Vancouver's First Chinese-Canadian Mayor

Sim giving his victory speech with an overwhelming win

An historic night for Vancouver, which has now elected its first Chinese-Canadian mayor.

Businessman Ken Sim came back from a narrow defeat in 2018 to overwhelmingly beat incumbent Kennedy Stewart in the municipal elections in British Columbia today.

When 50 percent of the voting places reported the 63-year-old Sim winning comfortably, he went up on stage in South Vancouver to give his victory speech, thanking his fellow mayoral candidates, members of his political party, ABC, and his supporters.

Stewart giving his concession speech

"The path to get here was incredibly long. One hundred and thirty-five years after the first Chinese head tax was paid just for the right to come here and work on building a railway, Vancouver has elected its first Chinese-Canadian mayor.

"The history of this moment is not lost on me," Sim said. "But the honour really goes to those whose shoulders I stand on."

He went on to name various Chinese-Canadian politicians such as Tung Chan, Douglas Jung, Kerry Jang, Art Lee, and Raymond Louie.

It's interesting Sim described himself as a Chinese-Canadian mayor because throughout the race he refused to play the race card; he also admitted his biggest regret was not learning Chinese (Cantonese).

Sim also paid tribute to his parents who have passed away. In 1967 Sim said his parents who had good jobs in Hong Kong, took the brave step of taking their three children with them to Canada to start a new life that was very difficult, but managed to have two more children including himself. 

Peppered throughout his speech, Sim said, "You can't lose if you don't give up".

Sim and his family of four boys and wife Teena

The Vancouver mayoral race was one that signalled change -- voters felt Stewart hadn't done enough to address housing and crime issues that seem to be spiralling out of control, while also tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. 

They hope a clean sweep of Sim and his party on Council and Parks Board will finally lift the political impasse of the past four years and start to really get things done.

He promised if elected to hire 100 police officers and 100 healthcare workers and reminded people tonight this would be one of the first things he would do. It is a lofty promise, but it was one that led to the Vancouver Police Union to endorse Sim -- the first time the union has ever done that.

In addition Sim promised to make it faster to get business licences and building permits to get the economy rolling.

The next four years will be interesting to watch -- a political novice becoming mayor of British Columbia's biggest city -- and how he will make Vancouver one of the best cities in the world again... we can only hope.