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The Province
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Province
Despite voters' rebuke of Vancouver's ABC party, new towers will still be higher, increase density
Douglas Todd: Even though voters elected two progressive candidates last month, council's direction is not about to change in regard to the pace and scale of mega-highrise projects. The two newcomers to council, COPE's Sean Orr and OneCity's Lucy Maloney, voted along with ABC and the rest of council on April 22 to approve the massive plan for the Jericho Lands. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / 10107669A The dominant centre-right ABC Party was hammered in last month's Vancouver byelection, with its two candidates coming in a dismal sixth and seventh. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Despite voters electing two progressive candidates April 5, the direction of council is not about to change regarding the pace and scale of mega-highrise projects in Vancouver, the most dense city in Canada. The two newcomers, COPE's Sean Orr and OneCity's Lucy Maloney, voted along with ABC and the rest of council on April 22 to approve the Jericho Lands official community plan, which gives the go-ahead to arguably the biggest housing development in the city's history. 'It's going to be beautiful and add so much to the area. It's going to be such an amazing contribution,' said Maloney, speaking of the 65 residential buildings, mostly in the 25- to 60-storey range, proposed by MST Development Corp. for the half-empty former military base in Point Grey. A watchdog group, the Jericho Coalition, has proposed an alternative vision for the Jericho Lands: of mostly six-storey apartment blocks. But when CBC radio host Stephen Quinn asked Maloney if she would have been open to supporting a 'happy medium' of density for the Jericho Lands, she said it's too late. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Other areas have been bearing the burden of accepting all the population growth. I guess it could have been lower levels of density if we'd been building low-rise apartment buildings in every neighbourhood of the city for decades. But we haven't,' said Maloney, a self-described 'environmental lawyer' who works with the mining company BHP Billiton. Newly elected Coun. Orr, who describes himself as a Communist and dishwasher, also voted for the Jericho Lands official plan. His emphasis has been on affordability and protecting renters, including those being displaced by the 500-block Broadway highrise plan. Despite the historic significance of the Jericho Lands project, three members of ABC were absent for the vote: Mayor Ken Sim and councillors Brian Montague and Peter Meiszner, as well as Rebecca Bligh, who was recently dismissed from ABC. Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. How Vancouver councillors voted – or didn't bother to – on April 22. The small quorum unanimously approved the Jericho lands massive official development plan. Erick Villagomez, who teaches at UBC's school of community and regional planning, predicts little resistance from the two new councillors, or from Bligh and the Green member of council, to the 'monotonous' direction dictated by the ABC majority, particularly in regard to high density. In Villagomez's analysis, the two new council members are 65 per cent aligned on the major issues with ABC, which has been pro-tower and often criticized for ignoring citizen input and reducing demands on developers to provide community benefits. The only candidates in the byelection who do not align with the enthusiastically high-density attitudes of ABC, and who would have offered serious resistance, Villagomez said, were former TEAM councillor Colleen Hardwick and running mate Theodore Abbott. Hardwick, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2022, came in third in last month's byelection, with Abbott fifth. That's despite being endorsed by high-profile professors who specialize in housing affordability, including UBC's David Ley and Patrick Condon. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. CityHallWatch, a group of ecologists, urban designers, architects and former planners who have been monitoring Vancouver politics for 15 years, produced a scorecard before the byelection that detailed how NDP-affiliated OneCity and the Greens have backed ABC on key property development issues. OneCity was represented on council by Christine Boyle before she ran successfully in last year's provincial election, becoming the NDP's Indigenous affairs minister. She regularly lined up with ABC against developer-skeptic recommendations put forward by TEAM. The Greens' Pete Fry and Adriane Carr, who recently retired, did much the same, according to CityHallWatch. The analysis by CityHallWatch, a volunteer organization devoted to 'socially just and transparent' public institutions, shows OneCity and the Greens, and to a slightly lesser extent COPE, had in the past rejected key TEAM ideas, such as: to 'rethink city-wide towers,' 'retain public hearings,' 'pause/replan the Broadway plan' and 'pause/replan the Jericho Lands.