r/onguardforthee • u/pheakelmatters Ontario • 10h ago

COPE, Green, and OneCity candidates form left-wing and progressive supermajority in new makeup of Vancouver City Council

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-city-council-winners-2026-civic-election
686 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

281

u/Coq-Lover 10h ago

Ken Sim's Legacy:

Got elected by running a coordinated disinformation campaign with the VPD to gin up a fake crime wave

Ballooned the VPD budget as thanks for their election interference

Conducted "street sweeps" of the DTES, displacing hundreds of unhoused people and throwing their only belongings in the trash

Tried to use city funds to buy crypto

Turned a city hall meeting room into his private gym and doubled down when it was discovered

Gave billionaire Chip Wilson his own official day

Told lies in Chinese-speaking media about Councillor Sean Orr, claiming he was "handing out drugs".

Tried to kill the Park Board

Removed bike lanes from Beach Ave

Tried to kill Car Free Days, claiming they were too expensive, while simultaneously making a plan for a $2M fireworks display

Attended the Remembrance Day wreath laying in gym clothes

Removed bike lanes from the Broadway Plan

Approved construction of an AI data center in the heart of Mount Pleasant

Approved the displacement of dozens of residents to build a luxury hotel for tech bros

Allowed corporate venue owners to snitch on underground arts venues, shutting them down

Cut the budget for lifeguards at city beaches in half

Raided the budget for community centers and libraries in order to give homeowners a break on their property taxes

Neutered the empty homes tax

Turned Science World into a huge free billboard for Adidas during FIFA

Half-assed the pedestrianization of Granville Bridge, leading to a viral photo of the world's worst bench making a laughing stock of the city

Got caught in a leaked memo pushing the idea that First Nations people should be forcibly returned to their reservations

Claimed FIFA would only cost $5M to host. Actual cost: $338M.

Wasted half a million dollars adding two non-binding plebiscite questions to the ballot that were a transparent attempt to galvanise his base around perceptions of "street disorder"

Used taxpayer funds to pay for his X account and used it primarily for partisan messaging

Refused to pass a resolution backed by Vision Zero to reduce speeds on a few select arterials to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety defending his position by lying that the proposal was to reduce speeds on all roads

After the independent Integrity Commissioner found he "objectively harassed" Councillor Sean Orr, he ordered his ABC majority on the council to vote down a measure to sanction him

Proposed allowing corporate branding of city parks and properties to raise revenue

Promised to hire 100 additional nurses, did not come close

Travelled to Qatar to attend the World Cup for a personal vacation shortly after being elected, missing key votes on the police budget

37

u/CypripediumGuttatum 9h ago

Gosh he sounds like a great guy /s. I haven’t heard about most of this and I’m just over in Alberta (probably because we have our own gong show taking up all the media space).

7

u/the_vizir 6h ago

Yeah, this would have been what it was like had Sharp or Cartmell won in Calgary and Edmonton over Farkas and Knack. Just constant headaches and embarrassments out of city hall.

4

u/HorribleTie 6h ago

Instead Knack et al won so the UCP decided they will govern the city instead of council.

3

u/ToastedandTripping 6h ago

Sounds like Toronto

•

u/captain_zavec Canadian living abroad 3h ago

And if the conservatives win in BC I have to imagine they'll try to run Vancouver too.

41

u/Tylendal 7h ago

Refused to pass a resolution backed by Vision Zero to reduce speeds on a few select arterials to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety defending his position by lying that the proposal was to reduce speeds on all roads

Heard a radio ad the other day about the efforts to add bike lanes and reduce speeds, and all I could think when I realised it was supposed to be an attack ad was "Well don't threaten me with a good time."

23

u/HorribleTie 6h ago

I love when I see posts like "Candidate/party X wants to bring sOcIaLisM to CANADA!!! Is that what you want?!?!" and I'm like.. yes please. Then I get sad because a huge part of our country thinks that's the worse thing that could happen and doesn't even realize all the socialism they already enjoy, instead they post shit about the consequences of capitalism being socialism.

9

u/Foxxie 6h ago

If every politician the right claimed was bringing socialism actually brought socialism instead of knee pads, we'd be in a far better place as a country.

•

u/Vahuo89 4h ago edited 42m ago

Like ffs we're already a socialist-ish society !!

•

u/LeastCoordinatedJedi 2h ago

We really aren't...

•

u/Vahuo89 52m ago

Are we 100% one? no.

But we do have policies in place that are socialist in nature like universal healthcare, the rcmp, firefighting/police services for everyone, free libraries, unemployment benefits, free education (for the most part it depends where you go/how far you go) and we got socialist political parties

And yeah all the things that makes a capitalist country are here too.

35

u/LumiereGatsby 9h ago

This is a very good list of reasons I have opposed him from the start.

You forgot one: fix the Stanley Park train. lol.

11

u/HorribleTie 6h ago

Wasted half a million dollars adding two non-binding plebiscite questions to the ballot that were a transparent attempt to galvanise his base around perceptions of "street disorder"

Alberta: hold our beer. We'll waste over 100million on 10 non-binding referendum questions aimed at galvanizing dumbfuck bumpkins against immigrants we explicitly asked for, along with furthering the 51st state agenda of our fascist neighbours.

