Now that the time for nominations is over, a full deck of potential and returning politicians are vying for the City of Vancouver Mayoral chair. Who do citizens favour five weeks before the civic election?
Mario Canseco makes it easy to start the conversation with his latest survey of how citizens are voting for mayor, with a representative sample 400 individuals that are statistically “weighted” “according to the census for age, gender and region.”
Of the City of Vancouver mayoral candidates, the survey results show that 35 percent would vote for Mayor Kennedy Stewart with the “Forward Vancouver” party to return, while 30 percent would vote for Ken Sim of ” A Better City” or ABC. Mr. Sim lost the 2018 Mayoral race by less than a thousand votes, and was one of 21 mayoral candidates. (Other candidates in 2018 included “Rollergirl” who garnered 686 votes.)
The third mayoral candidate chosen by survey respondents for 2022 was Colleen Hardwick with “Team for a Livable Vancouver” at 17 percent. Ms. Hardwick is currently a city councillor.
Loping at the back of the pack are Mark Marissen with Progress Vancouver and Fred Harding of the Non-Partisan Association. Mr Marissen is a political strategist and was formerly married to the Liberal Party Premier of B.C., Christy Clark.
Mr. Harding is the candidate brought in to replace Park Commissioner John Coupar who was slated to run for mayor for the NPA party. Mr. Harding ran with the “One Vancouver” party for mayor in 2018 and received 5,600 votes, finishing six. Mr. Harding is a retired policeman and a Beijing businessman, married to Chinese pop singer Zhang mi.
In terms of important issues at election time, 35 percent of the survey respondents said housing, with women in the 35 year to 54 year demographic being especially concerned.
Drug overdoses, crime, poverty and property taxes were also important issues in the survey.
How informed were the people taking the survey? Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed said they followed the election closely. People were getting their information from a variety of sources, including media.
You can listen to theBreaker news podcast below with host Bob Mackin and guests Mario Canseco and SFU’s Director of the City Program Andy Yan discussing the survey, and also looking at the policies that the mayoral candidates are embracing. There is still plenty that can change in the next five weeks to October 15, and issues that can come up in the city that can swing the vote.
Mr Canseco and Mr. Yan were asked if the Barge on Sunset Beach would be gone by October 15-you may be surprised by their answer to that question.
Stay tuned for more Viewpoint Vancouver election coverage in the weeks ahead.
images:cbc,globalnews,biv,bctv