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As Randy Helten, an environmental activist who co-founded CityHallWatch Media Foundation, said: 'OneCity, COPE, Greens, and ABC Vancouver are generally singing from the same song sheet on development, planning, densification and towers.' CityHallWatch produced this scorecard before the April 5 byelection. OneCity, in particular, has been openly endorsed by key players in the pro-high-density movement. They include Russil Wvong, a member of Abundant Housing, a North-American wide, developer-supported organization that advocates for more housing construction. Wvong often posts calls for allies around North America to weigh in to support new highrises in Vancouver. B.C. Premier David Eby has also been strongly influenced by the YIMBY movement, including hiring some of its advocates. The NDP, as a result, has introduced legislation that forces municipalities with at least 5,000 residents to approve four- to six-unit dwellings on single-family lots, and to automatically OK extensive highrise clusters around SkyTrain stations and transit hubs. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Although centre-left politicians in B.C. were in the 20th-century known as staunch defenders of citizens' right to challenge mass property development, that alliance has faded. NDP cabinet ministers have joined left-wing civic politicians in accusing citizens who question the scale and esthetics of building projects of being selfish NIMBYs. The issue of property development has caused ideological confusion among progressives. That's partly because many on the centre-left point to data showing that North American cities that have dramatically increased housing supply, especially Vancouver and Toronto, have not lowered stratospheric prices. Condon and Ley, as well as Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, both of whom have blue-collar backgrounds, say rapid densification is failing to produce the right kind of housing, especially for young families. It's mostly serving investors and land speculators. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Mass upzoning leads to uglier buildings, say many — since Vancouver council and others are allowing developers to build blockier apartment highrises, with less open space and fewer public amenities, in exchange for promising to make up to 20 per cent of their units 'below market.' The trouble with that is, with the real-estate cycle going into a downturn, Vancouver developers who obtained density bonuses are now signalling they need to get out of their earlier commitment to so-called 'affordable housing.' dtodd@ Read More Vancouver Canucks Vancouver Canucks BC Lions News News
Vancouver Sun
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Despite voters' rebuke of Vancouver's ABC party, new towers will still grow higher and more dense
Article content The dominant centre-right ABC Party was hammered in last month's Vancouver byelection, with its two candidates coming in a dismal sixth and seventh. Article content Article content Despite voters electing two progressive candidates April 5, the direction of council is not about to change regarding the pace and scale of mega-highrise projects in Vancouver, the most dense city in Canada. Article content The two newcomers, COPE's Sean Orr and OneCity's Lucy Maloney, voted along with ABC and the rest of council on April 22 to approve the Jericho Lands official community plan, which gives the go-ahead to arguably the biggest housing development in the city's history. Article content Article content 'It's going to be beautiful and add so much to the area. It's going to be such an amazing contribution,' said Maloney, speaking of the 65 residential buildings, mostly in the 25- to 60-storey range, proposed by MST Development Corp. for the half-empty former military base in Point Grey. Article content A watchdog group, the Jericho Coalition, has proposed an alternative vision for the Jericho Lands: of mostly six-storey apartment blocks. But when CBC radio host Stephen Quinn asked Maloney if she would have been open to supporting a 'happy medium' of density for the Jericho Lands, she said it's too late. Article content 'Other areas have been bearing the burden of accepting all the population growth. I guess it could have been lower levels of density if we'd been building low-rise apartment buildings in every neighbourhood of the city for decades. But we haven't,' said Maloney, a self-described 'environmental lawyer' who works with the mining company BHP Billiton. Article content Article content Newly elected Coun. Orr, who describes himself as a Communist and dishwasher, also voted for the Jericho Lands official plan. His emphasis has been on affordability and protecting renters, including those being displaced by the 500-block Broadway highrise plan. Article content Despite the historic significance of the Jericho Lands project, three members of ABC were absent for the vote: Mayor Ken Sim and councillors Brian Montague and Peter Meiszner, as well as Rebecca Bligh, who was recently dismissed from ABC. Article content Article content Erick Villagomez, who teaches at UBC's school of community and regional planning, predicts little resistance from the two new councillors, or from Bligh and the Green member of council, to the 'monotonous' direction dictated by the ABC majority, particularly in regard to high density. Article content In Villagomez's analysis, the two new council members are 65 per cent aligned on the major issues with ABC, which has been pro-tower and often criticized for ignoring citizen input and reducing demands on developers to provide community benefits.
