Swanson seeks COPE council nod, offers tissues to ‘mansion tax’ critics
Anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson brought her flair for theatrics Saturday to a mansion-lined street in Vancouver, where she announced she is seeking a COPE nomination for council ahead of the fall civic election.
At The Crescent in Shaughnessy, her campaign parked a van decorated as a tissue box, painted with “Jeanex: the rich people tissue” and “Jeanex: big house, big tissue.” Swanson explained it was there for any property owners who wept over her “mansion tax” proposal.
Nearby, an actor dressed in a suit, gold mask and top hat marked “1%” stumbled past Swanson’s podium, using fake $50 bills to wipe away tears before crashing onto a couch inside a makeshift “free tax therapy” tent, to the delight of dozens of Swanson supporters.
“There’s 15 mansions in this circle here, they’re all worth over $10 million,” Swanson said. “With a mansion tax on just these 15 mansions, surrounding this nice little park, we could get 54 homeless people off the streets into safe, secure, temporary modular homes.”
Swanson previously pitched her surtax when running independently for council in the 2017 byelection, during which her 10,263 votes came second to elected NPA Coun. Hector Bremner’s 13,372.
Pending provincial approval, the tax would only hit homes valued over $5 million, adding one per cent annually on the value between $5 million and $10 million, and two per cent on the portion over $10 million.
The revenue would first house the homeless and then be spent on non-market housing for renters who would otherwise be priced out of the city, Swanson said. She also believes a housing state of emergency should be declared in Vancouver.
“One of the main reasons I want to get onto council is to try and end homelessness here,” she said. “Really, really end it this time.”
Meantime, owners of multimillion-dollar properties across the Lower Mainland have been rallying against the B.C. NDP’s “school tax” (which goes into general revenue) on homes worth more than $3 million. It adds a 0.2-per-cent surtax on properties $3 million to $4 million and 0.4 per cent on the portion above $4 million.
A poll conducted last week by Research Co. found that two-thirds of respondents in B.C. support the tax, but antitax activists have labelled it an unfair cash grab.
Swanson said her platform also includes fighting for a rent freeze, a ban on “reno-victions,” the restoration of Indigenous land and the implementation of a ward system.
She will fight to kill the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, return Chinatown to workers and elders, implement a progressive rent tax and rent control for small business, make Vancouver a sanctuary city and end “the criminalization of poverty and homelessness,” she said.
Though Swanson ran as an independent in the byelection, she had been endorsed by the Coalition of Progressive Electors, the city’s oldest leftwing party. Swanson ran for COPE 30 years ago and said she believes the party’s “history of fighting for working people and tenants” make it worthy of a comeback.
Derrick O’Keefe, co-founder and editor of independent media outlet Ricochet, announced he also hopes for a COPE council nod. O’Keefe said moving from journalism and activism into politics felt natural with COPE and Swanson.
His priority will be getting COPE candidates elected, but also working long-term to build social systems within the city to support progressive changes, he said.
“We do believe strongly that low-income housing, supportive housing, social housing, belongs in every neighbourhood in Vancouver,” he said. “So to the wealthy NIMBYs, this campaign is not your campaign.”
Anne Roberts, a former journalism instructor and former COPE councillor, and Wes Didier, a Metis graduate student at the University of B.C., also seek COPE council nominations. The party has not yet endorsed a mayoral candidate but holds its nomination meeting Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Trinity Anglican Church (1440 West 12th Ave).