Valentine’s Day, Friday February 14th, 2025, brought a bouquet of red roses to those who want to see the end of Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC party.
Since being elected, the mayor and his party have:
- Proposed to do away with our elected Park Board
- Tried to eliminate the requirement that all new developments not be heated with natural gas
- Raised property taxes in the first year of their term by 10.7%
- Created a private gym for the mayor — all at taxpayer expense — by converting meeting space in city hall.
- Virtually eliminated Vancouver’s long-standing policy of protecting view cones
- Drastically increased the police budget
- Now proposed putting a freeze on building supportive housing anywhere in Vancouver.
Mayor Sim actually began to lose control of the ABC party early in his term. His autocratic and dictatorial behaviour in unilaterally announcing on December 6, 2024 that, despite promising not to during the campaign, he intended to abolish the elected Park Boad. This reversal resulted in three of ABC’s six Park Commissioners quitting the party, reducing ABC’s seats on the seven-seat Park Board from a supermajority of six to a minority of three.
Then on August 7, 2024, Victoria Jung, ABC’s chair of the Vancouver School Board, resigned from the party to sit as an independent, citing her opposition to ABC’s attempt to suspend Vancouver’s Integrity Commissioner who was at the time investigating issues that involved certain ABC councillors. In announcing her resignation, Ms. Jung stated, “the imperative to serve in the public interest — versus private interest — is one that is non-negotiable,”
It was only a matter of time before the divisions within Ken Sim’s ABC majority on city council also became visible.
The first real crack appeared on November 27, 2024, when ABC city councillors Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato, and Peter Meiszner joined Green city councillors Pete Fry and Adriane Carr in voting against a motion by ABC councillor Brian Montague who was seeking to reverse the policy banning the use of natural gas to heat new Vancouver buildings. Their defection resulted in a 5-5 tie vote, and the motion failed.
Not long after, on January 15, 2025, Adriane Carr resigned from City Council after serving for over 13 years. In late November 2024, Ms. Carr had announced she was considering resigning in part because of her frustrations with Mayor Sim and his ABC majority.
Then on Valentine’s Day, Councillor Rebecca Bligh announced that she had been expelled from Ken Sim’s sinking ship.
Why was she ousted? On January 23rd, the mayor had announced that effective immediately, he would not approve any new supportive housing in the city. Debate on Sim’s plan was scheduled for February 26th. ABC councillors Bligh and Dominato soon raised concerns about what such a freeze would actually mean for the city.
At a Council meeting on February 4th, Councillor Bligh attempted to introduce a motion requesting that provincial officials meet with Council prior to the scheduled housing vote. A question of procedure was raised by ABC’s Sarah Kirby-Yung, which resulted in Bligh’s motion being tabled until February 26th – the same day as the actual vote on Sim’s motion.
Once again, Mayor Sim and ABC shut down opposition to their plans. They then turfed Councillor Rebacca Bligh from the party.
Bligh’s departure is, in my opinion, a sign of the immanent collapse of ABC Vancouver. I predict that in the not-too-distant future, it is likely that at least two more ABC councillors will leave the party. This will reduce ABC’s votes on the 11-seat council from eight to six or possibly five. Six will give them a bare majority. Five will put them in a minority position.
All eyes turn now to the April 5th council byelection. Rebecca Bligh’s departure from ABC will surely hurt the party’s chances of electing two more to Council. I am feeling more optimistic with every passing day about the likelihood that COPE’s Sean Orr will be successful in becoming one of the two newly elected city councillors.
As I have predicted before, it seems quite possible that Mayor Sim and his ABC majority will be only a one-term wonder at city hall.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (February 20, 2025): 427.97ppm
One year ago (February 20, 2024): 425.27ppm
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Stop building Supportive Housing in Vancouver, are you kidding me? Did he drop a barbell on his head? He is so out of touch with reality that it scares me. Any kind of public housing was desperately needed here 30 years ago. I am PWD trying to survive on $1500/month which defies common sense when the average rent for a bachelor apartment now is $2600. He must think as we get older, we get healthier, stronger and richer. Mayor Sims is a narcissist fool if he does not understand what is blatantly before his eyes in Vancouver. As per usual he thinks Disabled people are just lazy, drug addicts that refuse to look for work. Mayor Sims, take some time off from your gym. Stop looking at your pecs, get out of your fancy car and take the bus and walk around. Try to see what is blatantly staring you in the eyes without thinking of how it can be beneficial to you. You are blinded by your bank account and if what I read about your background is true, have forgotten where you came from.