Park Board, Park Board Commissioners found themselves unable to develop the political coalition necessary to force City Hall to repair the funding model.

Vision Vancouver cannot escape responsibility for the underfunding of Park Board.

Robertson’s decade at City Hall coincided with an increasingly obvious deterioration in the city’s recreation infrastructure. By the late 2010s, the Park Board was talking not about maintaining a healthy capital system, but about catching up.

Camil Dumont, left, and Stuart Mackinnon, right, Green Party of Vancouver, former Park Board chairs

Under the 2018–22 Park Board, Green Party chairs Camil Dumont in 2020–21 and Stuart Mackinnon in 2019 and 2022 presided over a system confronting the consequences of years of inadequate renewal.

Kennedy Stewart, elected Mayor in 2018, continued to cut Park Board funding during his term in office 

When Kennedy Stewart became Mayor in 2018, the political rhetoric changed, but the underlying financial structure did not. The Park Board remained dependent on City Council for the money required to maintain its facilities, monies that were not forthcoming during Stewart’s four years in power.

The numbers tell the story.

In 2022, the Park Board approved a staggering $539-million four-year capital plan, including $140 million for the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and $49 million for RayCam Community Centre.

Vancouver Is Awesome pointed out the fundamental problem: despite being an elected body, the Park Board does not have its own separate budget. It must request allocations from City Council.

In other words, City Hall controls the money and then complains about the consequences when the money isn’t sufficient.

After electing a majority ABC slate Park Board, Sim and Council tried to eliminate the Park Board

Then came Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver.

Ken Sim was elected Mayor in 2022 with an overwhelming mandate.

ABC also won six of seven Park Board seats. The chairs during this period tell their own story: Scott Jensen was elected chair for the remainder of 2022 and 2023; Brennan Bastyovanszky was elected chair for 2024; Laura Christensen chaired in 2025; and Tom Digby is the current chair in 2026.


December 5, 2023 Ken Sim calls press conference, announcing his intention to abolish the Park Board

In December 2023, Ken Sim announced his intention to abolish Park Board.

And here the hypocrisy becomes almost breathtaking.

Three of Mayor Ken Sim’s own ABC Commissioners — Bastyovanszky, Christensen and Jensen — broke with the Mayor, joined forces with Green Party of Vancouver Commissioner Tom Digby and opposed the abolition plan. Vancouver Is Awesome reported Bastyovanszky’s blunt assessment: Park Board had been underfunded by City Council, which is Council’s responsibility.

Former Vision Commissioner Aaron Jasper agreed, arguing that if the issue was maintaining parks and community centres, Sim needed to look at his own actions.

Mayor Ken Sim nevertheless proceeded, despite community backlash.

Mayor Sim’s disinformation argument was that the system was “broken,” that abolition would produce efficiencies and that millions could be saved.

Sim failed to point out responsibility for the maintenance of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system was — at the insistence City Manager Penny Ballem — transferred to the City and its crews, after which Ballem and City Hall ignored the needs of the community centres for necessary upkeep and maintenance.

Former Park Board chair Jasper weighed in with another obvious point: eliminating the Commissioners would save only their salaries — roughly $140,000 annually — while the staff, planners, horticulturalists, recreation professionals and maintenance workers would still have to exist.

That is not reform.

It is political theatre.

And the bill for decades of deferred investment continues to arrive.

According to a report released by Vancouver’s Auditor General Mike Macdonell this past February, 11 of our city’s community centres are in a severe state of disrepair.

The approved 2022 $539-million capital plan made a demand for renewal.

Vancouver’s aging aquatic facilities, community centres, playgrounds, playing fields and parks require billions in investment. At the same time, City Hall continues to make budget decisions that put pressure on Park Board services.

This is not an argument that every Park Board decision has been wise. It hasn’t.

The Board has suffered from political infighting, poor governance at times, and occasionally baffling priorities. Critics have legitimate grievances.

But those failures do not justify rewriting history.

The Park Board did not independently decide how much money Vancouver’s taxpayers would provide it.

The elected Mayors since 2008, and all Vancouver City Councils since 2008 did.

Vision Vancouver under Gregor Robertson failed to establish an adequate long-term funding model. The NPA-controlled Park Board proved unsuccessful in forcing the issue. Kennedy Stewart’s administration inherited the problem without solving it. Ken Sim’s ABC administration, for the past two years, attempted to turn the accumulated consequences into an argument for abolishing the institution.

That is the ultimate political sleight of hand.

Starve an institution. Watch its infrastructure deteriorate. Declare the institution incompetent. Then seize its powers.

