Vancouver mayoral candidates debate

As we inch closer to election day in Vancouver, four mayoral candidates sat down Tuesday for a friendly round of debate and to make their pitches to voters.

Vancouver Liberals’ Kareem Allam, Vote Vancouver’s Rebecca Bligh, the Green Party’s Pete Fry, and TEAM’s Colleen Hardwick were grilled on housing and affordability-related issues like the failed Villages plan, luxury developments, and density.

“Each generation is reliant on the next. Young people are fleeing the city for four reasons,” Allam said.

“We’re not creating the jobs that allow them to sustain themselves, we’re not building housing they can afford, there are some safety issues, and we’re seeing increased barriers to services.”

“I understand what it’s like for renters in this city, and 72 per cent of net new residents are renters,” said Bligh. “We have to recognize the people we’re serving in this city, and we cannot pretend the private market can solve the affordability crisis.”

“If you work in this city, you should be able to have a good life, and we have those opportunities,” Fry said. “So we need to focus on what we need to do to improve the lives of Vancouverites. That starts with affordability. We talk a lot of the housing crisis, but what we’re really dealing with is an affordability crisis.”

“We are dealing with a complex situation at City Hall, but I’m here because I have a deep sense of responsibility to apply my knowledge to fix what’s broken,” said Hardwick.

They also discussed the city’s homelessness and mental health crisis. All but Hardwick were firm on reversing the ban on new supportive housing units.

“The city has limits on what it is able to do,” Hardwick said.

“It is not responsible for our health-care system, or our housing system, but it’s on our dirt. We have to deal with it. I am just concerned that we need to be more distributed in our approach and not just concentrated on the DTES.”

This prompted a rebuttal from Allam.

“The city does have a role to play in the poison drug crisis, in intimate partner violence, in kids’ transition from care,” Allam said.

“I fundamentally disagree with the premises that my colleague at the other end made.”

Absent from the panel was Mayor Ken Sim, who is also seeking reelection. Sim’s ABC Party says as it were determining which debates to attend, it was waiting on the full slate of candidates.

“I think the mayor has a strategy that doesn’t involve this audience at all. The mayor will focus on a low-political literacy audience to deliver a very divisive and ugly narrative that he hopes will drive voters to the polls.”

Meanwhile, One City’s William Azaroff withdrew from the mayoral race Tuesday to make room for Fry.

“He has witnessed firsthand the casual cruelty of Ken Sim and ABC during this term and feels deeply that he must change that,” Azaroff said.

“I believe it is the right thing for me to do so there is one progressive mayoral candidate next month.”

Will we see more candidates drop out of the race? We will find out Sept. 11, when the nomination period for mayor, city council, school board trustees, and park board commissioners closes.

Election day is Oct. 17.