Vancouver's First Chinese-Canadian Mayor

Sim giving his inaugural speech at The Orpheum today

Quite amazing to witness history -- Vancouver having its first person of colour -- a Chinese-Canadian -- sworn in as the Mayor.

Ken Sim wanted this four years ago, was narrowly beaten by Kennedy Stewart, and in that time Sim has plotted to win last month's election -- which he won handily.

He also has seven other city councillors, some of them seasoned politicians to have a comfortable majority in City Hall. Will that help him get things done? His voters certainly hope so.

Ten councillors took their oath of office as well

The inauguration was held at The Orpheum, which holds some 2,700 people, though not sure if the balcony seats were filled. 

It was a long ceremony that included three leaders from the Musqueam Indian Band, Squamish Nation, and Tsleil-Wauthuth Nation, and a fully integrated speech from five religious leaders -- Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim who spoke a few words constantly rotating.

When it came down to it, Sim flubbed one of the lines of his oath, but everyone in the audience was there to cheer him on. The atmosphere in the auditorium was that of optimism and hope, because as he says so himself: "You can't lose if you don't give up".

His inaugural speech was a basic repeat of his victory speech a few weeks ago, reiterating how 135 years after the government imposed the Chinese head tax, Vancouver now had the first Chinese-Canadian mayor.

Sim again thanked his predecessors, "standing on their shoulders" to get to where he is today, including David Lam, Douglas Jung, B.C. Lee, Sophia Leung and Kerry Jang.

Honourable Judge Mah administers oath of office

He also set the tone for co-operation with other councillors as well as other branches of government, and critics of his ABC Vancouver party. There were already protests yesterday in the Downtown Eastside calling for more to be done to house the homeless.

That will be one of his first orders of office, fulfilling his promise of dealing with that as well as crime and drugs in the city by hiring 100 police officers and 100 mental health nurses. After the ceremony, Sim acknowledged this cannot be achieved without federal and provincial funding. But media were still wondering where he is going to get all these people from...

Nevertheless Sim promises to work on this and many other issues in his four years in office and his 100 days in office starts next Monday.