Vancouver has a new mayor, after voters sent a clear message, overwhelmingly choosing ABC’s Ken Sim over incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart, Global News projects.
Sim looks set to have a free hand implementing policy as well, appearing set to bring his entire slate to council, the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver School Board.
Around 10 p.m., Stewart conceded, acknowledging Sim’s win was a “solid one,” and wishing him luck in what he predicted would be a “tough” four years.
“These last four years have been pretty tough, we’ve accomplished a lot but I do think we got the city through pretty hard times,” Stewart said.
“This is not the result we wanted, of course, but it is the result the voters have given us and we have to respect it.”
Saturday’s landslide was a far cry from the 2018 nail-biter in which Stewart defeated Sim by fewer than 1,000 votes.
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During the 2022 campaign, Sim criticized Stewart’s term as being plagued with “missed opportunities, division and combativeness.”
Stewart faced significant criticism over the campaign, amid rising street crime, homelessness, street disorder and overdose deaths. That criticism also included blowback from the Vancouver Police Union, which broke with a long tradition of neutrality in elections and endorsed Sim.
The Non-Partisan Association and ABC Vancouver both sought to position themselves as the champions of public safety, both recruiting from law enforcement — in the NPA’s case, including former West Vancouver police officer Fred Harding as its mayoral contender.