That is precisely what Vancouver voters should reject come October.

And there is one final irony.

After spending years attempting to abolish the elected Park Board, Ken Sim reversed course in July 2026, announcing ABC Vancouver would run a full slate of Park Board candidates in the October election.

So, apparently the institution that Ken Sim once described as fundamentally broken is now worth fighting an election to control.

Vancouver voters going to the polls in October should remember that.

The Vancouver Park Board does not need Vancouver City Hall to dismantle it.

Vancouver Park Board needs Vancouver City Hall to properly fund it.

And after eighteen years of Mayors, Councils and political parties failing to do precisely that, Vancouver’s voters should ask a very simple question this October:

Who broke the Park Board — the Commissioners who requested necessary funding, or the politicians who control monies, yet refused to provide it?

Where the City Breathes: The Enduring Story of Vancouver’s Park Board

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The history of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, more commonly known as the Vancouver Park Board, is in many ways the history of Vancouver.

Few public institutions have done more to shape the daily lives of residents than the elected body charged with protecting the city’s forests, beaches, community centres,  gardens and public gathering places.

Long before Vancouver became celebrated for its livability, the Park Board was quietly laying the foundations for the city that would emerge — a city where parks were not an afterthought, but the framework around which neighbourhoods would grow.

For well over a century, Vancouver’s Park Board has remained one of the most cherished civic institutions anywhere in North America.

Current  2022 elected Commissioners mandated to oversee decision-making at Vancouver’s Park Board

It is one of a handful of fully elected, independent park boards across the continent, exercising powers granted under the Vancouver Charter.

While virtually every other major North American city places parks and recreation under the direct authority of city council or a municipal department, Vancouver entrusted those responsibilities to Commissioners elected directly by the public.

That institutional independence has often produced spirited political debates, occasional conflict with City Hall, and differing visions for Vancouver’s future.

Yet it has also allowed generations of Commissioners to devote themselves exclusively to parks, recreation and public space — an extraordinary civic experiment that has helped define Vancouver’s identity.

The origins of the Park Board date to 1888, only two years after Vancouver’s incorporation as a city.

The fledgling municipality recognized early on that preserving public land would be essential if the young city were to avoid the mistakes made elsewhere, where development consumed valuable waterfronts and forests before governments acted to protect them.

The Board’s original mandate was straightforward but ambitious: acquire, preserve and improve public park land for present and future generations.

Over time that mandate expanded dramatically to include playgrounds, sports fields, beaches, golf courses, marinas, swimming pools, arenas, horticulture, urban forestry, environmental stewardship, arts programming, recreation services, cultural events and, eventually, the management of one of Canada’s largest systems of community recreation centres.

Among the Board’s earliest achievements was the preservation and stewardship of Stanley Park, which remains one of the world’s great urban parks. Commissioners oversaw improvements to trails, beaches, seawalls, gardens and recreation facilities while preserving the park’s extraordinary natural landscape.

Throughout the twentieth century the Board continued acquiring neighbourhood parks as Vancouver expanded westward and southward. Small local parks became the green hearts of emerging communities, ensuring that nearly every resident would live within walking distance of public open space.

An equally transformative chapter began after the Second World War with the emergence of Vancouver’s community centres.

Across neighbourhoods, citizens had organized independently to build and operate recreation facilities. These community centre associations were grassroots organizations, led almost entirely by volunteers. Local residents raised money, organized activities, hired instructors, operated concessions, planned events and determined programming reflecting each neighbourhood’s unique character.

In the early through mid-1950s, these independent volunteer-run community organizations commenced discussions on realizing a formal partnership with the Vancouver Park Board that rather than replace local control embraced the volunteer model. The resulting partnership became one of the most successful examples of community governance in Canada.

To this day, community centre associations continue to elect volunteer boards composed of neighbourhood residents. The Park Board supplies professional staff, access to maintenance support — although, since 2009, the City has largely failed on that front — recreation expertise and long-term capital investment.

Together, the Vancouver Park Board, and the volunteer community centre Boards of Directors have worked together — sometimes fitfully — to create community recreation facilities that are responsive to the interests of neighbourhoods throughout the city.

Today Vancouver’s network of community centres remains one of the city’s defining civic institutions. They are places where children learn to swim, seniors meet friends over coffee, newcomers improve their English, teenagers play basketball, families attend festivals, artists teach pottery and musicians rehearse.

Unlike private fitness clubs or exclusive recreational facilities, Vancouver’s community centres have been designed around accessibility and inclusion.

No matter one’s income, ethnicity, language, sexual identity or age, the doors remain open.