Vancouver Sun
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Despite voters' rebuke of Vancouver's ABC party, new towers will still be higher, increase density
Article content The dominant centre-right ABC Party was hammered in last month's Vancouver byelection, with its two candidates coming in a dismal sixth and seventh. Article content Article content Despite voters electing two progressive candidates April 5, the direction of council is not about to change regarding the pace and scale of mega-highrise projects in Vancouver, the most dense city in Canada. Article content The two newcomers, COPE's Sean Orr and OneCity's Lucy Maloney, voted along with ABC and the rest of council on April 22 to approve the Jericho Lands official community plan, which gives the go-ahead to arguably the biggest housing development in the city's history. Article content Article content 'It's going to be beautiful and add so much to the area. It's going to be such an amazing contribution,' said Maloney, speaking of the 65 residential buildings, mostly in the 25- to 60-storey range, proposed by MST Development Corp. for the half-empty former military base in Point Grey. Article content A watchdog group, the Jericho Coalition, has proposed an alternative vision for the Jericho Lands: of mostly six-storey apartment blocks. But when CBC radio host Stephen Quinn asked Maloney if she would have been open to supporting a 'happy medium' of density for the Jericho Lands, she said it's too late. Article content 'Other areas have been bearing the burden of accepting all the population growth. I guess it could have been lower levels of density if we'd been building low-rise apartment buildings in every neighbourhood of the city for decades. But we haven't,' said Maloney, a self-described 'environmental lawyer' who works with the mining company BHP Billiton. Article content Article content Newly elected Coun. Orr, who describes himself as a Communist and dishwasher, also voted for the Jericho Lands official plan. His emphasis has been on affordability and protecting renters, including those being displaced by the 500-block Broadway highrise plan. Article content Despite the historic significance of the Jericho Lands project, three members of ABC were absent for the vote: Mayor Ken Sim and councillors Brian Montague and Peter Meiszner, as well as Rebecca Bligh, who was recently dismissed from ABC. Article content Article content Erick Villagomez, who teaches at UBC's school of community and regional planning, predicts little resistance from the two new councillors, or from Bligh and the Green member of council, to the 'monotonous' direction dictated by the ABC majority, particularly in regard to high density. Article content In Villagomez's analysis, the two new council members are 65 per cent aligned on the major issues with ABC, which has been pro-tower and often criticized for ignoring citizen input and reducing demands on developers to provide community benefits.
CBC
10-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Vancouver mayor, Jewish group accuse newly elected councillor of antisemitic posts
Social Sharing Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and some Jewish community groups are condemning comments made on social media dating back to 2021 by newly elected city councillor Sean Orr. In a Wednesday morning news conference, Sim and Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver— which describes itself as the community's centre for Jewish philanthropy — asked Orr to address his statements and publicly apologize. Specifically, the foundation called on Orr to retract a comment posted in August 2021 on X, formerly known as Twitter, that stated, "Everyone knows Vancouver City planners are controlled by a secret cabal of Jews who have a bunker in the earth's core fml." In a statement Monday, Orr said his tweet was taken out of context, and was meant to be condemning "an antisemitic dogwhistle" used by the poster he was responding to. He said his post was sarcastically quoting a joke by comedian David Cross, who used similar wording while talking about the stereotypes he faced growing up Jewish in the American South. "It's unfortunate that this was taken out of context and misrepresented," Orr said of his tweet. "My [campaign] platform called out anti-semitism by name & committed to fighting it, along with Islamophobia and other forms of racism." On Wednesday, Sim said his news conference was "not political", and Shanken said he was hurt by the posts. "It hit me in the pit of my stomach," said Shanken. "We are yet a sarcastic comment for this individual. We are a butt of this individual's joke." The federation, along with national Jewish groups like B'nai Brith Canada and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, also condemned Orr for accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), Orr's