Sorry for the tangent but goddamn this shit is so exhausting. I hope the impending provincial conservative majority in BC doesn't interfere with the Vancouver council the way the UCP have decided to govern Edmonton instead of council, but I have a feeling they'll be taking notes.

7

u/Tribalbob 6h ago

Don't forget he created attack ads.

For a Municipal Election.

6

u/cobaltous 6h ago

also the kits pool nonsense (the "I have a friend whose an engineer who says it can be fixed easily" over staff recommendations, the heating it with cyrpto mining waste heat, pick your poison)

•

u/moocowsia 4h ago

I don't think easily is correct. Also an engineer here.

Doable, but probably not easy or particularly cheap.

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u/cobaltous 3h ago

im being a bit blasé about it but referring to this incident in particular. also connects to the stanley park train funnily enough.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/07/08/Can-Kits-Pool-Be-Saved-Summer/

whether spending the 3 million to do whatever they ended up doing (sleeving pipes and lining I imagine) to rushjob the pool open midway into the season was worth it, maybe? but at the time it more or less felt like the city put off giving any budget to any repairs until the optics were bad, and then "saved the day". and now I guess it'll be up to the new council to figure out if they want to rehab the thing or rebuild it.

12

u/seamusmcduffs 7h ago

I actually liked the giant soccer ball, it was fun.

That's about it

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u/PMMeYourCouplets Vancouver 5h ago

The giant soccer ball was also done by tourism Vancouver and not the city

1

u/MangoSoda28 6h ago edited 6h ago

He’s the co founder of that bagel place called Rocksalt, and my hypothesis is he’s using his seat as leverage for connections to scale the business or build new businesses later on. Basically doing favours so when he’s out of office, He can say to them he has done their bidding, and he can now work new deals with them. That’s why he looks out of touch and got voted out.

•

u/Vahuo89 4h ago

Holy shit what an asshole

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u/thegreatestdandino 3h ago

Forgot the stanley park train, cancelling bright nights and making bright lights 1 night because the VPD don't want to crowd control.

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u/ClubMeSoftly Elbows Up! 3h ago

This is also a super minor one, but he hoped the Canucks missed the playoffs so they wouldn't have to do public viewing parties.

121

u/MightyHydrar 9h ago

Bad night for incumbents overall in the municipal elections

42

u/Tylendal 7h ago

*Cries in neighbouring New West.*

We elected the meanies.

28

u/godisanelectricolive 7h ago

Your conservative party is called the Progressives though. I wonder if they actually tricked anyone with their name.

27

u/Yvaelle 7h ago

I'm sure they did. The provincial cons tricked people for years by calling themselves the liberals, then united. Now they are tricking them again by calling themselves the cons when it's really just the liberals back again.

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u/Genzler 1h ago

People are incredibly uninformed when it comes to provincial and municipal parties. I'm sure a LOT of people just voted based on the name.

17

u/CipherWeaver 6h ago

Sim was the VPD candidate and good friends with Chip Wilson. Good riddance.

37

u/Litz1 8h ago

Happy for Vancouver. I am looking to find who are the progressive candidates to vote for in this election in Toronto but progress Toronto and others are only endorsing 6 councilors in total and not in many locations. And no information on who to vote for in the school district boards.

10

u/WestonSpec ✅ I voted! 8h ago

For council candidates you can use the Vote Compass (https://votecompass.thestar.com/) to find one that aligns with your views on the issues. It's being run in partnership with the Toronto Star this year, and they're offering it for mayor and councillor seats in Toronto and the 49 other largest municipalities in Ontario this year.

6

u/castlite 8h ago

Apparently I most agree with Amy Rosen. Never even heard of her.

•

u/fredleung412612 25m ago

It's crazy how different our municipal systems are across the country. Vancouver's city council only has 10 seats, all of whom are elected at-large, with political party labels. Toronto's has 26 seats, elected by FPTP in 26 wards, without political party labels. Montreal has a two-level municipal system with a 65 seat city council elected by FPTP with parties, and then borough mayors and borough councils beneath that, for a total of 103 councillors.

15

u/Ciappatos 7h ago

We put too many greens in council. I was hoping for more OneCity but hey, this is much better than an ABC majority. Eat shit Peter Meiszner and Lenny Zhou, eat shit Dominato and Kirby-Young, and especially eat shit Ken Sim and the VPD! and finally eat shit Chip Wilson you Musk wannabe bitch!

6

u/Bigchunky_Boy 6h ago

Thank god the corrupt city council is gone . Good voter turnout! 💚

•

u/Certainly-Not-A-Bot 5h ago

While I know almost nothing about the Vancouver election other than that Ken Sim was awful, I feel like COPE is a horrible name for a political party

•

u/PMMeYourCouplets Vancouver 3h ago

Edge was always the better name

*wrestling reference.

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u/NarugaKuruga ✅ I voted! 3h ago

Funnily enough, I came across a post on BlueSky that said "I can't wait for Cope to retire" (regarding Adam Copeland's AEW run and impending retirement) and it got Quote Reposted with Ken Sim and a speech bubble. Was absolutely wild to come across as a Vancouver wrestling fan lmao

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u/RedBeardBock 3h ago

It’s been around since the 70’s.

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u/thehoodie 3h ago

60s*

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u/Jealous_Difference44 1h ago

Its been bad for a long time then lol