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.

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.

What's in a Name on Municipal Election Ballot

The race for the top jobs at Vancouver City Hall is on

Municipalities in British Columbia will hold elections for mayor and council on October 15. In the cases of 37 cities, the mayors won by acclamation because they had no challengers. 

Some include the mayors of Burnaby, Port Coquitlam, Ashcroft, Comox, Duncan, Invermere, Pitt Meadows and Tofino.

Will Mayor Stewart keep his position Oct 15?

For all the other municipalities campaigning officially began on Saturday, but in Vancouver you wouldn't know there was an election going on except for a few campaign signs on people's lawns for Ken Sim, a Chinese-Canadian businessman.

In the 2018 election he came in second to Kennedy Stewart, and this time around may have the chance to become the first Chinese-Canadian mayor of Vancouver. 

He is the son of immigrant parents, and in high school worked on the weekends at Wendy's where he worked as a janitor cleaning toilets before graduating from UBC's Sauder School of Business. Sim then qualified as an accountant and got a job with KPMG.

Not only that Sim has two businesses, one he co-owns called Nurse Next Door, that operates in North America, serving seniors who prefer to live at home, and Rosemary Rocksalt Bagels, which sells bagel sandwiches named after Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Sim is Stewart's main challenger again

Sim is married to a South Asian and they have four boys. But his one weakness is that he doesn't speak Chinese.

That said, his campaign boards have his Chinese name printed on there.

Will he get the Chinese vote in Vancouver? Hard to say, but 15 other people running for mayor and council are desperate for the Chinese vote or Persian and have petitioned to have their names in Chinese or Persian printed on the ballot for October 15.

This led to Vancouver's Chief Election Officer Rosemary Hagiwara to file an application in provincial court this past Tuesday to disavow Chinese and Persian characters to be used by the 15 candidates because when they filed their nomination papers they did not include their Chinese or Persian names, nor did they use them when they stood for election in 2018.

However, given the short time frame, Judge James Wingham ruled it would be "unfair" to proceed with the application under the timeline set out in the Vancouver Charter and adjourned the hearing to a later date, sometime after the municipal elections.

Harding has Chinese name on campaign board

For the 15 candidates they are thrilled with the ruling, with some ethnically Chinese candidates claiming it represents their heritage, while others like Fred Harding say they have a Chinese name because their spouse is Chinese, or they have connections to Chinatown like Melissa DeGenova... 

Meanwhile former three-time city councillor Kerry Jang dismissed the need to put Chinese and Persian names on the ballot, and that this is a way for candidates to procrastinate from talking about the real issues of the election which are in order of importance:

- Housing (35%)

- Drug overdoses (14%)

- Crime/Poverty/Property taxes (three-way tie at 9%)

- Climate change (7%)

- Jobs (6%)

- Covid-19 (5%)

- Traffic congestion/Public transit (each 2%)

Now that the ballot question is sorted, can we talk about issues voters really care about?