Vancouver Civic Election 2026

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by kikin

sad this elicits laughter, so many people, my mother included, are brainwashed and emotional from the constant nonsense coming from the main Canadian broadcasters, she fully had her elbows up running to vote for Carney in the last election too, now we live with the consequences and the grip on the media is getting even stronger

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by kikin

sad this elicits laughter, so many people, my mother included, are brainwashed and emotional from the constant nonsense coming from the main Canadian broadcasters, she fully had her elbows up running to vote for Carney in the last election too, now we live with the consequences and the grip on the media is getting even stronger

Pot meet kettle.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Just a note that Peter Wall died last year. Wall Financial Corporation is now run by his nephew, Bruno Wall. As Peter is dead, it's even less clear who is now behind Views of Vancouver.

Developers funding local politics (overtly or covertly) has been a common Vancouver practice. Some developers donate to all the possible winning parties, but in years gone Macdonald Development Corporation partnered with Wall on projects like The Hudson, and Rob Macdonald was a prominent and generous supporter of the NPA, donating $960,000 in one election to try to oust Vision.

Another timely reminder of Canada's weird system of relying on family dynasties to build housing rather than publicly traded companies which are more transparent. Eby and Gregor's "innovative financing tools" to aid housing should be restricted to publicly traded companies.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Another timely reminder of Canada's weird system of relying on family dynasties to build housing rather than publicly traded companies which are more transparent. Eby and Gregor's "innovative financing tools" to aid housing should be restricted to publicly traded companies.

Wall Financial Corporation is a publicly traded company.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Crazy, people have been betting real money on the Vancouver Mayoral election, $146k so far, and, and now, William Azaroff is the prediction market's candidate to beat.

Funny how rapidly things can change too: The gamblers did not like their odds with Azaroff after those polls.

[RedArbutus]

I just don't see Azaroff winning, and I say that as someone who (to my great frustration) keeps finding political alignment over and over again with OneCity and their platform. Voters chucked Stewart (admittedly after a term), and they too will be reminded of him here in Azaroff: bespectacled policy wonk on an anticipated fractured council. Maybe Azaroff is a little less wonky than Stewart, but not by much.

My prediction two months out is that Sim will win relection with maybe one or two less ABC council members joining him. A small chance Allam will win, but he'd have to be pretty savvy to pull that off.

I think the plebiscite news this morning sealed this one up, IMHO.

[idunno]

The plebiscite is an interesting move. It could go horribly wrong if it's viewed solely as a political move and people don't get engaged with it, or it could be an effective distraction from the previous gaffs of Sim's term (which would greatly benefit ABC!)

[kikin]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Funny how rapidly things can change too: The gamblers did not like their odds with Azaroff after those polls.

I put $5USD on Sim

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by idunno

The plebiscite is an interesting move. It could go horribly wrong if it's viewed solely as a political move and people don't get engaged with it, or it could be an effective distraction from the previous gaffs of Sim's term (which would greatly benefit ABC!)

I think it's going to benefit Sim. As someone on reddit put it, it's effectively a push poll at the voting booth. Its sole purpose is to 1) appeal to the base's emotions now and 2) appeal to the average voter's emotions on election day. It'll work.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by idunno

The plebiscite is an interesting move. It could go horribly wrong if it's viewed solely as a political move and people don't get engaged with it, or it could be an effective distraction from the previous gaffs of Sim's term (which would greatly benefit ABC!)

I get the sense that they are going to use it to try to frame the election on this issue. Given the direction that the provincial NDP are going (involuntary care, backtracking on decriminalization) I assume that ABC will hope that this is seen as basically being inline with the provincial NDP's policy maneuvers or a small step beyond. That will box in some of the opposition who will find it more difficult to go to the left of where the provincial NDP are (who dominated Vancouver last election), and which is a space occupied by COPE (who likely won't exceed 10% of the vote).

Whether it works or not, who knows.

[Migrant_Coconut]

I'd remind the thread that the election's in October; roughly two months before the federal election, polls predicted a Conservative landslide. Still plenty of time for the numbers to change.

... That said, it sure seems like OneCity is toast. Again.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

I'd remind the thread that the election's in October; roughly two months before the federal election, polls predicted a Conservative landslide. Still plenty of time for the numbers to change.

... That said, it sure seems like OneCity is toast. Again.

The Liberals also dropped their extremely unpopular leader for a very popular leader a month before the election. Unless we're expecting the current parties to drop their candidates and get new ones I don't expect to see the shift we saw federally. I've heard people on the left trying to beat the war drum to get Allen and Azaroff to drop out and endorse Fry, but according to current polling that still just barely approaches Sim's polling numbers, not to mention it can't be assumed all Allen and Azaroff supporters would simply fall in line to support Fry.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by chowhou

The Liberals also dropped their extremely unpopular leader for a very popular leader a month before the election. Unless we're expecting the current parties to drop their candidates and get new ones I don't expect to see the shift we saw federally.

And the provincial election, where it flip-flopped between an NDP majority and Con minority for several months?

All I'm saying is that the early polls often look different from the pre-election ones; as of last week, a quarter of Vancouver is still undecided.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by RedArbutus

I think it's going to benefit Sim. As someone on reddit put it, it's effectively a push poll at the voting booth. Its sole purpose is to 1) appeal to the base's emotions now and 2) appeal to the average voter's emotions on election day. It'll work.

As TEAM’s statement said, SIM has had four years to deal with this problem but failed to deliver any results. Remember the 100 nurses promise?

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by whatnext

As TEAM’s statement said, SIM has had four years to deal with this problem but failed to deliver any results. Remember the 100 nurses promise?

People have short memories, emotions even shorter.

[kikin]

Are any of the candidates talking about doing something to help businesses with the ridiculously long delay to get permits such as for putting up a sign on the front of their new businesses, etc?

Canada in general needs to get more business friendly but I believe a lot of the delay is still from the city.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by kikin

Are any of the candidates talking about doing something to help businesses with the ridiculously long delay to get permits such as for putting up a sign on the front of their new businesses, etc?

Canada in general needs to get more business friendly but I believe a lot of the delay is still from the city.

OneCity is proposing to streamline a lot of the rules in the way of setting up small businesses in Vancouver.

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-pol...o-start-a-business-in-vancouver-12675697

[chowhou]

The Vancouver Liberals have also talked about reforming outdated business bylaws to make it easier to run small businesses.

IIRC ABC also originally ran on speeding up permitting approval and my understanding is it has gotten better than it was 4 years ago.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by chowhou

The Vancouver Liberals have also talked about reforming outdated business bylaws to make it easier to run small businesses.

IIRC ABC also originally ran on speeding up permitting approval and my understanding is it has gotten better than it was 4 years ago.

Yeah Sim had a 3/3/3 days/weeks/months plan for approving development. Maybe things have gotten better but based on the fact he's not talking it up, I doubt the goals were achieved, or anything close.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by chowhou

The Vancouver Liberals have also talked about reforming outdated business bylaws to make it easier to run small businesses.

IIRC ABC also originally ran on speeding up permitting approval and my understanding is it has gotten better than it was 4 years ago.

They sped up business licensing, the last step in the process. IMO instead of reforming a broken system, they fixed the easiest to fix part. Business licenses check whether you are complying with zoning and other rules, and issue the permit if you are.

Because in the end our system is about exercising control and we enforce a lot of rules through zoning, and they didn't move on making changes that require zoning changes or variances or relaxations any easier, except for the Chinatown pilot project.