Vancouver Police Union plans to endorse political candidates ahead of civic election

The City of Vancouver is just under two weeks away from its civic election and the Vancouver Police Union is about to break tradition.

For the first time ever, the police union is considering endorsing political candidates, according to union president Ralph Kaisers.

Evidence of the potential historic decision was on display Monday night when incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart and Ken Sim, the two mayoral front-runners, went head-to-head at a Vancouver Police Union-sponsored mayoral and council candidate debate.

Although not everyone who made an appearance was in support of the idea of police choosing to back candidates.

At the start of the debate, city council candidate Sean Orr showed up and held up a sign that read “Police out of politics,” before being asked to leave.

Event: crashed pic.twitter.com/WygoUWeW4g

— SEAN ORR (@seanorr) October 4, 2022

After the debate, Kaisers said that mayoral candidates and council candidates who attended “did a very good job” and people should expect an announcement as soon as end of day Tuesday.

“The Vancouver Police Union board does have a meeting [Tuesday] and we’re going to have that discussion and sort out who we would potentially endorse.”

Kaisers says the union has “sat back” for too long.

“Our members are asking what we can do as a union, as a membership, to ensure the right people are elected – those people that are going to support the police.”

It’s worth noting the debate came a day after Vancouver police reported another ‘violent’ stranger attack.

When asked about whether the union is planning to endorse because of the issues facing Vancouver in recent years, such as stranger attacks and prominent social issues, Kaisers admits that things have gotten worse, but public safety is a “very complex issue.”

“From our frontline members and our membership, I think it’s two-fold. For one, yes things have gotten worse, and then secondly, we are still at our staffing and resourcing levels from 2009. We simply cannot keep up.

“Our members are constantly working overtime to just simply maintain minimum staffing levels on the road … we need help. And that help is going to come in more resources.”

But Stewart Prest, a political scientist at Quest University, says the line separating police and political endorsements usually isn’t crossed for a reason.

“You can understand why, when you think about what could happen if police seem to be associated with, or are favouring, one side of political views over another.”

“Part of it is the fact that police are enforcing the rules that are being passed by these bodies and we really want to have that separation made clear so that people feel comfortable voicing opposition to certain kinds of policy.”

The civic election is slated for Oct. 15th.

-With files from Monika Gul