“We came within an eyelash of running the table.”
And he’s not wrong. Ken Sim, founder and CEO of homecare provider Nurse Next Door and bagel chain Rosemary Rocksalt, is just two months removed from having come within 957 votes of being the mayor of Vancouver. With five NPA Vancouver councillors, Sim would have led a majority, and thus the face of municipal (and perhaps regional) politics might look very different than it does today.
Having returned to regular family and business life, he goes deep with Gord in this revealing conversation. They discuss the day he got the call from NPA leadership, the big names he spoke to as he mulled his decision (and who finally convinced him to run), his experiences on the campaign trail, his thoughts about the downtown eastside, and what he believes are the major policy priorities for the city.
And more importantly — what does the future hold for Ken Sim?
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Pretty typical responses from a conservative candidate, and it made it more clear that Mr. Sim wasn’t really prepared to be mayor.
Everything will be fixed by getting our “fiscal house in order”, but he is unable to articulate what’s wrong in the house apart from the communications budget. Meantime, people are asking for and politicians are promising more consultation led by those communications staff. And also not surprisingly, he is unable to tell us definitively what programs he considers unnecessary because he hasn’t “gone into the details”. If you’re indeed going to (try to) reduce taxes, you have to be prepared to tell us how you’re going to do that. What’s on the chopping block? Are you prepared to tell people that they don’t really need those programs they use? Oh, and in the meantime, we’re going to increase the horticulture budget because people think the grass gets too long and there aren’t enough flowers in the parks. I’m pretty sure if he had been elected into office, he would have found it a bit more challenging to figure out what to get rid of.
If you do get to interview him again, please delve into his campaign statements that he would essentially give a veto to neighbourhoods on new developments, affordable housing, and density. How would that work exactly?
And Kennedy Stewart is any better? It is pretty obvious the city’s fiscal house isn’t in order when we’re getting a tax increase double the rate of inflation.
I didn’t suggest Kennedy Stewart is better. But it’s pretty troubling and all too common when a (former) candidate suggests that the city is a financial mess but then shows no particular understanding of the city’s budget or finances and has no well-thought suggestions for how the supposed mess will be cleaned up. Especially troubling when it’s the candidate’s only talking point and when he suggests that his main idea is going to fix pretty much all of the city’s issues.
hypothetically speaking, how would Ken Sim or any politician know where to cut the city budget without having access to the books? you need to get into power first
Wow. Vancouver really dodged a bullet. I can’t believe he almost became mayor.
Great interview Gordon. I’m really loving Price Talks.