Squamish Nation Hereditary Chief, Ian Campbell, getting out of the 2018 race to become Vancouver’s next Mayor while the getting was good. That’s three we’ve lost so far.
Yesterday afternoon, Vision Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate, Ian Campbell, pulled out of the Vancouver civic election race.
In a crowded race where a half dozen plus Mayoral aspirants have emerged, perhaps the fact that Mr. Campbell, a Squamish Nation Hereditary Chief, failing to receive the all-important labour endorsement of the Vancouver District and Labour Council, or the disastrous internal and public polling which continues to show Mr. Campbell likely to gain no more than 9% of the vote, coupled with new provincially-imposed electoral finance reform legislation — which effectively leveled the playing field for his candidacy with the other Mayoral aspirants, making it near impossible for him to effectively get his message out — contributed to the decision by the well-experienced and capable Mr. Campbell (who would have made a fine Mayor) to withdraw from the race to become Vancouver’s next Mayor.
Vision Vancouver co-chair Michael Haack posted an e-mail last night stating that the “focus of Vision Vancouver will now be to support our talented candidates running for Council, School Board and Park Board.” As in, Vision Vancouver will not run a mayoral candidate (as in, “We’re throwing in the towel, and screaming uncle”) in the current Vancouver municipal election.
Quitto Maggi’s ‘too early to tell’ Mainstreet Research Vancouver Mayoral aspirant poll
Chances are, despite the kind words of concern expressed by leading Vancouver Mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart last evening, that there was much celebrating in the Kennedy Stewart camp and in the offices and among the membership of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, which has surely carried over to today.
With the endorsement of the VDLC and polling showing Mr. Stewart with the clear left-of-centre lead in the Vancouver civic election, varying from 23% to 26% support depending on the poll, his team and labour’s thinking must be that a good portion of the Vision vote will now convert to support for Mr. Stewart, making him a virtual shoe-in to become Vancouver’s next Mayor.
And, why not? Thus far in the campaign, Kennedy Stewart has sounded for all the world like the perfect out-of-touch 2018, labour-endorsed tried-and-true, he finds it difficult to answer even the easiest question, silver spoon in his mouth Gregor Robertson re-incarnation, talking about building …
25,000 new non-profit affordable rental homes over the next ten years.
“I’ll focus on building affordable rental homes for those making $80,000 a year or less,” Mr. Stewart promises,”more non-market and supportive housing for our most vulnerable citizens, and targeted housing solutions for Indigenous Peoples, cultural communities, seniors, and people living with disabilities.”
Gosh, just thrills you to read that, doesn’t it?
Shauna Sylvester — independent, well-experienced Vancouver mayoral candidate, and the ‘gal with a bold and effective action plan’ in the 2018 Vancouver civic election
All that talk about building housing co-ops and co-housing on city-owned and federal and provincial Crown land, with construction and materials costs gleaned from developers’ Community Amenity Contributions, towards building the city we need, a city for all of us. Oh, what’s that you’re saying? Kennedy Stewart is not saying any of that — independent Mayoral candidate Shauna Sylvester, who has long lived in a housing co-op, is the only one talking about building housing co-ops and co-housing, as a central theme of her well-articulated and thoughtful affordable housing plan.
Perhaps Mr. Kennedy, with his $168,000 MP salary, is unaware that the median one-person household income in Vancouver is $38,449, the median household income $72,662 (those durned happily married or co-habitating couples). What’s that you say, Mr. Stewart — you’re going to “focus on building affordable rental homes for those making $80,000 a year (or less).” Gosh — mighty big and white of ya, lookin’ after us poor folk.
One is left to wonder what part of Vancouver’s dire emergency, decade long affordable housing crisis does Mr. Stewart not quite grok? Where’s his heart, where’s his action plan, what does he plan to do for seniors, for millennials, for the working poor, for our city’s indigent population, for single parent families and our city’s children living in wont and despair, where’s his plan to do something, something needed and bold … NOW ?
Why is Kennedy Stewart in the lead and set to become our next Mayor, if we’re to believe the polls? Easy answer there: he’s the most high profile of the candidates in a field of unknowns who are running to become our next Mayor, and a sitting NDP MP, when Vancouver voters overwhelmingly elected NDP members to the Legislature in Victoria in all but two ridings.
In the confusing miasma that is the 2018 Vancouver civic election, name recognition and public profile counts for everything; being a good looking younger man, a Simon Fraser University professor, and a 15-year resident of the City of Vancouver — even if since 2011 he’s sat as the MP for Burnaby South — doesn’t hurt his electoral chances, either, one supposes.
Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith seems pretty sold on Shauna Sylvester, though. And, why not — she’s the only candidate for Mayor, thus far, to articulate an effective, action-oriented policy development plan.
Truth to tell, VanRamblings finds what Shauna Sylvester has to stay quite compelling, and if we were being honest, we’d have to write that we’re now leaning Ms. Sylvester’s way, as well — because, as we’ve written previously, a woman’s place is in elected office making a difference, while helping to make ours a better, more just city and world, for each and every one of us.