Recognizing that financial barriers should never prevent participation, the Park Board long ago developed a comprehensive concession programme offering substantially reduced fees for low-income residents.

Through what is now the Leisure Access Programme, eligible residents receive significant discounts on admission to pools, skating rinks, fitness centres and recreational programmes, ensuring that recreation remains a public good rather than a luxury.

The Vancouver Park Board had majority Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Commissioners from 1940 to 1972.

In 1972, TEAM formed a majority on Park Board, that thrived through the late 1970s, transforming governance of Vancouver’s Board of Parks and Recreation,  while building a parks and recreation system that became the envy of the world.

From much of the 1980s through the late 1990s, Park Board Commissioners affiliated with the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) civic party frequently held governing majorities on the Board.

Although civic politics remained partisan, Vancouver’s Park Board  focused less on ideology than on practical questions of expanding recreation services, acquiring park land and maintaining infrastructure.

Numerous Commissioners developed reputations as diligent stewards rather than ideological combatants.

Civic figures and Park Board Commssioners who made a difference, taking the job of stewards of Vancouver’s system of parks and recreation seriously and as a public trust, include such figures as Bill McCreery — who VanRamblings will write about next Monday — Allan De Genova, Ian Robertson, Don Bellamy, Christopher Richardson, Trevor Loke, George Wainborn, Libbi Davies, Art Cowie, Tim Louis, Michael Wiebe, George Puil,  Donna Morgan, John Coupar, Erin Shum, Melissa De Genova, Alan Featherstonhaugh, Niki Sharma, Philip Owen, Laura McDiarmid, Aaron Jasper, Andy Livingstone, Constance Barnes, Sarah Kirby-Yung, Grace McCarthy, Stuart Mackinnon, and Sarah Blyth — among many, many other elected Park Board Commissioners — each left their own imprint, though representing different political movements and philosophies in Vancouver politics.

One of the most ambitious administrative reforms ever undertaken by the Park Board emerged decades later with development of the OneCard.

For years Vancouver residents were effectively members of individual community centres rather than the city-wide recreation system. Memberships, registrations and financial systems differed from one association to another.

Creating a universal Park Board access card allowing residents to use any community centre, pool, rink or fitness facility across Vancouver required years of sometimes fraught negotiation, involving the Presidents of the various community centre associations, and a too often uncompromising and intractable City of Vancouver, in the form of Vancouver’s imperious City Manager, Dr. Penny Ballem.

Presidents of the various community centre associations played an indispensable role. Many understood that while local identity should remain protected, residents increasingly expected seamless access throughout the city.

The discussions were often lengthy, often contentious and politically delicate. Associations wished to preserve their independence and financial stability. Park Board leadership / Dr. Ballem sought greater “consistency” across the system.

Ultimately co-operation prevailed.

The OneCard became a symbol of a unified recreation system while preserving the volunteer governance that had served Vancouver so well for decades.

Like every democratic institution, the Park Board has experienced controversy.

Perhaps no episode better illustrates the intensity of civic engagement than the debate surrounding the Bloedel Conservatory.

Facing financial pressures during the tenure of a Vision Vancouver majority on Park Board, in 2010 proposals emerged that contemplated closing the beloved conservatory atop Queen Elizabeth Park.

To many Vancouver residents, the Bloedel Conservatory represented far more than a greenhouse. It was a tropical sanctuary. A refuge during rainy winters. A place where generations of families introduced children to exotic birds and lush plant life.

Public opposition was immediate and passionate.


John Coupar loves Vancouver parks. In 1937, John’s father was hired as an apprentice gardener at Park Board, taking a leave to join the Canadian army in 1939. During the war, John’s father worked with the Allies on the liberation of Europe, returning to Park Board at the end of the war in 1945, where he was employed all of his working life, often taking John to the gardens and parks throughout Vancouver where he was working. When the Vision Vancouver Park Board, in 2010, threatened the closure of the Bloedel Conservatory, John — in concert with others — worked to save the Bloedel Conservatory, which he and his activist colleagues did, preserving the conservatory to this day.

Among those helping lead efforts to preserve the conservatory was future Park Board Commissioner John Coupar, working alongside community advocates, volunteers, horticultural supporters and civic organizations.

Following the 2011 civic election when he was elected to Park Board, and later as Chair of the Board following the 2014 civic election, John Coupar became one of the institution’s strongest champions. Rather than allowing closure, the Board pursued restoration, fundraising partnerships and renewed public programming.

Today the conservatory remains one of Vancouver’s treasured civic attractions.

