Longtime federal Liberal to contest mayoral nomination
Political veteran and Vision hopeful sees housing affordability as key goal
Some may argue Vancouver is a world-class city.
Taleeb Noormohamed, who is throwing his hat into the mayoral ring and hopes to win Vision Vancouver’s nomination, says we’re not.
Not yet, anyway.
“We can be so much more than what we are,” the 41-year-old said Wednesday in announcing his candidacy.
His list of priorities is pretty straightforward.
“Affordability, housing,” are the first two words he mentions when asked what he’s looking to work on, should he become the 40th mayor in Vancouver’s history. Add “cultural spaces” and “a very real transportation plan” as other items on his list.
“We need to be building communities and neighbourhoods. Not just big business, but also small business,” he said.
He says the Broadway subway extension of the Millennium Line, currently planned to run to Arbutus Street, should go all the way to the University of B.C.
He worked for many years for the federal Liberals — as a staffer for the Chretien and Martin governments, and as a candidate in the 2011 federal election — but he’s also been a tech entrepreneur in his private life.
“In some cases I’ll bring different ideas to the table,” he said, before arguing he’s a pragmatist. “No political party has done every thing right all the time. One of the critical elements of any good policy is, ‘Are you willing to think outside the box?’ I’m big on data ... we need to analyze on what’s gone well and what’s not.”
Two things stand out from his time working for the federal government: first, prime minister Jean Chretien insisted on involving the smartest people, no matter their political stripe. He pointed to how Chretien made sure his staff brought Bob Rae and Roy Romanow, both NDPers at the time, to a summit.
“They’re the two most intelligent people on the subject,” he recalled the PM telling his staff.
Second, Noormohamed thought back to a lesson from when he worked on the Air India Inquiry.
“When we sat down with the families of the victims and we had to hear and see what they’d gone through,” he said. “that was as powerful an experience as I’ve ever had. They said, ‘This happened to us and we won’t get our loved ones back ... make sure nobody else goes through this.’
“Your mandate there is to serve them, I realized. That has stayed with me forever.”
He also worked as a lobbyist, representing the company that sold TransLink its Compass-card system. He took on the file after the much-delayed and much-criticized rollout of the fare system, but still learned lessons: government contracts must find a way to better allow for innovation to occur as time progresses.
“There has to be a way to innovate within contracts,” he said.
Noormohamed grew up in North Vancouver, the son of Ismaili immigrants from Kenya. He attended Princeton and Oxford. After returning from Ottawa in 2007 to work for Vanoc, he lived at Main and Terminal. For the last few years he’s been living in Yaletown.
The changes to the city haven’t gone unnoticed, he said.
“The place where I live didn’t actually exist when I was growing up,” he pointed out.
“I remember when Homer was a one-way. I remember as a kid growing up going to the clubs on Granville. I remember when there was nothing on Pacific Boulevard.
“We have a lot yet to do. How do we increase the quality of life on the Downtown Eastside?” he asked.
“We’ve seen pockets of wealth (emerge); other areas have been left behind.”
As a tech entrepreneur, he said he learned the importance of challenging your own thinking.
“In tech we do A/B testing and you see what actually works,” he said.
“Your thesis may not actually be the right one. Being thoughtful and careful does drive good decisionmaking.”