Gregor Robertson finished his campaign the way he started it – with a pledge to end homelessness in Vancouver.
The Vision Vancouver candidate and former NDP MLA was declared mayor in what amounted to a landslide victory Saturday night.
It appeared seven of eight Vision council candidates had secured spots on the ten-person council (11 including the mayor). Only Suzanne Anton from the ruling Non-Partisan Association was elected, the party's worst showing in years.
"We are going to end homelessness in Vancouver," Robertson told cheering supporters at the Hotel Vancouver.
Robertson has pledged to end homelessness by 2015, a promise he tried to temper in his speech.
"Building homes will take years," Robertson said. "And too many people are forced to sleep on the streets tonight. Too many people are unable to find safe and clean shelter."
In the end, the election result wasn't close, with Robertson appearing to snag almost 20,000 more votes than Ladner.
In the last week of the election, Ladner appeared to suffer most from the fallout surrounding an alleged $100-million loan the city approved to the developers of the 2010 Olympic Village. The city has yet to confirm the loan but an anonymously-sourced newspaper report proved to be an explosive issue as the campaign winded down. Robertson alluded to the controversy in his speech.
"We understand that many people have lost confidence in city hall over the $100 million bailout of the … Olympic Village," he said. "When the city uses public money the public has a right to know where it's being spent and what it's being used for."
Preliminary results suggested Vision elected seven of its eight council candidates: Raymond Louie, Kerry Jang, Heather Deal, Tim Stevenson, George Chow, Geoff Meggs and Andrea Reimer.
The left-wing party COPE appeared to elect David Cadman and Ellen Woodsworth, giving the centre-left in Vancouver what appears to be a commanding 10-1 vote on council, with the NPA's Anton representing the only centre-right vote.
The near sweep "overjoyed" former Vision mayoral candidate Jim Green, who narrowly lost the mayoralty to the NPA's Sam Sullivan in 2005.
"I think it's the best thing that could happen to the city," Green said. "It looks like we're going to have very little opposition on council. Which means we can really now deal with homeless issues."
The civic left in Vancouver also swept through other levels of government. Vision elected all four of its candidates at school board. COPE elected three trustees and the NPA two.
And at the park board level, Vision elected all four of its candidates again, with COPE, the NPA and the Greens all electing one each.
The new council will be sworn in the first week of December.
Irwin Loy reports for 24 Hours and is a contributor to the Hook.
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Minky
3 years ago
It appears?
Excuse me but COPE landed a number of seats so it wasn't just a Vision landslide. Juice Man is mayor but that's kinda like Obama winning. We'll all have to wait and see.
Bobb999
3 years ago
Vision's superior organization did it?
It began with a Vision worker phoning many weeks ago. I told them yes I supported Gregor and Vision and gave them my email address, after which I started receiving regular emailed campaign updates.
After Gregor's Skytrain fare evasion ticket story hit the news, I was phoned by an opinion research co., but I'm convinced it was a survey conducted for Vision, to poll supporters on the Skytrain ticket issue, to find out if it negatively affected perceptions or voting intentions. The survey also asked respondents whether they thought Gregor should just pay the fine, or if he should go ahead with his plan to fight it in court.
I believe Gregor's decision to change his mind and pay the fine probably stemmed from this opinion poll of supporters.
-Vision was careful to leave nothing to chance!
To top it off, I've never before seen such a concerted get-out-the-vote effort on election day! Vision supporters came in person to my door Saturday afternoon urging me to get out and vote. An hour later a Vision phone worker called to do the same. Plus I received numerous emails over the course of voting day, from a variety of Vision candidates' email accounts, describing it as "urgent" I vote. One of the later emails mentioned voter turn-out was shaping up to be particularly low and this could potentially threaten Vision more than the NPA. Then there was a final "last chance to vote" email-urging, sent in the last hour before polls closed.
If the overall turnout was low, it was obviously lowest among would-be NPA supporters, thanks to Vision's incredible organization, supporter targeting, and get-out-the-vote ground operation. The resulting Vision/COPE landslide and near-obliteration of the NPA
is proof Vision's relentless efforts paid off!
I imagine my own experience was typical, not unique. Typical for Vision-hotbed areas of the city, at least. Although perhaps if one lived in Kerrisdale instead of the east side, Vision might not have been so active in trying to drum up and maintain voter support there in traditional NPA territory. They knew which areas of town to focus on, to maximize effectiveness of efforts.
So, congrats to Gregor/Vision/COPE on a campaign successful beyond most anyone's expectations! Honestly, who would have predicted such a welcome, one-sided outcome?
Good riddance to Sullivan (elected in '05 with the help of trickery in the form of a suspicious 2nd "James Green" to confuse voters in the voting booth),and good riddance to the rest of the NPA gang. A token NPA-er in the form of Suzanne Anton should be pretty easy to tolerate!She appears to have brains, experience and a strong work ethic, suggesting she may actually be an asset, contributing sober 2nd thought and constructive criticism.
Carol James, for the '09 provincial election, might do well to hire the same organizers and campaign managers as Gregor used this time so successfully.
Vancouver in '08, the rest of B.C. in '09!
RossK
3 years ago
I agree with bobb999.....
And I'm surprised how little the punditocracy has discussed it. After all, don't forget that a low turnout was supposed to spell real trouble for the Big Tent Party-Party Coalition.
And clearly it was not.
Secondly, I'm very surprised that the pro-Media has been repeatedly banging the two-headed 'geographical and socio-economic split' gong without realizing that there is now a third, much more scary head in the room now. Scary, at least, as far as the RedRump (ie. NPA) party is concerned that is.
___
(description of the third head is here for anybody interested)
carfreed
3 years ago
ending homelessness
I don"t think this should be the priority.
The first priority is dealing with traffic congestion and the horrendous amount of cars on the roads.
Such a beautiful city marred by way too many automobiles.
They are noisey, exhausting and create far too much stress.
There should be direct express buses to the ferries.
There should be more options such as fleets of regular vans, ready to be called forth when needed. Reducing the CEO salaries and expense accounts would be fair. In one year they are able to buy a house in total with no need for a mortgage while so many of us standing in the cold and wetness wait for buses to get to work at our jobs that serve society but pay us less than minimum wage.
The West Coast Express train is an excellent way to travel but it should run all day and in the evening and weekends.
Bus areas, such as the Ladner Exchange and Coquitlam should be beautified, with trees, planters, nice shelters.
Direct lines for info on times that buses are arriving would be helpful as well.
To deter so much car use, triple parking fees and put that into transit.Also, charge user fees to people driving vehichles. It is really just a bad habit.
Let people take back the streets and have a pleasant car free city experience.