Sarah Kirby-Yung, current Vancouver City Councillor / former Park Board Commissioner / Chairperson

Another landmark achievement came through collaboration between Commissioners and senior Park Board management regarding cetaceans (whales, dolphins) in captivity at the Vancouver Aquarium.

After years of public debate, scientific evidence and changing public attitudes toward whales and dolphins in captivity, thanks to very fine work by then Chairperson of the Vancouver Park Board, Sarah Kirby-Yung, working with Park Board General Manager, the incredibly competent — and dare we say, well-loved — Malcolm Bromley, the two discovered an obscure 1923 by-law that allowed the Vancouver Park Board to adopt a policy that would ultimately end the keeping of cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park.

Pissed off future Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick complained loud and long that “the despicable Sarah Kirby-Yung” had ignored / rejected / gone against Non-Partisan Association policy that supported whales in captivity.

F-ck Non-Partisan Association policy VanRamblings says, and do the moral thing — which an ethical, principled Sarah Kirby-Yung did, allowing The Aquarium to continue their policy of providing service and succour to whales in the open ocean, rather than in the “cages” of the Aquarium, Vancouver’s Aquarium thriving to this day without keeping cetaceans in small pool, caged captivity.

The ever-so autocratic and, dare we say, kind of nuts — but still competent — Dr. Penny Ballem.

Perhaps the most significant institutional conflict emerged during the tenure of former City Manager Dr. Penny Ballem. Historically, the Park Board General Manager functioned primarily as the senior executive accountable to the elected Commissioners. Dr. Ballem restructured Park Board such that the Park Board General Manager became an employee of the City, reporting directly to her.

Not only that, Dr. Ballem also transferred responsibility for maintenance operations — including many park maintenance functions — to centralized City departments, which have done a piss poor job of maintaining Vancouver’s community centres, facilities and parks (lack of funding, don’tcha know, as do nothing Council after do nothing Council ignored these cherished community spaces), recently resulting in a scathing report by Vancouver Auditor General Mike Macdonnell, who found that 11 of Vancouver’s community centres are in “an advanced state of disrepair,” neglected for the past 18 years by the City and Mayors and City Councillors, as Vancouver’s public social infrastructure — community-owned recreation centres, pools, hockey rinks, golf courses, not to mention, libraries and community hubs — have eroded, many beyond repair (think: the Aquatic Centre, currently in the throes of being torn down, or Vancouver’s well-loved Kitsilano pool).

Which is why Vancouver Liberals’ candidate for Mayor, Kareem Allam, has emerged as the only candidate seeking office in 2026 committed to repairing, rebuilding, rejuvenating and building more neighbourhood community centres and pools across the city — including a new 50-metre pool —  increasing public library hours, committed to restoring social cohesion, says Vancouver’s only ‘can-do’ candidate.

The future of the elected Park Board itself became a defining issue following the election of Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver administration in 2022.

Mayor Sim has argued that Vancouver’s governance structure unnecessarily duplicates administrative functions and that parks should become another department reporting directly to City Council, as he envisions replacing the elected Park Board with a standing committee of an already overworked Council.

An overflow crowd attended the rally at the Hillcrest Community Centre this past February

Mayor Sim’s arguments are specious, wrong-headed, devoid of facts, an unseemly power grab based on Trump-like disinformation — not to mention which, VanRamblings is given to understand that Mayor Sim has intention of selling off park lands in Vancouver to his well-heeled billionaire friends, a topic which we will address in greater detail another day.

Fortunately, British Columbia Premier David Eby and his government have declined — and will continue to decline — to introduce legislation that would abolish the elected Park Board arising from a motion passed unanimously by ABC Vancouver Councillors, vehemently opposed by the non-affiliated Councillors.

For nearly 140 years the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation has acted as the steward of those shared places.

Governments will change. Political parties will rise and fall. Commissioners will come and go. Administrative structures may evolve. Yet the parks themselves endure, growing greener with each passing season, shaped by generations who believed that beauty, recreation and nature should belong to everyone.

In the end, that may be the Park Board’s greatest achievement. It has never simply managed parks. It has cultivated a way of life. In every towering cedar, every neighbourhood playground, every crowded skating rink on a winter evening, every child learning to swim, every senior lingering in the warmth of a community centre, Vancouver’s Park Board has quietly sustained the rhythm of the city itself.

For Vancouver breathes through its parks.

Vancouver’s parks are our lungs, its common ground — offering the enduring promise that amidst the pressures of urban life there will always remain places where the city pauses, and remembers who it is.

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

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


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.

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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.

 

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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.

Enjoy your summer!