We are less than two weeks away from the final voting day in the upcoming Vancouver election and municipal elections taking place around B.C., and Rebecca Bligh believes she’s the right choice for the city.
Daily Hive Urbanized had a one-on-one with Bligh on Tuesday. She’s running under the Vote Vancouver banner and vying to become the city’s first female mayor, something she believes is long overdue.
Like some other candidates, Bligh has been knocking on doors and speaking directly to Vancouver voters, and we asked what she’s been hearing.
“I think high-level people are pretty dissatisfied with the ABC majority overall, and I think depending on the issue of the day in the past four years, people kind of remember what they remember.”
She pointed to some gaffes from Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, like wearing white tennis shoes at a Remembrance Day event, or his sentiments about Bitcoin. She also said she’s been hearing a lot about worsening street disorder and homelessness.
“We hear it all. This election is really about not just that we need someone new, but who’s the person who can also work to solve some of these issues. Part of that is not only having a strong platform to deliver, but the relationships provincially and federally,” Bligh said.
The missing middle
Margarita Young/Shutterstock
Vote Vancouver has posted its housing platform on its campaign website, with the headline “keep public land working for the public.”
One portion of Vote Vancouver’s platform is building homes for the missing middle.
“Too many Vancouverites earn too much to qualify for deeply subsidized housing and nowhere near enough to comfortably afford the market,” Vote Vancouver’s website states.
It adds that Bligh would use public land to build permanently affordable homes for the middle class, including not-for-profit childcare included in new developments.
We talked to Bligh a little bit about the “missing middle” and middle-income earners and how she would work to serve them. She also addressed the struggling private sector.
“Pretending that the private sector can build the level of affordability we need in our city for people who are just starting out — the math never worked,” Bligh said.
Like lots of challenges facing the city, it would require the Province to come to the table.
She gave a lot of props to the middle class, saying that they’re the ones starting up small businesses, working in hospitals, teaching, and working hard to make a life here.
“And they’re asking, ‘Is anyone paying attention to us?'” Bligh said, adding that she was a renter until a couple of years ago.
Bligh commented that that’s the life of a Vancouverite, and that’s who she will represent.
The state of public safety in Vancouver
Margarita Young/Shutterstock
One notable topic during this election is public safety and the plebiscite that ABC Vancouver announced. Bligh feels that the plebiscite has caused a lot of friction among Vancouverites.
“I’ve done a dozen debates, give or take, and it comes up at every one.”
She added that she hasn’t met anyone who thinks it’s a really good idea.
“The framing of the plebiscite is inherently biased towards one answer, which undermines it in terms of its validity,” Bligh said.
Some, including ABC Vancouver, have suggested that public safety and homelessness have improved under its leadership. We asked Bligh her thoughts on that.
“You only need to go to some neighbourhoods across our city to actually see that for many areas of our city, it’s gotten worse.”
Bligh said she’s worked in the DTES for eight years, and said she’s never seen it this bad.
She also said it doesn’t just fall on the city, pointing to some funding programs that were sunsetted by the provincial government, with nothing created to replace them.
“These were programs that made sure that even people who were on the margins could access some sort of network of supports within the community, particularly the Downtown Eastside,” she said.
“With ABC, what we’ve seen is all the funding go into policing.”
Instead of fixing the systemic issues, Bligh believes that the people impacted most have just been moved around by police, with nowhere to go.
“Certainly the responsibility of municipal government is not to make it worse. And I would say the decisions under Ken and ABC have arguably made it worse.”
Free transit?
TransLink
Another big promise from Bligh is expanding free transit to youth under 18.
Right now, children can ride transit for free in Vancouver until the age of 13. Vote Vancouver’s platform states that “getting around should not be a luxury for young people.”
We asked what subsidizing free transit for youth under 18 would look like.
“For the first year, it would cost us less than extending the Granville Street pedestrianization for seven weeks. We’ve done the math.”
Bligh says the City can own this, working in partnership with TransLink and the Province.
According to Bligh, there are already younger Vancouverites who are asking bus drivers for a free ride.
COPE Vancouver is also pushing to make transit free for youth under 18.
Ridding Vancouver City Hall of ‘bro culture’
JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
Speaking at an event on Oct. 2, Bligh suggested Sim brought “bro culture” to Vancouver City Hall.
“Ken Sim has brought a bro culture to the Mayor’s Office, turning City Hall meeting rooms into personal gyms, treating public office like a personal playground, and confusing attention with leadership,” she said at the event.
“A city is not a startup, public money is not venture capital, and the Mayor’s Office is not a personal brand,” she told the audience.
With just 10 days remaining before final voting day, we asked Bligh what her final message was to undecided voters.
Bligh says that while there’s been a lot of discourse about this Vancouver election being a “crowded field,” she believes it really isn’t.
“I’m the only candidate in the centre that is both supportive of labour, public services, and strong social infrastructure, while also being business-friendly, fiscally responsible, and having a real, clear sense of the bottom line when it comes to a sustainable financial future for our city.”
She believes a united centre would best serve Vancouver.
Bligh commented on the far-right and far-left swings that haven’t served Vancouver well over the past few decades. She believes she’s best equipped to serve what, in her mind, will likely be a multi-partisan council.
“The last thing I’ll say, and it’s not been a feature of our campaign, but heck, as you say, we’re in the last 11 days, in 140 years of Vancouver’s existence, we have never had a woman mayor,” Bligh said.
“It might be time to park the bro culture at the Mayor’s Office, get a different style of leadership, and see what happens for the future of our city.”