Vancouver’s new mayor, council sworn in

Vancouver officially has a new mayor and council.

Ken Sim and his majority-ABC council were sworn in at a restrained ceremony at the Orpheum theatre Monday. This new council will be in office for the next four years.

Sim is not only the 41st mayor of Vancouver, he’s the city’s first of Asian descent.

“This is a very significant moment for Vancouver. In 103 general elections that have been held in the last 136 years since the incorporation of the City of Vancouver in 1886, each time the newly elected mayor and councillors take an oath of office and through that they are tasked with serving the citizens of Vancouver to the best of their abilities. This time, for the first time, we have elected a person of colour, a person of Chinese descent to be our mayor,” said MC Raymond Louie, a five-time councillor, of Sim.

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Council members elected on Oct. 15 include Rebecca Bligh, Christine Boyle, Adriane Carr, Lisa Dominato, Pete Fry, Sarah Kirby-Yung, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner, Brian Montague, and Lenny Zhou.

Sim, who lead the new ABC Vancouver slate, defeated 14 other candidates, including incumbent Kennedy Stewart, in last month’s municipal election.

Every single candidate ABC ran was also elected, gaining a majority on council.

Sim’s public safety promises get mixed reviews

Sim’s campaign promises included a focus on public safety, with a pledge to hire 100 police officers. The Vancouver Police Union has backed Sim, endorsing a political candidate for the first time.

Jordan Eng with the Chinatown business improvement association says Sim’s move into the mayor’s chair marks a “paradigm shift” in how the city could be run.

“This new council got voted in recognizing that there is a problem in the city. And, you know, that was a problem with the previous mayor. He didn’t recognize the issue of safety,” he said.

Eng says it’s been a struggle to have the concerns of Chinatown heard over the last four years.

“When I speak to members of the community that, you know, there’s this hope and there’s a real light at the end of the tunnel that we’re just starting, and we want to support this council moving forward.”

Instructor at the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Gurinder Mann, says he’s skeptical of the new mayor and council’s plan on crime.

“If they think simply by bringing more police officers onto the unit is going to have a is going to have a substantial difference then I think they may be mistaken,” he said. “There’s definitely a lot of promises that so they’re going to have to deliver and they’re going to have to deliver quite swiftly.”

Mann adds Sim’s plan could benefit from including a framework that rehabilitates repeat offenders.

The new city council’s inaugural meeting will take place later Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. The meeting is mostly procedural, with members being appointed to various councils and boards.