party, said their candidate has been a consistent voice of opposition to fascism and antisemitism, and said the attacks on Orr were a "bad faith attempt to smear him" for his opposition of Israel's war in Gaza. Orr topped the polls in last week's byelection, with the two candidates belonging to Ken Sim's ruling ABC party coming in sixth and seventh place. WATCH | Orr talks about his plans in council: COPE's Sean Orr gets most votes in Vancouver byelection, preliminary results show 2 days ago Duration 10:23 On Saturday, thousands turned out and waited in long lines to elect two new Vancouver councillors in a byelection. Sean Orr ran with the Coalition of Progressive Electors and received 34,448 votes, according to preliminary results, the highest number of votes of the 13 candidates who ran. He told Stephen Quinn, host of The Early Edition, that politics in the U.S. may have influenced Vancouverites. A different Canadian Jewish organization is standing by Orr, condemning what it called "disingenuous attacks" launched in "bad faith." "Councillor Orr has shown integrity and courage in condemning Israel war crimes," said Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) in a statement released Tuesday.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vancouver mayor to reflect on resident satisfaction following party's byelection defeats
Mayor Ken Sim says Vancouver's ABC party will be reflecting on the results of last weekend's byelection in which the party received only a fraction of votes cast — despite its massive success in the 2022 election. Sim's comments followed a news conference for an unrelated matter Monday afternoon, less than two days after two new councillors were elected. "Regardless if it's a byelection or not ... the reality is we listen to the residents of Vancouver every single day," Sim said. "There are enough of them that said they're not necessarily happy with everything that's going on. "We're going to take a really hard look at ourselves." Once the new councillors are sworn in, Vancouver city council will be made up of six ABC councillors and Sim, former ABC-member-turned-Independent Rebecca Bligh, the Green Party's Pete Fry, Sean Orr of COPE and OneCity's Lucy Maloney. Orr won his seat with a whopping 34,448 votes, while Maloney received 33,732. A total of 67,962 ballots were cast. Behind them were candidates from TEAM and the Greens. ABC's Jamie Stein and Ralph Kaisers came in last among candidates attached to municipal parties, with 9,267 and 8,915 votes, an environmental lawyer and transportation activist, said voters sent a message to the party in power. "I think that ABC have lost touch with what ordinary Vancouverites are concerned about," she said, pointing to housing and affordability as the top priority for residents. LISTEN | Sean Orr shares goals for council: Orr, a housing activist, landscaper and dishwasher said politics in the U.S. may have influenced voters in Vancouver. "People are very upset," he said. "People are scared, and people are starting to kind of connect the dots with what's going on down south. You're seeing what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing there. They're kind of seeing how the rich buy their way into office." While he had yet to meet with Orr and Maloney, Sim publicly welcomed the pair to council and said he intended to meet with them Monday afternoon. Sean Orr shakes hands with Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim on Monday, April 7, 2025. (Ben Nelms/CBC) Sim stands behind candidate choice Kaisers, a longtime police officer and head of the Vancouver Police Department's union, faced some controversy during the campaign, including allegations that union officials instructed officers involved in the 2015 death of Myles Gray not to take notes about the incident. Gray, 33, died in a wooded backyard in Burnaby, B.C., after an encounter with seven police officers in 2015. A public judicial hearing into Gray's death is set for Jan. 19, 2026, which will, in part, look into union officials' actions. No officers have ever been criminally charged in relation to Gray's death. Ralph Kaisers, left, and Jaime Stein are pictured during an ABC Party news conference in Vancouver on Feb. 20, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/CBC) As reported by the Globe and Mail, Kaisers, on leave from his union position during the campaign, used personal email addresses of union members to ask for their support. He later apologized, calling the emails "a mistake," according to the newspaper. Sim said both candidates were screened ahead of the campaign, and said Monday he has no regrets in who the party chose to run in the byelection. "I'm proud of the decision," he said. "I thought those two individuals were of high character and quality and they would have served the residents of Vancouver well."
