BCBusiness

OCtObER 2018 BCBusiness 27 bCbusinEss.Ca capture big gains in land value"? Or will it be "Just build a lot more and we can solve this"? For Vancouver voters seeking the tradi- tional right-left game theory to guide them, that's gone. There's no unity among the par- ties considered to be on the left, or among those on the presumed right, about those messages. Instead, there's a divide between the centrist moderates and the cultural revolutionaries on both sides, the "It's com- plicated" thinkers and the "This group is to blame and we'll go after them" believers. BUSINESS CASE The conventional wis- dom in voting is that Vancouver (and, to some extent, other B.C. cit- ies) swings the opposite way from the provincial government. But it's unclear if that dynamic still holds. If it does, that should give the big- gest boost to Ken Sim, mayoral candidate for the city's decades-old centre-right party, the NPA. Sim, who grew up in south Vancouver, is campaigning the tradi- tional NPA way, although adapted to his soft- spoken personality and his extensive business experience starting up Nurse Next Door Home Care Services and Rose- mary Rocksalt Bagels. At a back table in his bagel outlet on Main Street, after Sim has con- ferred brief ly with an employee, he sits down for a lengthy talk. He wants to apply his busi- ness skills to managing the city. Initiate a Œnan- cial review. Do an exami- nation of workŽow issues. "People don't fail; systems fail," he says, declining to pin the blame for city problems on any speciŒc person. "We need to Œx the system." Sim thinks increasing housing in Vancou- ver can help solve environmental pressures. "When you have density, you take cars o" the road." But he says there must be bet- ter consultation. He's interested in hearing from the public to get a big-picture feel for how the city should evolve, he explains. But he's not going to spend a year Œguring out what to do: "In business, if we took a year to develop a plan, we'd be out of business." When it comes to detailed policies, he and his team are still doing the research, Sim says. But, he adds, "when you step back, there's been a lot done on the [hous- ing] demand side"—Airbnb regulations, taxes on empty properties. So his team's discussions are mostly about supply. Finally, he's not rabidly opposed to bike lanes, but he uses some of the language of bike lane opponents. "Are we really better o" having congested roads and cars idling?" Sim and his party are far from secure in a win, though. Not only are they seen as too much a part of the old order, but several other parties stand to drain their vote. Not just those deŒnitely of the right, like former Conservative MP Wai Young's Coalition Van- couver, or the breakaway Yes Vancouver, formed out of irate ex- NPAers. But also the new Pro- Vancouver, started by Œnancial planner David Chen, whose candidates and platform are a mix of vaguely leftish ideas and militant anti–foreign money, a nt i-A irbnb activists who think the NPA is a lost cause after not choosing one of their own, Glen Chernen, as a mayoral candidate or even as a councillor. Or the Green Party, which leans more toward the populist end of the spectrum. The newly revived Vancouver First could peel away still a few more. THE LEFT FIELD But Sim could win, in spite of that and the NPA's gift for alienating its own supporters Poll Positions Vancouver's top five mayoral candidates among decided voters as of late July, accord- ing to polling firm Research Co. Ken sim ........................ 26% (non-partisan association) Kennedy stewart.........25% (independent) ian Campbell .................20% (Vision Vancouver) shauna sylvester (independent) ................11% Wai Young (Coalition Vancouver) ..... 8% Results are based on an online survey conducted from July 13 to 16, 2018, of 400 adults in the city of Vancouver. the margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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