bCbusinEss.Ca OCtObER 2018 BCBusiness 29
gets knocked repeatedly by the radical
reformers for not having kicked Burnaby
Mayor Corrigan's butt publicly about
apartment demolitions. That pegs him as
too much of a collaborator for Vancouver's
crusaders against real estate capitalism.
INDEPENDENTS' DAY?
In the end, the real face of city councils in
the region may not have anything to do
with choices about mayors. In Vancou-
ver, the poster child for extreme electoral
trends, there's not just a wave of candi-
dates from new parties but also a wave
of credible council contenders who are
choosing to run with no parties. Sarah
Blyth, the woman who set up drug over-
dose prevention tents in the Downtown
Eastside, has abandoned her one-time
party, Vision, to run on her own. Rob
McDowell, a staunch pillar of the
NPA for
years, is also running as an independent.
So are housing advocate Adrian Crook and
former Musqueam band councillor Wade
Grant, both of whom had originally been
recruited by Yes Vancouver's Bremner as
potential candidates.
Voters look ing for change may
well choose a mix from among the big
parties, the small parties and the inde-
pendents, with the result that there will
be no majority group on council. How
revolutionary that group is will depend
on just how angry people are—and about
what. The election will be a litmus test of
what issue is emotional enough to drive a
committed throng of voters to the polls:
their feeling that foreigners have distorted
the housing market, their desperate hope
that lots of new supply (especially in
West Side neighbourhoods) will solve
the problem, their annoyance about bike
lanes, their irritation over unmowed bou-
levards, their desire to throw all current
bums out.
Metro Vancouver residents have tended
to vote for moderates, mayors and coun-
cils who work diligently at incremental
changes—a signiŽcant contrast to Toronto,
which has produced more than one bel-
ligerent populist suburban mayor. But this
time around, people are more frantic than
ever about how the region is evolving.
Says pollster Canseco, who's tracking
the sentiments of the people who will be
voting, "There's deŽnitely the sense from
residents that things are out of control."
"
CFA Society of Vancouver
CFA Vancouver - 2018 Awareness Campaign - BC Business Ad
4/C
4.75" x 4.9375" (plus bleed)
Prepared: August, 2018
C1808 BCBusiness_Hand
LET'S BUILD A BETTER
WORLD FOR INVESTING.
LET'S MEASURE UP.
Let's do our part.
Let's start today.
Let's measure up.
www.cfavancouver.com
C1808 BCBusiness_Hand.indd 1 2018-08-20 4:52 PM
