Vancouver election: Stewart releases platform, Hardwick pledges Olympic vote

Vancouver mayoral candidate Kennedy Stewart unveiled his Forward Together party’s full platform Tuesday, on a busy campaign day that saw several candidates make public appearances.

Calling his platform “bold and ambitious,” Stewart put forward a package of promises with building housing front and centre.

“Forward Together is the only party that is committed to significantly increasing affordable housing and rental housing, building 6,000 new childcare spaces and extending the strongest renter protections in Canada across the whole city,” he said.

The platform promises 220,000 new units over 10 years, 140,000 of which would be rental, below market, social housing or co-operatives, and pledges to complete the Vancouver Plan which was passed earlier this year but still needs a second council approval.

“We will expand pre-zoning and modernizing public hearings and permitting to make it quick and cheaper to build a new home, particularly rental and social housing,” he said, adding that as mayor he would extend renter protections from the Broadway Plan citywide.

Stewart pledged to transform Hastings Street into a “wellness corridor” with a new park and Indigenous-focused facilities and support, as well as implement mental health and addictions crisis teams which could be accessed by calling 311.

On climate change, he said he would carry forward with the city’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, create city-wide plans for climate disasters and add 500 new electric vehicle charging stations.

He also pledged to replace the current at-large voting system with a neighbourhood-based ward voting system — a proposal also supported by TEAM mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick.

Hardwick was on the campaign trail Tuesday making pledges of her own.

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Standing in front of the Olympic cauldron at Jack Pool Plaza, she promised to put a proposed Indigenous-led bid for the 2030 Olympic Games to voters in a plebiscite.

Hardwick pitched a similar proposal to council in the spring, but it never made it to the floor for a vote after it failed to gain the support of a seconding councillor. Kennedy Stewart was later chastised by the city’s integrity commissioner for wrongly claiming on social media that the proposal would violate a memorandum of understanding with Indigenous groups over the games.

Sixty-five per cent of Vancouverites voted in support of holding the games in a similar plebiscite in 2003, in the run up to the 2010 Olympics.

“Why should 2030 Olympics be any different? Why would we exclude Vancouverites from such a big decision, one where there is absolutely no federal or provincial commitment at this point,” she said.

“If voters want to proceed I would look forward to working with First Nations to make the games a huge success. But I can’t understand why city councillors and the mayor would think it was appropriate not to give city taxpayers a say.”

Meanwhile, ABC Vancouver mayoral candidate Ken Sim made an unusual campaign stop at Hastings Park where he spoke to media with incumbent District of North Vancouver mayor Mike Little and incumbent Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart, who are both also seeking reelection.

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Sim used the opportunity to attack Kennedy Stewart’s pledge to push for the completion of a “Vancouver loop” SkyTrain connection linking the Broadway subway line to UBC, then back to Metrotown along 41st Avenue and 49th Avenue.

Calling the proposal a “fantasy loop,” Sim suggested a rapid transit connection to the North Shore via Hastings Street and the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge made more sense for the region.

“I’m here because we’ve had conversations and we need to look at Vancouver as a region, Vancouver does not end at Boundary and the bridges,” he said.

“If we’re talking about housing affordability, if we are talking about climate change, if we are talking about people being able to work in our organizations we have to work as a region.”

The UBC extension, a 41st Avenue/49th Avenue rapid transit line and a rapid transit connection to the North Shore are all identified as priorities in TransLink’s Transport 2050 plan, though none have yet secured funding from senior levels of government.

Vancouver voters go to the polls on Oct. 15.

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