The significance of electing Vancouver's first Chinese Canadian mayor

Ken Sim (right) in Vancouver's Chinatown. (ABC Vancouver)

According to Statistics Canada, there are over 167,000 residents within the City of Vancouver who identify as having a Chinese ethnic background. That represents 27% of the city’s entire population.

Moreover, over 286,000 residents, or 45% of the city’s population, have an Asian ethnic background.

Later this month, new census data is expected to indicate Metro Vancouver as a whole has a visible minority population that, for the first time, exceeds half of the region’s entire population.

On Saturday, voters in Vancouver elected not only their first Chinese Canadian mayor but also their first Asian mayor.

It is a watershed moment for the representation of one of the region’s largest ethnic groups, and for a city and province with a dark history of long-sustained, entrenched racism and discrimination against Hong Kong and mainland Chinese immigrants.

“The path to get here was incredibly long. 135 years after the Chinese Head Tax was paid just for the right to come here, Vancouver has elected its first Chinese-Canadian mayor,” said Mayor-elect Ken Sim during his victory speech at the ABC Vancouver party election night event.

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Given the current politically charged climate, History 101 is needed: Early Chinese Canadians literally built British Columbia.

They initially came here for the gold rush of the 1800s, and then thousands worked for cheap in treacherous conditions to build the Canadian Pacific Railway through British Columbia’s mountains to reach Vancouver.

After the railway reached completion in 1885, the promise of being provided with a way to get home to British Hong Kong and China did not materialize.

These early pioneers had nowhere else to go, and eventually ended up in the area that became Chinatown — at the edge of a swamp, known as the False Creek Flats. By the early 20th century, Chinatown became a place of support for all of these unwanted people.

The federal Chinese Head Tax was levied between 1885 and 1923, growing from $50 when it was first enacted to $500 by the time it was repealed. The tax’s final level is equivalent to $8,300 in 2022 dollar values or several years of cheap wages for a labourer at the time, and these Chinese Canadians had to work for years to pay off their debts.

But discrimination did not end in 1923. Chinese people were banned from entering Canada, with very few exceptions. All the while, those who remained in BC faced extreme discrimination and mistreatment, and their survival and livelihood were challenged.

It was not until after the Second World War that the federal government began to see the hypocrisy in its treatment of Chinese people — after Canada played its important role in liberating Europe from the Nazis, and the horrors against Jewish people were day-lighted. The federal government granted Chinese Canadians the right to vote in 1947, but it was not until 1967 that the points system of fairly choosing new immigrants — regardless of their race or ethnicity — was introduced, which opened the doors for Chinese newcomers, and gave rise to Vancouver’s cosmopolitan, diverse nature.

But long before the contemporary acceptance and success of Chinese Canadians, no other ethnic group in BC had to endure such government-enforced mistreatment of its members on entering Canada over such an extended period.

“The significance of being the first Chinese-Canadian mayor or person of colour to be the mayor is not lost on me, but I do want to stress that I get to have that position because I stand on the shoulders of all the people who came before me,” Sim told Daily Hive Urbanized in an exclusive interview on Sunday, his first and only interview over the weekend after the election outcome.

From left to right: ABC councillor Rebecca Bligh, ABC councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, Mayor Ken Sim, Chinatown business owner, ABC councillor Lenny Zhou, and ABC councillor Peter Meiszner. (ABC Vancouver)

He specifically noted Chinese Canadians such as the late former BC lieutenant governor David Lam, former Vancouver city councillor Raymond Louie, former Vancouver city councillor Tung Chan, who is on ABC’s post-election transition team, and the late Douglas Jung, who was elected as the MP for the federal riding of Vancouver Centre in 1957, becoming the first Chinese Canadian to take a seat in parliament.

“I do know how significant it is because there’s going to be a whole generation of kids — it’s not just Chinese, but also South Asian, different ethnicities, LGBTQ+ community, and minorities. Anything is possible and it’s going to inspire a whole generation of future leaders.”

Sim, who was born and raised in Vancouver, and studied business at the University of British Columbia, adds that he “just wants to be the mayor, and I want to work with a group of individuals to create change and make our city better.”

Even some rival candidates and parties are momentarily putting aside political and ideological differences aside to acknowledge Vancouver’s historic milestone of electing its first Chinese Canadian mayor.

“I’d like to congratulate Ken Sim on his win. He is Vancouver’s first Chinese Canadian Mayor. Politics aside, that is a tremendous achievement that I’d like to recognize,” said Christine Boyle, the re-elected city councillor of the OneCity Vancouver party.

But Sim and ABC’s rise to governance also comes in the backdrop of history unfortunately repeating itself, with a steep rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in recent years, and indifference to violent attacks, property damage and vandalism, cleanliness, public disorder, and other public safety issues in Chinatown — largely due to its immediate adjacency and spillover of the social issues emanating in the Downtown Eastside. Businesses and community members who publicly took issue with crime in Chinatown were even harassed

With the City of Vancouver ignoring the gravity of the issues in Chinatown and refusing to provide residents, businesses, and cultural organizations with real, meaningful help, the Chinatown community rallied and organized Vancouver’s significant Asian community to support candidates and parties who promised real action, and were sincere in acknowledging the plight.

Sim says that along with the forthcoming effort to hire more Vancouver Police officers and mental health workers, more strategies will be rolled out to help support Chinatown, including the creation of a satellite City Hall office in the district, as a base camp for City Council to work from and fully understand the issues facing the area.

As well, Sim and the election of ABC city councillor Lenny Zhou will also provide Vancouver City Council with some direct Chinese-Canadian representation in elected office for the next four years, following an absence of any Asian representation in the outgoing makeup of City Council.

Zhou, who moved to Vancouver when he was 23 years old, says he has been the target of anti-Asian racism in the past but in spite of this, he says he worked hard to build a life for himself and his family.

“It’s very meaningful for Vancouver to finally have a Mayor of Chinese descent. It’s wonderful to know that my son will have the chance to grow up knowing that people who look like him can be leaders in our city and our country,” said Zhou, adding that half of the elected ABC officials have an Asian ethnicity.

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